As we'd already stayed in KL for 5 nights on a previous holiday, we had decided to give it a miss this time and fly straight on to Sandakan. This was a marathon journey involving 4 separate flights, Manchester - Heathrow, Heathrow - KL, KL - Kota Kinabalu and finally Kota Kinabalu - Sandakan, but after around 30 hours' travel, we finally arrived at the Sabah Hotel in Sandakan in the late afternoon of 4th April.

After our long journey, we couldn't manage to do much more than order a room service meal and then collapse and the following day was spent lazily recuperating by the pool. The hotel was perfect for a couple of night's stay, or to use as a base for exploring the area - nice big pool, good food and reasonably priced. Our room was at the front of the hotel overlooking the car park and road, so if we'd been staying longer, we would have probably have asked for a change to a room overlooking the pool and gardens, but it was a decent size and fine for a couple of nights.

The second morning we were up bright and early to put our luggage and valuables into storage and head off for the first part of our trip to Turtle Island. We had a slight hiccup when we arrived at the jetty, as we didn't have our passports with us. We were only carrying a tiny rucksack each and had decided that they'd be safer left in the safety deposit box back at the Sabah Hotel. However, after a quick word from our guide, the tour operator was happy just to accept details of our name, address and dates of birth, so no big hassle. The boat trip took about an hour and Turtle Island was breath-takingly beautiful! We spent the afternoon swimming, lying on the beach and exploring the tiny forest and then when night fell (amazing sunset!) we were shown a video about the lifecycle of the giant turtles and then had dinner.

We'd been warned that it could be a long wait for the first turtle to come up on the beach and start laying, but we were really fortunate, as we'd only just finished eating and sat down on the benches outside the dining hall, when we got the call! We all picked our way with the help of torches down to the beach and watched the new mother laying her eggs, then collected a crateful of newly-hatched baby turtles and watched them scrambling over each other in their rush to get to the sea.

The following morning, we'd just eaten breakfast and were waiting for the return boat trip, when a shout went up and everyone rushed down to the beach to see a late-comer having just finished laying and starting to make her way back down the beach to the sea. We'd been impressed the night before, but to see this huge, heavy creature, hauling herself across the beach in daylight was absolutely amazing and even more amazing was that as we set off on the boat back, we were lucky enough to spot a pair of turtles mating, just a few yards away from the boat!

All in all, this was a fantastic trip which far exceeded my expectations and I'd highly recommend it!

On our arrival back at the Sandakan jetty, we were met by another guide and taken on the long drive to the river lodge by the side of the Kinabatangan River. Following a lunch that was especially prepared for us, as we were the only people staying in the lodge that night, we spent the next few hours cruising along the river. Both our guide and the boatman were experts at spotting and identifying the wildlife along the riverside and we were stunned by the numbers and variety of different monkeys and birds we saw, not to mention the snake that the boatman spotted, curled up on a branch having a snooze!

The next morning we headed off back on the road. We'd decided to give the Gormantong caves a miss, because neither of us were keen on wading through guano and cockroaches and so we went straight to the Sepilok orangutan sanctuary. On a previous visit to Sabah, we'd stayed at the Rasa Ria hotel, which has their own mini sanctuary where very young orphans are raised in the small forest before going on to Sepilok to learn a more independent lifestyle. The Rasa Ria had 3 youngsters at the time we stayed and we were completely smitten, watching them at feeding time. However, all the reports I read afterwards, indicated that the Rasa Ria was a pale imitation of Sepilok and so we were really looking forward to this visit.

I have to say that I was ever so slightly disappointed. Whereas the Rasa Ria limited visitors to about 30 per session and the viewing platform was only a few yards away from the feeding platform, there must have been hundreds of people on the viewing platform at Sepilok, all jostling and craning to get a good view of the feeding platform in the distance. Also, because the orangs tend to be a bit older at Sepilok, they're not so dependent on the feeding platform and so, after what seemed like a very long wait in the heat and crowd, only two young ones arrived for their bananas. Yes, I realise that it's not a zoo and that nothing's guaranteed and it was delightful to see the two that did turn up. But after having now visited both, I think that if I had to choose just one orangutan experience, I'd pick the Rasa Ria. Others may disagree, but after all, the whole point of going there (for us at least) was to see the orangutans in their natural environment and I felt that the more intimate, relaxed atmosphere at the Rasa Ria was the better experience for doing that. After leaving Sepilok, we had a brief city tour of Sandakan before returning to the Sabah Hotel to re-acquaint ourselves with clean clothes and proper showers!

