Our last night in Bali - Matahari Guest House

Because of all the work-related travel, I'd hesitated buying our return tickets from Bali back to SG till the very last minute. With the price of the tickets being therefore exponentially more expensive, I bought the cheapest tickets on the day we had to come back, which meant a 9am flight.

 

Since being a SPG gold member meant that we could get a late checkout from our very nice hotel the day before, I decided to find 1 of the cheapest possible lodgings to spend our last night in Bali (Tune Hotel was fully booked). The reviews of Matahari Guest House on Agoda (about SGD48) were pretty mixed so we decided to bite the bullet and give MGH a go.

Now, getting to the hotel is a story in itself. We made the mistake of hailing a cab from DFS about 7pm and going by meter instead of agreeing on a fixed fare. The traffic towards Kuta was just simply awful at that hour, the kind that makes you want to get out of your car and walk because traffic wasn't moving. And that is what we did when we were one street away - thankfully we both were travelling light without any check-in luggage.

The receptionist at MGH spoke some basic English but despite me producing the Agoda voucher, she claimed that there was no reservation under my name. She asked me if I was Fifi twice. I said no, and she asked me then if I was some other person which I really couldn't be, even if I tried. Anyway, despite not locating the reservation, she showed us to a room on the 2nd floor (all stairs, no lift) which she said was a deluxe room as I'd booked.

I'm sorry I don't have pictures of the room - I think I was too tired from all the walking to the hotel to whip out the camera. But it was clean and decently sized. No toiletries of course, and no cupboard to hang up clothes (just a basic clothes rack on the wall), It definitely isn't a place to stay for too long or to stay in during the day - it is, all in all, a good base to shower and crash after being out the whole day for day tours. There is a "restaurant" within walking distance from the guest house called Satsuma which sells basic Jap food. And I mean really basic as in no sushi or sashimi, just ramen and rice dishes.

Anyway, because we were starving from the long walk to the hotel, we were easily lured in to Satsuma by the pictures and promise of bowls of steaming tasty ramen. Well, the ramen took some time coming, and while it was steaming, it certainly was not tasty - more like instant noodles cooked in some weak gravy. This eatery while decent, is not a must-eat-at in Bali, esp if one is there for a limited amount of time.

We walked to Kartika Discovery Mall after dinner (a 10-15min slow walk) and with Mark and Spencers, Top Shop etc as some of the Mall's tenants, I think this has to be 1 of the larger malls in Bali if one is to do some shopping. After dinner, we walked back to MGH where I spent the remainder of the night hearing the phrase "We are going to crush them" said in a menacing tone at least 102 times while my CEB played his iphone game, oblivious to his wife's misery in the stark room.

We checked out about 6am the next day and while the staff at the counter took ages (to the extent that we just walked off after 7 mins of just standing there and waiting), there wasn't any problem with the checking out process at MGH (and how could there be if there was nothing worth taking from the room which had no fridge/mini-bar, safe or even hairdryer).

My CEB absolutely became my hero when he took me into the airport lounge with his premier card and we had a really nice breakfast of eggs, noodles and croissants before our flight out back home to Singapore.

Le Meridien Hotel at KL

Less than a week after coming back from Joburg to be with my CEB, it was time to travel for work again. There was a difference this time though - my CEB decided to pack his bags and join me. Firstly because the plane journey was an hour only (as compared to more than 10hrs for Joburg) and secondly because this biz trip spanned the weekend.

I chose to stay at Le Meridien Hotel this time instead of The Westin again, and the long short of the experience is that despite the not-too-fabulous experience at The Westin the last time, I would still pick The Westin over Le Meridien for my next business trip. Although I was upgraded to a premier room with a stunning view per the picture below, the long short is that Le Meridien is a far less luxurious hotel than its sister hotel.

For starters, my corner premier room (and corners are supposed to be bigger no?) looked like this below - cozy and clean at best but nothing spacious or fancy like the deluxe room at The Westin.

The bathroom was not too bad though - one could double soak - soak in the bath tub and soak in the stunning view with a beer in hand. Toiletries provided were decent but not the kind that one would to take back home.

My CEB being the more easy going of us two was happy enough with Le Meridien because of its decent enough room and location. Being connected to KL Sentral (via the taxi area of the top most floor of KL Sentral building) means that it is really easy to get about KL if one is dependent on public transport. It cost just RM13 for us to take a cab from KL Sentral to Bukit Bintang (one has to buy a ticket at the budget taxi counter at Bukt Bintang), and less than RM2 each to take a train from KL Sentral to KLCC. There is also the option of walking about 10mins to the LRT station from KL Sentral to take the LRT around the Bukit Bintang area.

