Marina Bay Sands - over rated work in progress

(Deleted the original post and reposting this coz some ass holes left some porno links in comments which I accidentally published.)


This year, the countries of SAPK (South Asia Pacific Korea) held the new product introduction and product update seminars in the Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore. Before arriving, most of us thought that we would be in for a treat. The hype on the integrated resort (IR) was such that our expectations were high.After having stayed here since Sunday, I can only say thatThe hotel may be rated 5 starsBut it really is only 4 starswith 3 star amenities2 star service andONE (1) star staff.The hotel is really NOT READY for operations!! Many of us had "unforgettable" experiences right from the check-in reception. For me I was already not too impressed with the coach pickup from the airport. They must be expecting visitors to come with light baggage and short stays. I came to such a conclusion because the coach from MBS that picked us up had no space for baggage. The big bags were placed across 2 seats. So a few seats in front of the coach was 'seated' by big bags!Upon arrival at the coach bay at the basement, I saw organized chaos! They have the casino entrance/exit placed near the escalators leading to the check in reception at tower 1. So you end up with a large crowd waiting for coaches, waiting to get in or out of the casino and waiting to check in/out. I met a colleague who told me she was checking out and then in.Later on I found out that she had just about the worst experience anyone can have with any hotel rooms- When she checked in a few days earlier (on her own account), the hotel gave her a room which had not been cleaned yet! Towels were strewn all over and the bed was a mess. So she demanded for another room.- the next room? Nothing works in that room! Not the lights or the taps. The hotel apologized by giving her a fruit basket, a voucher for S$100.oo and of course another room....but not before misplacing her luggage!- Then she checked out (her personal account) and checked in again (company's account) and the room assigned to her turned out to be occupied by a couple (I did not ask my colleague what else she saw!). How can a hotel in Singapore assigned an occupied room to a new guest?? I have had that experience in India and that is not an experience that I wish on anyone. Of course she went ballistic!! The hotel then upgraded her to suite at the corporate price for a normal room.You would have thought that a suite would be better maintained. Sorry... the motor to drive the curtains open and close came off and fell down!. And the hot water in the taps wasn't flowing.And hot water supply was a gripe that hit most of us. Many of us waited 10 minutes (on the average) for hot water to come out. Many ended up with a cold shower. You need a manual to operate the dual knobs to get hot water for our shower. It should not be so complicated. Most of us are hotel veterans, having stayed in hotels all over the world, but this was the first time that so many of us could not get the hot water mix!Another colleague says she woke up in the middle of the night because she could hear water overflowing in her bathroom. Turned out to be the room upstairs having a shower and as the water rushed through the pipes, it sounded like her taps had over flowed.That wasn't the only soundproofing issue. Colleagues on 8th and 11th floor complain that traffic noise kept them awake all night! Jeez!!!Oh.. the hotel has 3 towers. Check in is located at tower 1 and most of us were placed in tower 3. Most of us ended up dragging our bags from tower 1 to tower 3 with no offer of assistance from the many hotel employees who seems to be milling around and gawking at the crowd.And in the morning, we have to walk the length of the hotel from tower 3 to tower 1 for our breakfast. One of my colleagues says the walk feels like it is 4km long! Whoever designed the layout and work flow does not seem to think like a guest. For the length of the hotel, I expect that common facilities like check in or breakfast hotel is located more centrally.And for a so called 5 star hotel, there is NOT bath tub. Just a fixed shower head. I get better amenities from hotels of lower rankings. AND... we don't have to pay so much.Many also complained that they could not get the air conditioning to wrok properly. The air cond fans were noisy and could not cool the room or got the room so wintry cold. For heaven's sake, it's a supposedly new hotel and the fans are noisy?? C'mon!Another colleague closed the chain latch on her door and the next morning, found that she could not open it!! She ended up bashing the lock with the pone in the bathroom to get it opened. " The phone looked solid enough" she said! LOL.Last but not least, in all hotels that I stay in, newspapers are delivered in the morning and drinking water is placed in the room for the convenience and utilization of the guests. BUT... nobody got any newspapers delivered nor was there any drinking water. Some of the more creative colleagues resorted to visiting the casino, bagging a few bottles of water and then went back to their room.The only saving point for MBS was the skypark. The swimming pool was impressive. But everything else around the hotel is still being constructed. The bloody place is work in progress!!This is not one hotel that I look forward to visiting again. I will stick to my regular hotel next to Raffles Shopping Complex.

