Sunday, August 31, 2014

Parkcity Everly Hotel Bintulu

This had been a hectic week at work for me that I barely saw my kids :( My 3 and a half years old girl was not so happy about my busy schedule until I promised her 3 days ago that we could stay at a hotel specifically a hotel with a bathtub and a pool, for quality family time together.

So today after settling the house chores, I brought them to Parkcity Everly Hotel as promised. I booked the hotel through Agoda coz they offered the lowest rate compared to Booking.com (RM300.10 nett per night).

We stayed at 7th floor, a non-smoking room / floor. The pictures on the Internet did not quite do justice to the actual hotel room. In fact it wasn't so bad.

Along the hotel corridor

What I like about the hotel room is it is clean and well kept, although the design could need a facelift. The carpet certainly makes the whole room looks tired and shabby and I hate the bed runner because it looks out of place! I also think the armchair needs to be changed to more modern look.

Angle from the foyer / walkway

Otherwise, the warm color of the wood panel, wardrobe  and study desk gives the room a cozy feeling.

The room is appointed with one queen and one single beds

The flat screen LCD TV and work desk

Other than that, the rest of the amenities are standard. The beds were quite comfortable but nothing to shout out.

Bathroom and toilet

Bathtub, which is the main reason we are here

Of course the best part about the hotel is the room comes with a bathtub, something I find odd about the ultra modern New World Suites Hotel because they don't have one. 

Hotel toiletries in cardboard packaging

The toiletries' packaging also needs to be revamped because they are just too old-style, if you know what I mean.

Like other hotels, tea & coffee are complimentary.

We also tried their breakfast the next day. Their buffet is also pretty standard - nasi lemak, roti canai, porridge, the egg station, cereal, dimsum - to name a few of the selections that morning. But still, it's better than New World Suites in terms of variety.

As promised, I brought the girls to swim and the swimming pool. I had to search around for the pool towel counter and when I found it, I was annoyed to see the sign 'Run out of dry towel'. There wasn't that many swimmers that morning and already they ran out of clean towels! Hmmph.

My verdict - the hotel hardly impressed me, which is too bad because there is so much potential and with such spacious area and strategic location near the seaside. If the hotel management didn't do anything to make it outstanding, someday it might end up being as a shabby and outdated hotel that no one wants to stay in. 

Rating: 7/10

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Thursday, July 31, 2014

Semenggoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre

Previous years I always longed to visit many places in Kuching whenever we were in town but since we didn't have our own car, I wasn't able to do so.

But now that we have our own car here, it is payback time. There's so many things to do and see in Kuching, and one of it is to visit the orang utans in their almost natural environment, Semenggoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre.

This nature reserve centre has been a rehabilitation centre for orang utans especially the orphaned young, those confiscated from illegal poachers or injured due to deforestation activities with the aim to reintroduce them back to the wild.

I'm extremely impressed especially after visiting the gallery and reading about the systematic and massive efforts to help the orang utans. Do you know that the orang utans even have birth certificates just like a human infant? The only difference is their birth cert didn't have details of the father! LOL!

(Unfortunately we didn't manage to meet Delima, or Nora or any other famous orang utan figure today, since none turned up at the feeding platform)

Another interesting discovery is they have several stages of 'education system' starting from nursery school, to primary school, to secondary school before they are released to the wild.

Our main goal of visiting this centre was to have some experience of being up close and personal with the orang utans during the feeding time (which was at 3pm in the afternoon).

Entrance fee is RM5 for Malaysian adult (free admission for children below 12). When we reached the waiting area around 15mins before the feeding time, there were already a crowd of foreign tourists waiting patiently at the designated shed.

We decided to kill the time by visiting the crocodile enclosure area nearby. Khayla was terrified at first but soon got over her fear when she saw the reptiles were hardly moving - in fact we thought they were mummified because there wasn't any sign of movement. Even their open eyes were unblinking!

Before the feeding time, a guide gave a short briefing about the orang utan habits and some precautions like keeping our voices down, not bringing any food, and keeping safe distance from the orang utans.

(Visitors dilligently listened to the guide's explanation)

That was when I changed my mind about getting in close proximity with the orang utans - what if one of the maternal ones grabbed Khadeeja from my arms and ran up the durian tree with my baby? Then she grows up like Jane the Tarzan girl (for one, she already behaves like one of the baby orang utans, always climbing here and there, grabbing things and have no table manner whatsoever!). Ok, my imagination tended to run wild.

Still we joined the throng of visitors climbing up the jungle trail to the main feeding platform, me holding Khayla by the hand and encouraging her to walk steadily up the hilly path. Khadeeja was safely in hubby's arms. If ever one orang utans took a fancy on my baby, she would have to go through my hubby, LOL!

