The whole vacation was wonderful ( and I was thinking this even before I became engaged). Marshall had spent a week here in Korea as he had 2 weeks off. I should have known it was love since he spends every vacation he has coming back here to Seoul! We were flying to Kota Kinabalu in Borneo separately since he was going through Hong Kong in order to pick up his summer clothes backpack, and….the ring as I found out.

I arrived into Kota Kinabalu around 3:30 and it is a real testament to how comfortable I am travelling now, that I didn’t check what kind of money they use there, didn’t change any money beforehand, didn’t arrange a hotel van to pick me up. I just arrived. I found an ATM machine and then a taxi and headed off.

I knew the hotel was going to be gorgeous but it just gave off such an air of tranquility (until I discovered the children’s play area and pool that was crowded with screaming kids). As you enter the hotel, they hit a gong and then musicians play as you walk to the lounge to check in. I knew I had about 6 hours until marshall arrived so I took a look around, swam a bit, even worked out! Then, I positioned myself in the lobby bar and started drinking gin and tonics to wait for Marshall. After an hour and a half and 2, maybe 3 drinks, he still hadn’t arrived. It turns out that his flight from Hong Kong had been cancelled! I had to spend my first night there alone! So, in order to distract myself from this fact, I cozied up in the hotel robe and slippers, ordered room service and found a good movie on TV.

We had a great room with an enormous bed, a separate little sitting area and a balcony overlooking the ocean.

They even put a coconut plant in each room that is planted on the orangutan reserve once you leave!

Obviously Marshall made it in fine the next day and we were able to take  full advantage of the beach loungers, poolside service, boule’s games, gorgeous sun and views, and not forgetting the wonderful breakfasts. Each morning was a huge array of food – all the waffles, pancakes, pastries, eggs, omelettes, breads, curries, laksa noodle soups, congee (the last two were my favorite). I was stuffed every morning!

There were many, many things to do within the resort so I left it to Marshall to plan some activities for us and he did well. Monday night we took a sunset cruise which was really relaxing. The funniest part was that there were white people everywhere, a lot of Europeans, Australians and Brits but none of them lived in their home country. It seemed that everyone we met was living somewhere in Asia. I guess it’s a long way to travel if you’re from the states?

There are two great restaurants in the resort. The first is Naan, an Indian place that won best Indian in Malaysia, and the second is Coast, this really fancy place that Marshall had been to before and loved. So, of course we had to try each. We had decided that the Tuesday would be our day to celebrate one year together and Marshall had the whole day planned out.

First thing in the morning we took a bike ride to a little fishing village nearby. It wasn’t a hard ride by any means but it was nice to get out and about. Then, we went to watch the orangutans feed on the reserve, , then we had a 90 minute hot stone massage, and finally we had dinner booked at Coast. After the massage, we were both really relaxed and ready for a good meal. In the middle of getting ready, we decided to watch the sunset from the balcony since they are gorgeous out there. What I didn’t know was that Marshall had decided that this was the moment. I’m busy snapping photos of the view and chatting away not noticing that Marshall was shaking a little as he lit his cigar.

 Gorgeous eh?

I was sitting in the chair just thinking what a great day I had had and how sweet Marshall was to arrange it all when he turned around, squatted down in front of me and asked “Will you marry me?”. My response? “In a heartbeat”.

He gave me this beautiful ring that he had made in Hong Kong and showed me photos of an heirloom ring that is stunning (we will use that one as the wedding band).

I was so happy! It was completely unexpected! And we had this amazing dinner right after that where we just got to enjoy the moment. It was the best day, and night of my life!