My CEB left earlier than I did and when I got back a couple of days later, there he was at the airport with a box of durian puffs in hand.I have to admit that I was very surprised - my CEB has always been rather against my eating durians because my voracious consumption ("once start can't stop") of the said fruit had been giving me nosebleeds. Since it couldn't be the case that my CEB wanted his (insert pet name) to keel over early, I figured out that it was my CEB's way of showing me some love :) As I said, he is King Unromantic, so little gestures like this one are all the more meaningful.

The Westin KL

Ever since being upgraded to a suite and clubroom a couple of times (@ Indianapolis and Sheraton Imperial KL) because of my SPG gold membership, I had assumed that I would be upgraded from the deluxe city view room I had booked with The Westin KL.

However, I was informed at the front desk that the next category of rooms - premier rooms - were all fully booked if I wanted a king-sized bed and since nothing beats a large comfy bed when travelling for work, I decided to accept what I had booked, which looked comfortable enough with a nice passage way and spacious room.

However, beyond those windows which had sunlight streaming in (it was about noon when I went up to dump my bags before heading off for another meeting), lay a sight that had me calling room service and asking for the upgrade.

This. A hideous large apartment block right opposite the window. Normally I wouldn't care too much about the view outside the windows because I keep the curtains drawn but I guess I wasn't quite prepared to have to endure this large monstrosity while paying good $ to stay here.

So, when the doorbell rang, I went with 1 of the staff to the premier room which had 2 twin beds and looked exactly similar to the deluxe room I had just left. Except that it was on a slightly higher floor (4 floors up with a common concourse to the other premier/lounge level rooms). I thought that the view would be much better but sadly, it wasn't. Instead, the huge monstrosity was still visible from the windows (although slightly to the left this time). So I lugged everything back down again to the deluxe room which had at least, a big comfy bed. I assure you, everything was exactly the same, even the bathroom.

And the complimentary amenities provided at the mini-bar. Now, I have to confess that this is the first time that I've been in a 4-5 stars hotel that has a box of condoms amongst the snacks. 4 Points by Sheraton in Bangkok also had a box which makes me wonder whether it is just the SPG hotels in the Asia Pac that provide these (the hotel in Indianapolis certainly didn't).

Anyway, disgruntled with the lack of upgrade, ugly view, I decided to go to the club lounge and use the internet instead of using the free wifi in the lobby. I probably could have charged the internet access to my room because I was using it strictly for work (an urgent email) but I figured that I wasn't going to have my company pay this hotel a dime more. So up to the club lounge I went and they did ask for my room number which I gave them but they didn't say very much when I told them I just needed to send an email.

Now, maybe it was the hour which I went up the lounge (about 2pm) but it was relatively empty and other than some cookies and 3 types of juices, it was a far cry from the club lounge of the hotel I had stayed in the night before. The problem sometimes about living too well is that it is relatively hard to adjust to something less, especially when the price difference is just SGD40. Anyway, I had problems accessing the hotel wifi on my computer laptop which had them send up an IT staff who confessed to me it was his second day on the job and he couldn't fix the problem. So I asked to use the 1 available computer in the lounge to send my email but it turned out that the computer was busted. The one other computer was occupied by another guest.

And the view from the club lounge isn't that great either. Even the view of the twin towers is a partial one. The Slog Reviews: 7/10. Other than its great location just opposite the mega upscale shopping mall, Pavilion, the friendly and helpful staff, there is nothing to crow about the experience I had with The Westin KL. And given the number of hotels in KL, I am not likely to ever choose this hotel again when I return to the city for work. With just a handful of stays left to maintain my SPG gold membership, I would rather stay slightly away from the malls at Sheraton Imperial where I had a much more pleasant experience before. Or Marriott which is one of my company's preferred hotels.

A getaway at Four Points by Sheraton (BKK)

Easy to tell where I've just returned from yesterday, given the latest addition to my new collection of fridge magnets, a collection inspired by the great experience I had at the Hard Rock Cafe in Indianapolis this year.

