Was there about 8.30pm when the event suppose to start at 7.00pm but no biggie because I am used to be late!

Food was served when Lady Alie and myself arrived and soon when the food reached our plate, we were devouring like mad.

Just cause we were both super hungry and I was exceptionally hungry I guess due to the lack of solid and proper food while I was sick. Yes, I was sick since Wednesday. Sucks no?

Only one picture for you to see. Maybe I shall put it up more when I get them ok?

Well, Hilton KL’s Boardwalk Poolside Restaurant is located on the 8th Floor and boy, it was sure windy and cooling. The fan was not even turned on and the wind is so strong. I guess maybe it was the weather? How I wish the weather is like this all the time.

They have a very laid back environment, I mean of course most hotels does right? Haha

( Source: www.hilton.com.my)

There is a DJ playing music that night, very chillaxin house music I would say. If only I can drink much then I can enjoy the ambience better.

How was the party? It was nice and thanks to JacJac for inviting, really a nice gesture for the invitation.

Only thing is that the hotel needs to polish up their service. Maybe proper training should be in place, even for part-timers.

Now, let me explain why I said that and this applies to some of the service crews.

The service crew was really not attentive and they look very “zombie” for the lack for better words. Only I can see a handful, probably 3 or 4 of them are experienced crew. Seeking attention from any of the service crew was really a bane, maybe most of them were busy running the dinner service but at least a standby person to attend to tables? At the bar, some crew were just chilling by the door while I am standing there waiting to order for a good 5-7 minutes? Yes, it’s about that.

With a sit down setting, and if you always change plates, you should have a service table at the side of the table to speed up the service. Some plates were taken away and not replaced immediately resulted in food not getting to them. Not a very nice feeling to leave to your guests, right?

Also, before serving, always inform your guests what dish it is you are serving before putting the food on his/her plate. Some people may be allergic or not in a favor of that dish. It would be a waste and embarrassing to the guest at the same time.

Look, I may sound like I am a person who demands a lot, but hey, Hilton KL, that’s what I should be expecting no?

I wouldn’t mind if I am at some local restaurant and bar, but Hilton KL. It is just so different from my previous experience there at the Cosmo Lobby Lounge last August.

Maybe, they are a different service crew, or probably they are not really ready for a group of people service but regardless, I am a sucker for good quality service coming personally from hospitality industry. I don’t blame them, only thing they need is training and a lot of scolding and bashing, not literally, as I came from the same background. Heh.

Albeit the sub-par service, the food was yummy and the environment is excellent. If service can be improved, voila, you’ve got your name back, Hilton KL!

For any of you wanting to find out more about Hilton KL’s Boardwalk Poolside Restaurant,

Boardwalk Poolside Restaurant
Designed as a tropical oasis in the heart of the city, enjoy alfresco dining surrounded by palm trees at the Hilton Kuala Lumpur hotel. Sample dishes from the sizzling barbecue or try a cocktail as you take in views over the city from this Kuala Lumpur restaurant.

Boardwalk Poolside Restaurant is open for: Lunch and Dinner
Attire: Smart-Casual
Open: Monday to Friday 11AM to 11PM

Happy Sunday Everyone!

So yes, here I am in a completely foreign land. It is my first time on African soil. This is the airport of where I am right now. This was once the pride of the country and even Africa, so to say.

It was the first ever airport in Africa more than 20 years ago. If you could have guessed or rather known or maybe not have any idea at all, yes I’m at Nigeria.

I’ve got scheduled meetings for the next 7days back to back. The biggest one being tomorrow and I got to get things done from now onwards.

So there you go, I’m now at Nigeria and I’ve even met another Nigerian on board my flight to Lagos earlier. Sony and I pretty much talked about Nigeria and the perceptions the country has received thus far, mostly negative, from international people abroad.

I’m currently staying at Check Inn Hotel in Ibadan, Oyo State. Very nice place. The bed is quite comfy too…

Till I write again… Watch this space for more.

We stayed at Flamingo by the Beach Hotel, Penang which is located on the stretch of Tanjung Bungah beach. Can’t complain with the quality of the beach if you want a beach nearby the city and ease of traveling in and out of Batu Ferringhi which has nicer beach compared to Tanjung Bungah.

