Holiday at home

Early morn and the birds outside the window can be heard as they greet the beginning of another hot and humid day in paradise. The hotel overlooks the extensive swimming pool, the largest in Sandakan proudly announced on the website. Not so impressive when you discover they're the only two hotel pools in town. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. No, this place is quiet apart from those birds. I can live with that. Much preferred to that cacophony of irritating noise pollution that greets me most other mornings. The room is cool to the extent it stimulates the skin into thinking that it's fresh and alive. A feeling that unless you have experienced it in a cold crisp environment is totally alien in the tropics. 

The hotel we are are stopping in, to my mind, is the best in town. It's not the newest, in fact it's one of the oldest. No flat screen televisions here, but what it lacks in modern facilities it gains in space. You can swing the proverbial  cat in this room and not hit the walls. What a combination of space and quiet. It's heaven to me!  

We arrived last evening after an extensive drive of 5 minutes. Yes that's not a typo - 5 minutes. 

You see it's my birthday this weekend and because of work commitments and other circumstances, it was too difficult to go anywhere out of town. So here we are at the Sabah Hotel 5 minutes from home.

"Silly, frivolous," I hear you say and I totally agree.  But "a change is as good as a holiday" as they say and I can attest to that.