I would agree with the lot of you that going for a short holiday ThisClose to the wedding with so much left undone isn't the wisest thing. However, because of all the travelling the past 2 months, these dates were the only ones we both could work with. And in the end, the trip turned out to be one which we both felt was much needed - loads of rest and quality time together! Having a very comfortable room with a nice big bathtub helped to set the atmosphere. Despite having stayed in far more expensive places like The Datai, my CEB proclaimed this hotel to be as good as the first hotel we'd stayed together as a couple (Hyatt in Hongkong) - an apt and fitting ending to our journey together as bf and gf.

After travelling with my CEB quite a bit, I knew better than not to book breakfast at the hotel - my CEB's idea of a good hotel includes somehow, the quality of the breakfast, and 4 Points didn't disappoint. There was a wide spread consisting of porridge, noodles, salad, fruits, noodles, rice and many other hot dishes. The food wasn't anything to shout about but it provided a satisfying filling breakfast.

The Slog Reviews: I would rate our 4 day stay at 4 Points in Bangkok an 8 out of 10. Location was pretty alright - a 7 mins walk from Asok station with its sister SPG hotels like The Westin and Sheraton being much closer. I wasn't wowed by the rooms, breakfast or service (and I hope it isn't because I'm becoming a jaded traveler) but I believe these were more than decent. There are a couple of places to get a drink at the hotel - the lounge on the first floor or the sky bar on the 8th floor (rooftop) where the rather smallish pool is located.

Other than lazing in the very comfortable bed the whole morning, we spent the rest of the time walking around, shopping and eating. MK, a local chain of restaurants was the first restaurant we went to and my CEB loved the food there, in particular the mixed meat dish which was all of about SGD 5 for a small portion. Talk about cheap and good.

We were also enticed by the aroma wafting from the other tables to try out the steamboat at MK, something which I had never done despite being here numerous times (the heat and humidity in Bangkok pretty much puts one off from having a steamboat meal). I think there must have been loads of seasoning in the soup because I ended up drinking loads of soap and eating almost everything in the platter (cost of which was about SGD12).

Of course, Fuji which I'd written about briefly before was not to be missed. My CEB and I had been to the one at Phuket, and the quality of the food and the local crowds at each Fuji outlet was pretty much consistent. I suppose it is because the food is very reasonably priced but that being said, there are loads of Japanese restaurants in Thailand, in particular at Central World near Isetan which all appear pretty attractive as well. Then again, one follows the crowd and the crowd is found at Fuji.

We also took a cab (a horror story as to be expected) to Chinatown to satisfy my craving for fish in lime soup - talk about sour heaven. My CEB and I also shared a plate grilled river prawns (about SGD 12) and a large bowl of sharkfin soup (SGD20) at T&K restaurant (just next to the famous Nam Sing restaurant). By the time we finished the meal, his mood was pretty much restored and we ended up walking around Chinatown and buying some snacks for the folks back home. There were many durian stalls around the area but he kept to his promise and stopped me from buying any. Bah.

We did some shopping (of course!) and to my surprise (he always claimed that buayas were ugly), my CEB picked up this creature at Central and insisted on buying the same for me.

On hindsight, I think it was more for the boy inside of him than for me. 

Flying to Indy and Sheraton Indianapolis City Center Hotel

After 15 hours, my flight from SG to LA touched down at LAX. Although I had 2 connecting flights to my final destination, Indianapolis, I had to go through customs and get my luggage bag off the conveyor belt because LA was my port of entry. I took about an hr to clear customs which is considered relatively fast - there was a lady who had a connecting flight in half an hour to San Fran and she had to ask the pp around if they would let her go ahead. That is the reason why I prefer having as few connecting flights as possible when travelling - either one cuts it too close or one ends up sitting around in transit.

In any case, because all the flights from SG to NY were full that weekend, I had a 5 hour wait in LA before my 3 hour flight to O'Hare airport (Chicago) at 11pm. And that red-eye flight was full and perhaps overbooked because the airlines made a couple of announcements asking if anyone was prepared to give up their seat on this flight for a seat on the next flight out in the morning in exchange for cash vouchers and a free hotel stay.

After touching down in O'Hare about 5 in the morning, I had another hour's wait before my flight to Indy, by which time I had finished watching all the cartoons on the ipod touch and was feeling dirty, gritty-eyed and tired from all the transits and flights. In fact, I felt so lousy I swore that I would not fly out any more to Indy unless compelled to do so. However, just like there is a silver lining to every dark cloud, I got to see a really impressive sight from the airplane's window - the lights of Chicago taken from the plane - pretty impressive, isn't it?