Did not really explore the whole hotel, but if you want a decent “new” hotel and nearby the city, this would be it. This is the view from the front entrance into the lobby.

The reception area large enough to handle a big group check-in or large crowd. The service by the reception staffs, just okay.

The lounge right opposite the lobby. See that Foosball table? Don’t even think of playing it. They balls are all gone hence, when you put your money in, no balls comes out. They are nice to refund my RM3.00 without hassle. Hope they get the new balls.

The pool may get very busy over the weekend with families spending their weekend there. Can chill on the beach chairs and sun bath all day long if you want. Pool bar offers good service, but they need to pay more attention to customers sitting just right outside the restaurant.

The hotel has 280 room capacity with 250 of them are deluxe rooms (hill view & sea view), 28 suites and 2 presidential suites (source). Room rates goes around RM 210 depending on the source you get them from.

I would say the room is big enough to fit in 4 person if you are 2 adults and 2 kids traveling together. Oh in the hotel, they got a Spa, Gaming Room (oh yeah!), Travel Agency and other facilities and outlets you can splurge your money on. If that is the more honest way to put it.

My hotel experience at Flamingo by the Beach Penang: 7/10
Comments:
I like the whole environment. Parking is free even for public and the most important thing is that the room is decent and bigger than usual for the price of RM 200++.

The hotel is located on Jalan Tanjung Bungah. See Google Maps.

Full hotel address:
Jalan Tanjung Bungah
Tanjong Bungah, Pulau Pinang 11200
Tel: +604-892-7111

So yes… Saturday night was a night to remember on three events.

First – My car battery died. If I remember correctly, I was at my office parking lot and usually when I get into parking lot, I turn on my headlight. I was leaving my office then and I’m guessing that I didn’t switch it off. Who in their crazy mind would turn on their headlight in broad daylight you tell me!?

So yes, but lucky we’ve got good Samaritans nearby who came to the rescue. Funny that the car park in front of me also dieded. They had an accident earlier… BMW summore. Good Job! Hope they are all good now.

Secondly – Chillaxin’ Night at Hilton KL. Started off with ‘minor’ shopping. Not me! and then dinner. Wanted to go for movie at Pyramid but the line was killer. Went over to Tropicana Mall but only two movies available. EXTRA PHAIL! So, it was ‘Go with the flow night’ and went around searching for a nice jazz place around Klang Valley at midnight. Couldn’t find any. So hard to find a jazz place? From Damansara all the way to D. Heights to Mon’t Kiara to Bangsar and ended up at Cosmo Lobby Lounge at Hilton Kuala Lumpur.

Nice place, but no music. But good place to embark on a chillaxin’ night over Haagen Dazs Vanilla Shake, Life & Beauty Tea and Ceasar Salad with Salmon (Not that nice). This is life (for now) but sad enough that when age is catching up, this is the kind of night people my age would want to embark on. Not all lah, but most.

Thirdly – Met a psycho freak. This freak had some face value “lheng-chhai” (spoken with a slang) dilemma. It was way after closing hour of the Cosmo Lobby Lounge and the crowd of Zeta Bar started going off. Then this “lheng-chhai” freako came over and started asking me questions of why his life sucks big time and why people treat him by his face value and dunno what girl problem lah.

About 90% of his uttered words were thrown out by my brain and 98% of it contains the word “f*ck” but I have a video. (Nyek! Nyek!) The outcome of the video looks like a ‘Lingam Video’ and it takes quite a while to get the video uploaded and thus I shall put up another post for this “lheng-chhai” freako.

I’ve got less than 4 hours till Monday is here and thinking of this coming Weekday scares me… So many things to take care off! Sigh. Okay! Till then! Catcha peeps.

First time staying at this hotel.

Nice Twin Room and I get FREE WiFi. Just call the hotel reception for the password and they will give it to you. The room is superbly cold and even if I turn it up the temperature to hot, it is still very the cold!

Wheee….