Luckily (or unluckily) no orang utan turned up and my worry dissipated. Throughout the time, we heard the rangers giving loud, long cries calling for the orang utans, signaling to them it was feeding time. It is fruits season, explained the guide, so the orang utans are able to feed themselves instead of relying on hand outs. It is a good sign for the wildlife centre because it means the orang utans are self-reliant, but not a good news to the eager and expectant visitors who came all the way from Europe or US to meet them!

However we did manage to sight an orang utan high above a durian tree at another location (deeper in the forest, and the climb was much steeper, it was incredible that I managed to climb there carrying Khadeeja in my arms).

After that we decided to go back because it looked like it was about to rain. 

For those who love the nature, do drop by this place. The nature is well-preserved, so if you can't sight the orang utans, you can also go for walks at the various nature trails and at arboretum within this centre. 

Just Google Semenggoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre for more details. My advice, if you really hope to snap that photo of you arms in arms with orang utan, come during the non-fruits season. Or go to Matang Wildlife Centre (but I'm not sure if you can feed them there because they are placed in enclosure).

Happy orang utan sighting!

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Thursday, July 31, 2014

Damai Beach Resort

Selamat Hari Raya everyone! I'm sure everyone has had a blast during the past few days, and so did we :)

This year we decided to go for a family vacation on the third day of Syawal. Our destination - Kuching's Damai Beach Resort.

Located in Santubong which is 45mins away from Kuching town, the resort is famed for its serene beach view and fantastic natural environment surrounding the resort.

We chose to go to this resort because our girls love playing in the water, and with the beach and swimming pool literally next to each other, the girls are sure to have a lovely time splashing in the water to their hearts' content!

The scenery along the beach

The swimming pool

The resort has separate pools for the adults and kids. The kids' swimming pool  comes complete with a water slide and waterfall. Love!

I purposely booked the superior room which is the closest to the swimming pool. There is a big cage full of cats (local, not high breed though) behind our hotel building and frankly, the cats look bored with nothing much to do.

When we reached the resort, I was expecting a well-established international standard resort because a lot of Western tourists happen to stay here. I was slightly disappointed to find the resort to be just average in terms of service and facilities.

First of all, at the reception counter, instead of immediately greeting guest, the staff continued to do whatever he was doing and ignored me. So did the staff next to him. Where else, when I checked in at Westin in KL a couple of months back, the staff did not only greet me with cheerful but respectful tone, she also greeted my girls asking them their journey and practically wowing me with their wonderful hospitality.

After waiting for 2 mins, finally the receptionist turned to me and proceeded to check us in. 

The lobby area

Our room was on the second floor and nearest to the staircase. The room is spacious (for a RM300++ rate, I would expect no less), but tired looking. Walking into the room made me feel like I've been transported to 2 decades ago. The amenities like the bed sheet, pillows, sofa, hair dryer and other fittings seem unchanged since the 90's. The only thing that looks new is the flat TV. 

The room comes with one queen bed

The bathroom and toilet

The bathtub

Toiletries

The resort didn't even provide tooth brushes, but luckily we brought ours. On the other side, I quite like the peppermint smell of the complimentary shower gel and shampoo.

Much to our annoyance, the housekeeping team forgot to place towels in the room which we only discovered after coming back from the swimming pool. The telephone in the room was not working (the receptionist explained that due to earlier thunder, they switched off the telephone line), so hubby had to go to the counter to request for towels. We had to wait for half an hour (and another trip to the counter) before the towels arrive, and my girls were already so cold. Hmmph.

Still, we are thankful for the cool room and having escape the scorching heat from the hot weather outside. The weather was quite good when we reached the hotel, slightly cloudy and breezy.

Immediately we all changed to our swimming attire and hubby brought the kids swimming while I chill on a deck chair with a Sidney Sheldon novel. I even dozed off after a while because the sea breeze felt and smelt deliciously cool. Ah, lovely vacation!

At night, we opted for buffet dinner at the resort's Satang Cafe (RM45++ per adult, kids below 12 eat for free). Sadly, the buffet was hardly appetizing and lacked choices. There was white rice, spaghetti carbonara with lumpy sauce, ayam masak merah, fish curry, mixed veggies in butter sauce, grilled lamb in blackpepper sauce, bun and butter, salad with few choices of dressing, and tomyam soup. Dessert was two types of layer cakes and some fruits. 

So I contented myself taking photo of the cafe interior.  

The hotel restaurant has interesting Sarawak nature painting on the ceiling (please ignore my daughter sitting on the floor!)

Fortunately the next day's breakfast (comes together in the room package) was better. Although there was no egg station (you only get fried egg to go with the usual baked beans, chicken frankfurt and whatnots), they offer nasi lemak, rice porridge with local Chinese condiments, an assortment of cereals, sliced cheese, an assortment of bread, croissant and buns to go with various jams and butter, waffle, roti canai, fried noodle and chicken curry.