After an hour or so up in the air, I reached my final destination. Finally. Indy's airport is large, spanking new, clean and spacious with quite a number of shops, a pleasant contrast to the tired-looking terminals at LAX.

My boss told me that downtown Indy is built outwards from the town's circle center, the very center of which is erected this very tall sculpture.

1 of the largest shopping malls in downtown Indy is the Circle Center Mall - it has my favorite shops like Bath&Body Works, Coach, Victoria Secret and 2 departmental stores - Nordstrom and Carrie Pine Scott. The former store carries high-end goods (including more Coach stuff) while the latter is a bargain-hunter's dream come true. I kid you not - I managed to get a CK suit for just USD40, 70% off its original price. As there was a firefighters' convention that week, most of the hotels in downtown Indy were fully booked. Fortunately, I managed to secure a room at the hotel of my choice: Sheraton City Center Hotel for 3 of the 4 nights I was in Indy. The reason for choosing this hotel was because it was a stone's throw to my offices and I could walk there easily every day instead of depending on public transport. Also, because I have the SPG gold card, I get a complimentary upgrade if a better room is available. This time around, I was upgraded to a suite on the 15th floor. Above and below are some pictures of the room - the suite was large enough that it made me regret not having any travelling companions with me to enjoy the place. There was a separate living room and even a mini-kitchenette area! However, the best bit about the suite was the plushy bed in the bedroom stacked with 4 pillows.

I didn't take any pictures of the bathroom which was rather smallish (but had a tub) but only of the rather spacious bedroom. Although the colors of the carpet and curtain leave much to be desired (dark blue which had a dirty cramping effect), having a couple of 40 inch TVs in the living room and the bedroom, as well as a work desk made me feel that I could live in the hotel room quite happily for a month or more.

The Slog Reviews: 7.5/10. There are many good hotels in downtown Indy like Conrad, Hyatt and Marriott which are more centrally located (connected to the shopping mall and convention center) and probably able to give Sheraton City Center hotel a good run for its money. This hotel does not have free broadband and wifi is only available in the lobby area. The elevators are spacious enough and run very quickly between floors but the color scheme of the hotel makes one feel as if it were rather run-down. It is a decent place to stay all in all though with a convenience store around the corner and a bus stop (IndyGo from the airport stops there) right in front of the hotel.

11 @ Century Hotel in JB

I should have taken a picture of the hotel building and will do so the next time I have a chance but in case I don't get to update this post with a picture, I'll start by describing the building as a tall (10 floors) grey vertical building just behind a Chinese restaurant called Eastern Dragon at Taman Century. There is pretty limited parking available at the front of the hotel so one can always ask the security guard to direct one to park at the basement carpark.

In any case, one thing I really like about this hotel is that the counter staff are fluent in English and very efficient for both the check-in and check-out process. A deposit of just RM50 is required during check-in but be warned that the 2 lifts which service the rooms can be quite slow and one needs to press the individual lift lobby buttons for each lift.

The superior room is decently-sized and is relatively comfortable with a 32inch LCD (which has Star Movies but no HBO or other movie channels). There is also free wifi available in the rooms and that requires a password from the counter staff. The room also comes with a safe, hot water facilities and very basic toiletries. Be warned that the bed sheets may be slightly dirty but just slightly...

Now, I have to clarify that we booked this hotel because of its location, and also because we were not going to spend much time in the hotel room at all - less than 8 hours and just for crashing for the night. Hence, I can't comment on its facilities except for the breakfast (which came with the package) which was pretty good value for money just like the room at just SGD62 for the room and breakfast for 2. This is our second time at the hotel and there always seem to be policemen or some officers having the buffet breakfast served at the spacious and clean lobby. When I talked about good location, I was referring to the hotel being just a 2 min short walk to the newly opened shopping center called KSL. KSL has a nice large cineplex and quite a number of established eateries like Tang Shifu, Kim Gary etc. There appears to be a hotel opening soon within the complex and I suspect that hotel will give 11 @ Century a serious run for its money. However, if one is used to the shops found in Singapore like Topshop, Warehouse, Bebe etc, one will not find these in KSL which appears to house mostly local homegrown brands.

The Slog Reviews: 8/10 - definitely not luxurious, and not a place for a weekend getaway/place to chill but value for money indeed.

