Review on Raintree Beach Resort in Tuaran

Found Raintree Beach Resort while searching for weekend getaway. Booking websites portrayed the resort has a lot of activities and well-maintained facility.

But all those pictures were outdated or maybe photoshoped. The resort, which is located about 40 kilometres from town, is worth to its cheaper rate.

I have a deal of RM150++ per night for a Villa on weekday via direct booking via Raintree Facebook. The admin foretold that there were swimming, barbeque and volleyball facility among others. But, he or she did not mention there was no restaurant. So, breakfast is definitely not included for the deal.

The check in time is at 2pm. We took our own sweet time to drive to the location, guided with Waze application. The place is located far from Tuaran town, which is about 18 minutes drive. We got lost a bit as confused by roadside signboard. Asked an elderly woman at a village, she said she only heard about Mimpian Jadi, Rasa Ria and Karambunai. Tried again…then finally found the place.

Raintree Beach Resort formerly known as Mimpian Jadi Resort. Perhaps there were too many drowning cases or recent fire, or change ownership so they rebranding the resort.

When we arrived, was a bit confused the whereabout of the reception. Its reception is the first of a row of chalets. Their staff was not wearing uniform and not properly groomed.

The receptionist was quite incompetent as she was not aware the day we checked in was weekday and intended to charge me for weekend rate. Luckily I noticed and asked her to change. She was not keen to learn how to process credit card, thus I had to wait until someone else come to help her.

Villa is supposedly mean a large and luxurious country house. But, the resort simply used the term to name their two king-sized beds room with a malfunctioned Jacuzzi.

The swimming pool was dirty, we can’t see the bottom. We did not even dare to dip our toes into the pool as afraid to get skin disease or worse leptospirosis.

The villa, or I rather call it as big room, was clean and tidy. But the air-conditioned and fridge were of old machines, took time to function well. TV channels were blurry and limited.  

We had requested to do barbeque in the evening and surprisingly they said the grill was not available. We asked whether they can prepare for us, but their answers were nope, cannot and etc. Luckily, we found a used grill around the resort compound and cleansed it for our usage.

By the way, the resort does provide room services for food and drink. But not sure of the taste, did not order any. We did the cooking in our room. Brought a rice cooker though.  

In the midst of our barbeque session, a Taiwanese man suddenly came to us without proper greeting, only looked at our food. It felt awkward, so I simply offered food to him. 

Surprisingly, he wanted them. Initially I thought that the man was another hungry tourist. But he behaved weirdly. No eye contact, improper communication and repetitive movement.

Luckily, it rained ten minutes after he came. We rushed to pack our food and things and left the place and the weirdo.

When the rain stopped, I went to the receptionist to lodge such incident. Found out the man was indeed having mental illness. He was the former owner of the resort. The guy, who has been living in Sabah for 10 years, is left by his parents who had gone back to Taiwan. But the staff reassured that the man won’t disturb guests.

Overall verdict: It is a good escape place to relax- read book, stroll along the beach, daydreaming on the bed etc.