It's been a long time since I even went on the Internet to look at my own blogs. More than a year in fact, and the blogging decline all started when I first bought my own house, did renovations and moved in.
It's almost a year (in another month's time) since I moved out to stay on my own and hence more than a year since this blog saw any action. And on a scarier note, also more than a year since I have travelled. In fact, even my colleagues have been pestering me to remember to use my leave allowances. They're just all kinda stunned that I've accumulated so many days of leave that I never used. Well, let's just say that I was adjusting to life on my own. The introvert in me just celebrated becoming a pseudo-hermit.
Nevertheless, the travel bug in me finally decided to rear its head after its long slumber. And I finally made a small step towards getting this ass out of the country again. Interestingly though, my first trip since moving out, was a road trip to Malaysia with my parents organised by my dad's "union". "Union" because while they probably started out being a company thing, this bunch of aunties and uncles have since been travelling together frequently for more than a decade, so they're kind of more like travel buddies. I honestly didn't think I'd enjoy going on a trip with a bunch of senior citizens but it was an opportunity to visit one of the 2 only Sky Mirrors in the world. Be quite dumb to pass up such an opportunity isn't it.
So, in my next post (which I WILL get around to), I'd write about the Sasaran Sky Mirror in Kuala Selangor, Malaysia. Well, at least once I get my photos back. Another dumb thing I did, I accidentally deleted all my trip's photos. Complete dumb blonde moment which I'm paying for with a hefty price (yeah, actually hefty money penalty). Blame it on a year of not touching the cameras. But I'm going to (re-)start instead with a review of a hotel we stayed while in Ipoh, Malaysia. Sigh. A negative review to boot. But heck, these were photos I had in my phone and hence spared the agony of idiocy.
*This image was taken from Agoda website
Hotel Excelsior Ipoh
As this was an organised tour, I didn't bother to do any research/homework prior departure. Which was another moment of idiocy on my part, having been an advocate of the mantra "MUST do homework before holiday".
Oh well, but no research done prior meant also that I arrived at Hotel Excelsior Ipoh with no expectations at all. And even then, this hotel really failed to make the mark.
Our tour bus arrived at the hotel at approximately 6:30 pm that evening. Checking in was relatively efficient. For a tour group of 30 pax, my family were in our room before 7 pm. Unfortunately, that's about the only good thing I could say for the hotel.
Because we arrived as a family of 3, we were given one of the bigger Family Rooms (Triple) instead. The minute we stepped into the room though, I turned around and went back down to the receptionist to ask for a room change. The air-conditioning unit was spoilt and leaking, resulting in a pool of water on the floor. There was absolutely no way in hell I'm going to allow us to sleep in a no-aircon room in Malaysia. The freaking heat and humidity would kill us. Second, water puddle on the floor is just going to be a fall-hazard, plus a potential flood disaster.
Can't see it in the photo because my dearest mommy went to remove the evidence when I went down to try get a room change. I had to explain to her why she needed to leave the evidence but the OCD in her wouldn't tolerate it. Anyway, the towel marked the spot of the water puddles.
Unfortunately, I was told at the receptionist that the hotel was fully booked and there were no other family rooms. Instead, the options offered to me was to wait and see if a mechanic could do damage repair or move into a twin room where they would add another mattress for the third person.
Seeing how we were going to just stay for a night and I didn't want us to put up with a cramped room and lousy mattress, I opted to let the mechanic try his brand of magic.
That was at 7 pm.
By the time the fella rolled his ass around and dealt with the mess, it was way past 9 pm. And he worked on it for less than 30 minutes. Which meant if he had rolled fasted, we wouldn't have wasted our evening waiting in the room for him. I was quite irritated by then because I had really wanted to get out to explore since it was my one and only night in Ipoh.
And that wasn't the end of it. While waiting for the mechanic to do his work, I realised that the room was extremely dusty and worn down. Mom actually spent some time wiping down some of the tables and ledges, otherwise my nose allergy would definitely have acted up.
It was as if maintenance was not a priority at all for this hotel. In my pictures above, you can see that the curtains have been spoilt and the paint peeling from the walls. There were also pieces of carpet around the edges of the room that were sticking up, ready to trip the next unwary person. One of the table lamps was also not working anymore but just left unplugged on the table.
At first glance, the bedsheets also did not seem to be washed properly either. Pillows also definitely had seen better days. Thankfully, we were still able to spend a sound night.
However, the last straw for my family was when dad realised (being the first to shower) that even the shower head was damaged. The water pipe was leaking so essentially water was just sprouting from the pipes and not the shower head. I gave up taking photos by then so you only have my word for it. Luckily, there was still a rain shower that functioned so we could still wash up. But by then, the hassle of trying not to get our hair wet became another sore spot in a string of sore spots. A string that leaves the impression that the hotel really cannot be bothered at all.
Breakfast, thankfully, was still an ok affair. It's not fantastic (and yes, I forgot to take photos of the breakfast spread), but decent enough to fill the tummy of the average tourist. There was an omelette and soup noodle station, breads and cereals, and some Malaysian selection. Not mouth-watering delicious (maybe except the omelette) but good enough.
Now that I'm back, I see that reviews for this hotel was incredibly mixed on TripAdvisor. Its plus point was definitely its location, and that's also what the positive reviews tended to note. One of the reasons why I was irritated with my evening wasted was because I had wanted to get around the nearby streets. There were a couple of really famous food stalls nearby and a shopping mall. Obviously, no comments since that didn't materialise at all.
All in, not a hotel I'd recommend to anyone. So no website link or anything for you guys.
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