Police Beach of Gaya Island is the best beach in Kota Kinabalu. I always wanted to go this pristine beach, but it had become a private beach of Bunga Raya Island Resort recently. Instead of cutting down all the trees for building of the resort, the forest is largely intact, with 47 luxury timbered villas constructed among the wood, more like a nature resort (forest + beach) setting.

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Honeymooners will find plenty of privacy here and have over 1KM of white sandy beach as their playground. As you can see from the map, the beach is inside a bay so the sea water is so tranquil that it is suitable for any watersport. Some says it is a fascinating dive site which is rich in corals and lobsters.

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Price wise, I guess only rich tourists can afford to stay here. I look at their web site, everything is listed in U$ dollar, the figures are already “shocking” before converting them into Malaysian Ringgit. Well, whether it worths the money is something personal. Anyway, it is one of the best resorts in Sabah. The resort blends so well into its environment that I can’t tell that there is a resort, by looking at it from the sea. Everything sounds like advertisement, but no… I don’t work for them. They also didn’t pay me anything.

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Bunga Raya means Hibiscus flower, the rose of tropical world. You could see many species of hibiscus flowers planted here, with red, pink, yellow, white and other colours. The resort is facing the west, so I presume the sunset here is wonderful too. Even though the resort is in the jungle, I don’t find any mosquito around, weird…

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Oklah, the rest I will let you find out from my photo album. I really want to blog about Police Beach instead of a private resort. Ya… I am not happy that they make this place so unaffordable to locals, but it can be a good thing. Even if we let the locals to keep the beach, they also don’t protect it. Just look at the dirty rubbish left behind by locals in Tanjung Aru and Tanjung Lipat. We don’t deserve to have clean and beautiful beach.

At the other side of Gaya Island is a totally different world. The water village residents are champion garbage makers and I hope they will be moved of the island to live in dumpsite. The floating rubbish from them at Jesselton Point ferry terminal is really an eyesore to tourists. What you don’t see under the water can make you faint. I was so malu (shameful) when my relatives from Canada saw this in island trip.

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Click Here to see more photos of Bunga Raya Resort >>

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What I really like is their swimming pool. If you look at it from low angle, it is like connecting to the sea… such a nice design. You can see the similar one in Gayana Resort too. Both resorts are under the same management.

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Hehe… it has been a while I abandoned my blog. Well, every blogger does it once in a while. One reason is – my standard lens is broken so I feel less motivated to photograph around. Now I am waiting to save enough $ to buy a new 17-50mm f/2.8 lens. I am really sick of kit lens, so I refused to pay RM300 to repair my current lousy lens.

Photos taken in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

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