It was surprisingly a nice place to stay. Come on, with a location such as Gurney Drive, as well as a complimentary WiFi. What more can I ask? And its complimentary thanks to the H Factor team, especially Leonard. (H Factor is something I will talk about soon.. )

G Hotel, is very stylish indeed, as the claimed to be. I had a taste of their room, and now, let me show your a view of their restaurant and lobby. These two location can already blow you away from your seat now…

This is G Cafe. This place is VERY important because it is where you will head to every morning when you wake up. Okay, not exactly RIGHT AFTER you wake up, as you need to finish all your toilet business first…

the row of foods…

The salads and desserts counter…

Very typical American Breakfast they are serving here every morning. If you are asking “How is the food?”, I would say, it was just great. You will definitely have a happy day ahead. Because good breakfast gives you a great start for the day…

semua pun ambik…

The food is nothing much to shout about, as it is all the same in any hotel which falls in the same category. What I want to comment about is their level of service. As usual, the high service expectation me kicks in when I walk into any fancy restaurant.

I was sitting down in the restaurant for dinner with Mike and Garreth. Mike and myself has been sitting there for quite sometime and we were not served with water. About halfway gobbling down our food already. I was trying to get the waiter to come, but he was busy turning over for next morning’s breakfast. Mind you, it was already 10PM. Finally, our gesture for water was taken note and the waiter came with a jar and two glasses. I was kinda frustrated already, as he practically ignored the presence of the customer and kept on clearing the tables.

All frustration were killed when he came and smiled and said:

“I’m sorry, I didn’t notice that you were not having water.” (or something along this line)

The smile already paid for the loss and apologizing is just a bonus. Didn’t bother much about it already and we continued our dinner.

The same kind of good service was seen all over the hotel. Even the DJ playing the music at the lobby lounge smiles at me everytime I walk pass him! I paid back with a smile of course…

Oh, talk about lobby… I’m sorry, I swayed away too far to comment on their service.

s-p-a-c-i-o-u-s

The lobby is very spacious with seats enough to host two football teams… I bet it will.

nice or not???

The reception table is connected to the lobby lounge bar counter. Design of the hotel is very modern and chic. Just that, at night, its kinda dim and dull. They should just keep the lighting on. But maybe, they are into energy conservation. More lights at the lobby at night would certainly help. I thought the hotel was closed when I reached the hotel at night… haha

Now, who says you need to stay at Marriot or Hilton to enjoy great hotel service.

Should I visit Penang again, I will make a mental note to stay here again…
Yea, I definitely would visit Penang by end of the year… somehow or rather…

After a great 5 hours drive…

One preventive detour to Tg. Malim for petrol…

One pit stop for toilet and coffee…

Clocking more than 350km…

Crossing the now under upgrade Penang Bridge…

Passing by a random police road block…

Mamak stop before we pit…

The many u turns I made today…

One small hill up…

One small hill down…

Check into the hotel…

VOILA…!!!

Je reste dans G Hotel Penang…

Oh Heavenly Double Bed!!

another long day to go…

Let the pictures do the talking..

Put up a night at Westin Hotel as Patrick got a complimentary stay..

The bed was heavenly.. nearly miss 8.30am meeting on Friday.

Must take mirror reflection picture..

We head on to Jalan Alor for sumptuous dinner at Wong Ah Wah.
The food was good till I never bother to take any pictures.. Maybe yeah a video..

After the dinner, we took a stroll to Trader’s Hotel. Yes! From Jalan Alor.

Look at the jam!!It was a longggg walk of about 20 minutes. I’m used to walking ..
We finally made it to SkyBar at Trader’s Hotel.

Nice music and ambience..

Best of all, they have the best view of KLCC…

Beauty eh??

Where do we go next eh?

ZOUK!!! This would be my second time walking into Zouk this month.
I don’t normally go there unless I have the urge to go and unless it’s Mambo Jambo!

It was surprisingly empty when we walked into the main room about 1130pm..

What pose?

Lucky the crowd started to crawl in around after midnight only..

Happy Happy!

Classic!

I shall tell about my Bar Celona’s Grand Opening experience in my next post..