The next morning we were off to the airport for our flights to KL and then Langkawi. By the time we arrived at the Datai on Langkawi it was already dark, so we didn't see very much of our surroundings in the dense forest, but we were totally overwhelmed by our villa! The bedroom alone was probably twice the size of our living room at home and the complimentary Molton Brown toiletries, wall-mounted TV, sound system, etc, etc, etc, made us feel as though we were staying in our own luxurious palace after the tiny basic cabins we'd stayed in on Turtle Island and the river lodge!

I just can't speak highly enough of the Datai, from the fabulous accommodation, the wonderful personal service from the staff, the delicious food and the awe-inspiring location amidst virgin rainforest on the edge of a pristine beach, down to the little details, like cold, scented towels brought to you around the pool each morning, plentiful fresh fruit and a Lavazzo coffee machine in the villa that meant we didn't need to have breakfast in the restaurant each day and the complimentary bottle of wine and little tarts that were unexpectedly (but most welcomely!) delivered to our villa on our third day.

We spent most of our 9 days relaxing by the beachside pool, alternating our dips between pool and sea, but managed to drag ourselves away for a couple of days, when we hired a car to explore the island. We were disappointed to find that the cable car which we'd read so much about, was closed for maintenance during our visit, but apart from that, we saw a lot of the island and had a wonderful time just mooching around from one place to another. Langkawi's not a big island and you can probably see most of it in a few days, but it has some lovely beaches, waterfalls and mountains, good duty free shopping and it's fun to see monkeys, lizards and cattle by the roadside as you're driving around, so it's definitely worth hiring a car.

Our stay at the Datai was something we'd wanted to do for several years and we'd been eagerly looking forward to it for months before we went. I'm pleased to say that it didn't disappoint in the slightest and I just hope that we may be able to afford to return there one day.

A few days before we were due to return home, the Icelandic volcano erupted and we saw on the BBC news that all flights to the UK had been grounded. We didn't let it worry us too much at first, but the day before we were due to fly, UK airspace was still closed and our flight from KL back to the UK was cancelled. We therefore flew from Langkawi to KL on the 19th April with some trepidation, not knowing what lay ahead of us, or when we would get home.

On landing at KL, we eventually managed to find a room at the Westin Hotel in Bukit Bintang and settled down for what we thought would be a couple of nights bonus holiday. The next morning, after hearing that flights were still grounded and being told by Malaysia Airlines' answering machine that we were number 36 in the queue, the truth slowly started to dawn on us! Over the next 6 days, we visited the KL Tower (again), the KL Bird Park (also again), had some delicious and ridiculously cheap meals on Jalan Alor (yes, again!) and also managed to get very well acquainted with the Malaysia Airlines ticket office in Sentral Station, which was a brand new experience, but one which I'd rather not have had.

By the 6th day, we were becoming increasingly desperate (and broke!) and when our new best friend at the ticket office told us that it was likely to be another 6 days at least before we got on a London flight, but offered to put us on the list for a flight to Amsterdam, we nearly kissed her! We got a phone call a few hours later, saying we were on the Amsterdam flight and at 4am the next morning we were off on our way to the airport. We arrived in Amsterdam at around 4pm local time, managed to find a room for the night and got flights the next day to Manchester via a 3-hour stop in Southampton, which cost another £700!

All-in-all, our "extended holiday" probably cost us close to an extra 2 grand, plus a lot of grey hairs and possibly a couple of years off our life expectancy. However, now we've recovered from the trauma of being stranded, we're able to look back on the real holiday with smiling faces and put the last week of our stay into perspective. At least we were fortunate enough to be in a position to afford a hotel in KL, unlike the hundreds of people we saw sleeping on camp beds at the airport and if anyone ever asks me for directions from the Westin Hotel to either Jalan Alor or Sentral Station, I'm an expert!

Elaine