To my amusement, the resort put a notice that any unfinished food weighing more than 100g will be charged additional RM10.

So peeps, don't waste your food here!

Overall, I think the resort management seriously need to buck up and upgrade the hotel services and facilities. Would I come here again? Maybe. 

Rating: 6/10

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Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Thinking Aloud

I'm halfway of my research project. By halfway, I mean I have to revise my research questions, research objectives, research hypothesis, research framework, cut down my questionnaire items, get at least 300 respondents (I've obtained around 220, 80 more to go), analyse my data, and then re-write Chapter 4 & 5.

Seriously, just thinking about it gives me breakouts. My face is literally full of pimples from the stress of writing a thesis. How I loathe this whole journey!

Anyway, no point in moaning about it because it still needs to be done anyway. I just need to reduce the damage and trim my research work here and there. Before I'm consumed by sheer panic and overwhelmed from all this chaos (moving, going back to work NEXT WEEK!, and finishing my report), let's analyze all the things I have to do:

Chapter 1
Re-write my research questions and research objectives. 
Previously I want to find out which concept influences people to be loyal to cloth diaper, perceived value (CV) or environmental concern (EC)? Now I realize that that Holbrook typology has included altruistic value which is indirectly linked to EC anyway, so why do I have to study EC? If people decide to be loyal to the product because it offers the feel-good value due to protecting the environment, it's just redundant to inspect whether they are environmentally concerned or not (obviously people who rate altruistic value as low has low EC).

So now, with EC out of the proposed framework, I'll just focus on the CV. Which value has the strongest effect on loyalty? Do I need to have attitude as mediating factor, or try to establish that CV has a direct effect on loyalty? I have to go back to my literature review.

Chapter 2
1. Identify 5 journal articles for each variable 
- articles that define each CV and loyalty intentions. Because I need to justify my questionnaire item. Why I use Zeithaml, Parasuraman et al item to measure loyalty intentions.

2. Identify 5 journal articles that establish the relationship between CV and loyalty. 
Previous studies always examine satisfaction as antecedent of loyalty, but luckily I managed to find one article (or is it two?) that states attitude are a better predictor than satisfaction.

3. Study on CD = identify which values are stated as the 'stay factor' and justify why I pick those values in my study (because this has been identified by users of cloth diaper in academic study). 
Possibly, I can exclude Social Value if the outcome does not state this value as being significant. Plus, the initial analysis that I run showed that this value is not significantly related to loyalty intention in my study. So one variable out, less work to do.

Chapter 3
1. Revise my research framework.
Eliminate EC / Social Value from framework. Do I need to include attitude? On the plus, it's easier to justify because I'm just adapting TPB framework, and it includes attitude. On the negative side, more analysis needs to be done.

2. Reduce my questionnaire item.
In my naivety, I've included 59 items in my questionnaire - times by 5, that means I have to have at least 345 reusable data! I really did not think about the consequences and the worst it could do to my data is people start to get impatient and simply tick the answer without really reading it through! The only good thing about this is I have overdone, which means I have more than data than I need. Since I'm targeting only 250 respondents to analyze, I have to cut down to maximum 50 items.

3. Revise my hypotheses.
This pretty much depends on my research framework.

Well, that's some of the things I have to re-do, before I can move on to Chapter 4 & 5. I have to think whether to use SEM or non-parametric test for data analysis, and if SEM is much easier, I have to tweak my data slightly to make it more or less normal (currently it's skewed to the right).


Deep breath.

I can do this. Dear God please help me.

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Saturday, February 15, 2014

Another chapter is closing.

I have exactly 2weeks before we leave KL for good.

I did not love KL initially. When I was asked to be based in KL from JB, it was a sad day for me. My first day in the city, it felt so strange, so alien. I was disoriented and homesick because I had called JB my home.

It was only because I knew deep in my heart it was time to go that I reluctantly agreed to the move.

Like now. I know without a doubt that it is time to move on.

Throughout my almost 9 years' stay in KL, I came to love the city. Many of my significant life events took place in this city.

We started our family here. Bought our first house and first car. I got pregnant and lost my first child. I gave birth to 2 lovely girls. So many memories had been made here.

Even friendships. I will miss my friends above all. My uni friends. Geng KAMIE friends. Jen. My colleagues.

No one said moving is easy, but it's particularly hard for me because I will leave the life that I have come to love behind. Starting afresh from scratch, not knowing what the future holds.

What will I do if I discovered that I don't like it there? What if hubby can't find a job there? What if I can't cope with work environment anymore and want out?

So many terrifying decisions. Yet life can't stay on pause forever. Sooner or later I have to move too. Only I hope that this move will bring better future for us.

Pray grant my prayers oh Allah. Amin.

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