A strange thing...memories

Memories. This is a strange thing that our brain possess.

For some reason or another, you can remember things 30 40 years ago and not something last week. Age?? Maybe. My mum had asked me quite a few times over the years if I could find an old school buddy of mine. I had gotten into an accident and got hospitalized with compression fracture of the lumbar and this schoolmate of mine had to go to the house I was staying in to inform my mum that I had been admitted to hospital. Over the years, I had heard that YNC had gone to Singapore and then later became a lawyer. I had made half hearted attempts to locate him but to no avail.

Then last week, my in laws in China (my wife's half brothers and their family) started sending many emails over. They had discovered the internet!!! As I setup an email for my wife as well as a facebook account for her, I thought I would try to google for some of my school mates or 35 years ago when I was in Secondary 5. First name that popped into mind was YNC. And the search returned success!!

Called him and found he actually had 2 practices - one in Singapore and one in KL. As he said, lawyers needs a lot of practice because they can't get it right! And from this, I now find a whole bunch of old school buddies on FB today. Many I remember their names and some their faces.

This is turning out to be an interesting interaction. One of them is even a grandfather and he's my age! The power of social networks!

Get away from it all on Tioman Island

For about half a century of my life, the only island in Malaysia that i have visited was Langkawi and Penang. I did have a yearning to go to Pangkor Island (which we did last year) and some of the other islands, but somehow, never made it.

This year, my cousin sister, Madeline, wanted to go to Redang Island during the school holidays but we could not secure any reservations. So we ended up making reservations at Minang Cove Resort on Tioman Island. That was one of the best decisions made.

The resort is located at the southern most part of Tioman and due to it's remote location, there was no TV reception, so no TV in the rooms. No mobile phone and no internet. There was a little corner on the jetty where some mobile phone signal can be received and we noticed the resort staff tend to spend some time there when they are free.

The sea around the resort is clear and abundant with marine life. You can see at least 10m into the sea and look at live coral and colorful fishes swimming amongst them. Too bad my camera cannot go underwater, or I would have taken a lot of photos of the fishes from inside the sea.

There are other resorts dotting the western part of the island. In many of them, TV, mobile phones or internet is not an issue. The most popular place to go for internet connections is Tekek or Salang. We also noticed that many scuba divers tends to congregate in Salang - making it sort of the scuba diving capital for Tioman.

The Marine Park is another nice site to go to to swim with the fishes and fee them. Unfortunately, there seems to be too many people such that the waters within 20m of the beach is dirty and even at the feeding platforms, the water is not as clear as what we saw at Minang Cove. I had not swam for long durations for quite a long time. The next 2 days, I woke up with sore muscles on my abdominal sides!

Tekek has a duty free outlet which sells liquor at prices similar to Singapore instead of KLIA, making it much cheaper.When they say the shops in KLIA are duty free, they conveniently don't mention that they are not profit free (probably very fat margins if I were to compare their prices with Singapore Changi).

If anyone is looking for a holiday and do not want to be contacted, go to Minang Cove Resort. You won't regret it.

My Denai Alam house has been let out

After being empty for a month, a new family has moved into my house as of 29th May. Fauziah Kamarosezaman and her family will be staying for at least one year.

I hope they will take good care of the house as did the previous tenant.

Mandarin Oranges

Last year, I did something similar - but only for about 3 months. This year, I am going to try this experiment till all 9 Mandarin oranges becomes rotten or dehydrated.

Since 3rd Feb, I had collected about 12 Mandarin oranges- straight from the carton, and left them on my cubicle divider. 3 has gone rotten within 2 monthsToday- 9 of the oranges are ALL looking as good as new. Some do feel lighter, but I have no way of confirming that as I did not weigh them before my 'experiment' started.

But if you consider that more than 3 months later, the Mandarins still looks as good as new, you have to question what do the farmers put on them. These oranges are not in leak tight packaging. They are in the office environment 24 x 7. And the office air-conditioning is only switched on from 8am to 6pm from Mondays to Fridays. It is a sauna during the weekends and on certain nights.

What in the world are in these oranges??