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The FCL incentive
trip has come and gone. The dates we picked to go? 21st to 22 June, to
Batam island. It's the first time I've ever been there, and it's a nice
place to go to for a short trip. However, it doesn't seem as safe as
(maybe)... Bangkok? The roads are really dark at night and doesn't give
you that overall 'safe' feeling. Discounting
the little 'shortfalls' that happened along the way, it was a pretty
enjoyable trip. One thing I've always reminded myself for trips to
places like these... "Give big discounts on expected services and
stuff. That way, you won't be too disappointed or critical of the
service shortfalls and you're more likely to enjoy yourself. Besides...
nobody likes a smart aleck and you've been in their shoes before.
Actually, you still are in their shoes".
Little
things did happen. The ferry left late. For whatever reason, I don't
know. Another thing to happen was that many in the group had to check
in late. We were lucky to have had our room early, Cheryl and me. Some
of the others... weren't so lucky. It was past four in the noon before
they got theirs. The reason? The hotel assumed we were going
to be there late so they gave up our room keys to an earlier group! By
the time we got there close to four in the afternoon, at least half of
the rooms weren't ready and they lost the keys to some of the rest!
Things were a bit haywire with the duty manager, staff and the tour
guides trying to pass the blame for the shortfall to the next person.
What we found out later was that the HR team came very close to telling
them (sarcastically) to let us take over the room assignments and stuff
if they couldn't cope.
After all, in this particular group of ours were
BOTH the folks from Reservations (me and the witch), Front Office,
Housekeeping, Engineering, Security, Concierge, Finance, HR... the
whole lot! Even for dinner (which was in a restaurant somewhere out
there)... we almost made it there; except that OUR bus broke down just
before we left the hotel. Broken fan belt. Thank goodness it broke down
in the driveway. The roads didn't have street lights so it was almost
pitch dark. Just imagine what would've happened if the bus had stopped
in the middle of the road! In a way, it was a good thing 'cos... I
wasn't too keen on going out for the dinner anyways. I was pretty happy
with the option we took in the end; we had dinner in the hotel, with
the HR team. They'd decided to eat in too.
One
thing about this trip, though... I was tired almost all the time! I was
asleep quite early... about 10pm or so Batam time (11pm our time). Just
after Lord of the Rings on the telly. I was so tired, it seems I was
the only one who didn't know it rained heavily at night. And even after
waking up LATER than Cheryl, I still came back to nap after breakfast.
I felt like such a pig! But... it was all worth it. It was a great trip.
For
the record, the witch was on the trip too. And I avoided her most of
the time. Still talked to her a bit when she approached (I'm not rude,
you know) but still... kept my distance. Thank gawd I'm on leave
tomorrow. One more day to sleep in, do my ironing... and brace myself
for crap I'm in for on Tuesday.
posted by Debbie Lincoln
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