to Genting

We checked out of Berjaya Times Square at 11AM. This is due to our pickup at that time.

But, we also got a note last night slipped underneath the door, no bells, no nothing, saying that we have to check out at 11AM today just because they’re so fully booked and they can’t afford us even if we want to pay for late check out. How impolite, two days before they told us that they had someone paid for a late check out and that (conveniently) happened to our room.

My parents bought some durians on the way up to Genting and we checked in to the Theme Park Hotel. Even though cosmetics are worse than the previous hotel, service was much better, so all is good.

Went to First World Plaza and walked around for some time. Got tired and went back to the hotel and work on yesterday’s and today’s photos. I’ve managed to work on all of them, what a relieve.

Moving hotels again tomorrow. See ya.

awful awful hotel

What an awful hotel this one is.

We had our breakfast this morning at the lobby and when we tried to go back to our floor we couldn’t. Tried putting in our card into the elevator and it told us that we tried to get on to a restricted floor.

We went back to the reception (which was a three minute walk from the elevator, yes it was quite a long walk) and asked for them to fix it. They did, I didn’t want to ask why or how that happened. I just didn’t care anymore.

So after that we went for the city tour. We were supposed to pay the fee to the driver who took us to the bigger bus and he charged us RM270 for three adults. I was shocked. The brochure precisely said RM45 each adult and that includes entry fee. So how come the price has doubled? I enquired about it and he said that might be an old price and it should be RM60 per head and he also said he’d call headquarters. It was RM45 per head after all. What a pain in the ass.

So we went to a few places. I really wanted to go into the National Mosque but entry wasn’t allowed for non-Muslim tourists. Argh… I thought I would’ve gotten some cool shots of that place. Tugu Negara (the National Monument) was alright.

After lunch, we went to Petronas Twin Tower. Couldn’t get tickets to the Sky Bridge anymore for the day as it’s sold out. So only took photos of it’s façade. It’s not bad.

Won’t be going out again tonight. I’m so very tired.

Decided to buy KFC for dinner. I’m so amazed. In Indonesia, we have steamed rice in the menu as rice is the thing. It’s like bread for westerners. In Malaysia, instead of steamed rice, they have Hainan Chicken rice!!! (minus the chicken of course). Awesome. The thing I won’t try is their Nasi Lemak wrap. I don’t think that’d go well with the chicken strip.

Again I’m complaining about this hotel. I called housekeeping and asked for some toilet paper rolls and a knife (to cut some fruits) and she transferred me to room service and I asked for the same thing. A few minutes later, somebody came up with two toilet paper rolls and that’s it. What the hell? Do I need to carry a knife everywhere I check in? My mom called again and somebody came up with a butter knife and pepper. I was confused, amused but most importantly furious.

And how hard is it to send us another blanket? We had an extra bed in the room, so doesn’t it just make sense to have another blanket for us? And I ordered this along when I asked to borrow a power adapter as well. Somebody came up only with a power adapter.

Toilet’s kinda leaking too. Arrgghh!!!

Again, what kind of a (five-star?) hotel is this?

We’re checking out tomorrow and leaving for Genting Highlands, hopefully the hotel would be better.

the flight to Malaysia

The flight itself was OK. Everything went fine. The flight even flew on time.

When we got to KL’s International Airport though, everything started to fell apart.

Nobody was there to pick us up. I didn’t see any of our names held on a board by everyone who was there to do their pick up. I knew trouble was brewing.

And it did. It actually led to a series of events that did nothing to me but tiring me emotionally not to mention the waste of time because of the delay in pickup and car scheduling.

Dad was dead furious. Mom was too. I just didn’t want to get involved in the heat (and could possibly end up in the line of fire) and just stood and/or sat there.

I am now at Berjaya Times Square Hotel and just sitting in the lounge just waiting for our room to be ready. What the hell! Checkout time is supposed to be 12PM and even the previous room renter paid for a late checkout, that didn’t justify hotel management from delaying our entry into our already paid room.

We were also told that we were only booked there for one night, which was preposterous since we paid for two nights of accommodation.

The hotel’s check in reception is on the 14^th floor, which is quite cool I guess with everything beneath it are shopping centres and food stalls. I hope they’re good.

All these delays already cost us two hours of travel and leisure and photo hunting time.

Damn!

And now that we got back from dinner downstairs, I can say that the food was OK at best but it was quite cheap.

