Cylee Thoughts

Remnants from a mentally confused mind

Friday, December 29, 2006

Local Guests

Ahh...guess what? I'm slipping up on my blogging yet again. Sign of blogging fatigue and impending closure? I don't know. It's just that working shifts has left my bio clock off the tick and drives off any concentration I need for penning down anything.

Of course, I could always blame Blogger which I recently have trouble logging in as I'm probably one of the few remaining woolly mammoths in their pool who has yet to switch to the new Blogger. Or I could blame the earthquake in Taiwan, which broke the cables like sausages in the sea, affecting internet access. Not that I noticed though, since I don't surf the internet much. Heck, I hardly spend time in front of the computer now, except at work.

The year end has also been especially busy, at work and at home. Work wise, with the long weekend in sight, we are preparing for an onslaught of local guests checking in. These guests are more intimidating than the Vikings. The moment my room attendants heard about them, their legs start to tremble and all start filing outside the clinic for MCs, which just adds to my manning woes.

For the uninitiated, local guests tend to do the following:

1. Check in en masse. I don't mean checking in at the same time. I mean as in per room. It seems as if the locals are having a competition to see how many people they can squeeze into one room, or to feel how sardines felt.

2. Plunder and pillage. For a room rate that is possibly shared by 10 people, they expect 20 sets of every amenity in the room. One set for each to use, and one set for each as souvenirs. Yes, the locals are big on free hotel souvenirs, even if it's just ordinary toilet paper. They can check in with an empty bag and check out with a full one, without even stepping out for shopping. I'm surprised the furniture is not carted off.

3. Demanding. What they want, they have to get it. They don't get it, they perform the national hobby - complain. They also expect servicing of room even if they have only checked in for an hour and numerous times per day. They should be thanking their lucky stars that we do not strictly enforce the maximum occupants rule.

4. Perform magic. If my room attendants are servicing a particular room, leaving their carts outside, when they come out, magically the amount of amenities and other items will diminish from what they had when they last had the cart in sight. No points for guessing who are the wonderful magicians in the league of David Copperfield.

5. The main reason why my room attendants quiver when the locals are in house is not because they are demanding. Rather, their rooms are what we term as 'dinosaur rooms', in the T-Rex category no less. The amount of rubbish and chaos they leave behind in each room can rival that of Smoky Mountain in Manila.

I guess, Singaporeans, being Singaporeans, like to stretch their money to the fullest.

Oh right, I've yet to finish on my trip to Vietnam. Well, I'm going to do a summary for the remaining 7 days.

Hoi An is a quaint little town, with a night atmosphere in the league of Jiufen in Taipei and Chinatown in Malacca.

Hue is a cultural city big on tombs and temples.

Halong Bay is an impressive scenic area.

Hanoi is a city with plenty of places to go around it.

Food in Vietnam makes you eat like a cow. Not in terms of having good appetite, but rather in terms of the proportion of greens. I ordered the speciality Cao Lao in Hoi An, and I got a bowl of noodles top with plenty of vegetables. I ordered fried pho in Hanoi, the proportion of vegetable is 50-50 to the proportion of noodles. On top of that, I get a small basket of fresh vegetable as an appetiser.

Moo...

So there you have it. My recent days thus far and a quick wrap up of my Vietnam trip. Will post up my Vietnam photo after the New Year and it's a promise!
posted by Cylee at 12:28 pm I