Went for a walk in the shopping mall, got myself a DiGi prepaid mobile phone simcard.

Then went back up to our room at 8PM, just in time to see the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony.

Also had to complain (to myself) about the room. It’s designed pretty bad. There wasn’t a lot of room to move even from the beds. And you can’t watch the TV from the bed. You’d need to go to the couch, sit there and watch TV. This is by far the most inconvenient room (design-wise) that I’ve ever been in. The mattress was OK though.

We’re going with a city tour tomorrow for three hours. I’m not expecting a lot of good things though… A lot of bad things happening in a day is more than enough for me to be pessimistic about tomorrow in this country.

Jakarta Trip August 2008 - beaureaucracy

I’m pretty sure Indonesian Beaureaucracy people don’t appreciate time… our time.

I had to renew my passport today. It took me two and a half hours to queue up and had my photo taken in the interview room.

They told me that they have this new system in place that they couldn’t do it like they used to. Crap! Well maybe if they made sure the system would work first before implementing it, maybe it’d be so much better.

And after all that they didn’t even get my name right. I was only told that they’re putting my full name on the “see page” and it should be OK. I’m not keeping my hopes up. I already told them that I need my surname at the end of my given names. This is yet another problem with Indonesian Beaureaucracy. On my birth certificate, only my given names were jotted down. The rule is usually I’d take my father’s surname as my surname even though it’s not on my birth certificate.

Not sure if I could get the passport done tomorrow even if I asked for the ‘express’. If it’s not finished by tomorrow, I’m not going to Malaysia. Dammit!

We’ll see what happens tomorrow.

Jakarta Trip August 2008 - prologue

Flying alone sucks and this morning, that’s exactly what I was doing.

Even worse when one thing or two start going wrong along the way.

The taxi I ordered arrived on the front door but didn’t bother to knock on the door. He left. I had to call Silver Top Taxi’s operator and she explained. So another taxi was on the way. I was quite sleepy due to going to bed at midnight and waking up at 5.30 in the morning. Fell asleep a few times in the taxi until I almost reached the airport.

This was when I realized that there was a blockage caused (I think) by an accident. We had to take a detour (and apparently not just us, almost everyone took the same route and that caused me a twenty-minute delay) plus I had to walk another five minutes to reach the international departure terminal.

Check-in queue was quite long. Took me half an hour to check in. I usually do it online but since my passport expires in less than six months, the system didn’t let me check-in online. Crap.

Everything was OK afterwards, the flight wasn’t full and I was finally able to doze off during take off. Sleep is good.

I HATE FLYING!!!
I love to travel, don’t get me wrong. It’s the long flights I can’t stand. Like this one I’m on right now. It’s going to go for another six & half hours.

It’s even worse when you’re flying alone. Not that I can’t go through it. I’ve done it so many times, but it’s just unbearable. I just can’t imagine flying alone much further like, say, to the USA.

I just want to land in Singapore straight away, catch the next flight to Jakarta and that’s it.

But still here I am after an airplane meal, four movies, another refreshment and some power naps here and there. The airplane meals weren’t too bad this time around. Black pepper beef on rice with tuna pasta to open with. The refreshment was a nice chicken & mushroom pie. It was creamy but not too much, just the right amount. Hopefully all airplane food will always turn up like this.

Eight hours after take off… we’re close to landing. Finally.

I’m now in transit. I’ve finally arrived at Singapore’s Changi Airport waiting for yet another flight which should take me to Jakarta.

Now that I’m in transit, this is the other thing I hate about flying. The connecting flight. You never really know where you need to go next and I seem to always get transferred to the very end of the corridor which usually take around fifteen minutes on foot. This leaves me no leisure time during transit as I need to always be in a hurry.

I’m now in the waiting lounge for the flight to Jakarta, feeling quite worried about my checked-in baggage. I didn’t get that sticker receipt from Melbourne. I forgot to ask for it and I think the customer service who checked me in forgot to give it to me. The worst thing that could happen is if he actually forgot to check it in, but hopefully not since I made sure that I could pick it up in Jakarta and he said yes. But if it did happen (he forgot to check it in), some blood will be shed. I just know it.

But hopefully all ends well. I’d hate to get stuck in the airport, especially Jakarta’s.

I’ve now arrived in Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.

I got my luggage! I’m so relieved.

I’m missing you already.

And now it’s time to deal with… mosquito bites!!!