Hotel D'99 at Muar

A couple of weeks back, I was hit by a really bad craving for fried fish eggs from my favourite restaurant at Muar and so we decided to spend the weekend at Muar with the intention of popping by Melaka. As this was a January weekend, I figured that my favourite hotel in Muar -Streetview Hotel - would have rooms available and didn't bother making any reservations. Unfortunately, I was proved wrong when we tried to get a room about 12+pm and so my CEB suggested that we try one of the hotels that we had driven past called Hotel D'99. Here is a pic of the hotel he took while we were driving back across the bridge from the Giant hypermart.

This hotel is a far different cry from the boutique smallish type of hotel like Streetview Hotel as evidenced by the size of its lobby. The Chinese male receptionist was very fluent in English and most efficient during the check-in process. We were of course delighted that the price of the room was more than affordable at RM113 inclusive of breakfast.

Here is a picture of the room with its queen-sized bed and extremely basic furnishing. There is a safe in the clothes cabinet, a mini-fridge, a water dispenser and a small lcd tv that comes with cable TV. All of these in the room work just fine but the flush of the W.C in the toilet was spoilt.

I wanted to change rooms but my CEB was in favour of staying in the current room because of the river view from the windows per the picture below. The bridge in the pic across the river is the bridge which leads to the highway (Highway 5 and not the NS highway where one has to pay toll) to Melaka. I conceded to him only because he could flush the W.C by pulling something within the system beneath the lid. Like he says, Msia hotels are usually pretty ill-maintained.

Breakfast was on the first floor of the hotel and no surprise what the spread (which was decent enough given the price paid) consisted of - nasi lemak. I suppose this is to cater to the large number of Malay guests staying at the hotel which we had originally assumed was catering to the Chinese crowd because of the KTV/lounge/bar on its 7th floor.

For dinner, we ended up at the Delifrance restaurant in the same building as the hotel. This is the first and only Delifrance Bistro in Johor and it has a surprisingly wide variety of items on its menu ranging from soups to ice-creams. That is my CEB(on his iphone as always) with the Delifrance trademark logo behind him and 1 of their ice-blended drinks in front of him

We both each had a bowl of the lobster bisque which was priced at RM9.90 and let me tell ya, ya can't get lobster bisque soup this good at less than SGD5 per bowl anywhere in Singapore. Although it didn't have that much meat, it was warm, creamy and most satisfying.

I have been on a croissant binge recently and compared to the SGD6.90 I paid for the same croissant from Delifrance across my office, the croissant below only cost RM9.90. However, the chicken did not taste like chicken but more like tuna. The Slog Reviews: 7/10.

My CEB did better than I did with his cheesy baked seafood rice which looked and tasted pretty good.

My CEB and I concurred that Hotel D'99 is a viable alternative to staying at Streetview Hotel so if one is en route to Melaka and needs a place to crash for the night, one can swing by Hotel D'99 at No 173 Jln Abdullah 84000, Muar.

Euro Rich Hotel @ Bukit Indah

Pariss Hotel was fully booked during the December school holidays so we decided to try Euro Rich Hotel for one of our weekend getaways. According to Agoda which I usually use to make hotel reservations, the room I booked was the last room available for that Dec weekend. So, while I thought we were lucky to get a room, I had my doubts if that was really the last room. Well, when we checked in, we were told that indeed it was the last room. However, the room wasn't ready so we waited at the hotel lobby which was very simply done up as a waiting area without provision for refreshments to be purchased ie no bar/restaurant/cafe at all.

After we had lugged our bags up the large flight of stairs to the second floor (the hotel has a total of 3 floors with the rooms occupying the 2nd and 3rd level) and to our allocated room, we were rather dismayed to find that the room was not only windowless but tasteless and tiny. The Slog Reviews: 2/10. Don't ever book a night's stay at Euro Rich Hotel. Pariss Hotel in the same area is just SGD15-20 more and is like, a million times better (as I'd reviewed earlier). Euro Rich Hotel is not within walking distance of the hypermarts (it is located amongst shophouses which have nothing very much) and the cramped rooms are dismal without windows. The design of the bathroom is ridiculous with a shower head placed in between the toilet bowl and the sink. If one takes a bath, it means the toilet seat and the basin area where one's toiletries are laid out would get wet. The whole affair is just horrid and the rating of 2 is for the lcd tv which has cable tv. This is definitely more like a low end motel than a hotel. The layout it such as to maximise the most number of rooms that would fit in the building and without consideration of aesthetics. Not a good place to spend one's time. Ugh.

Golden Sands Resort @ Penang

Per my last post on Traders Hotel @ Penang, there is a daily free shuttle service to their sister hotel located at Batu Ferringhi which is essentially, Penang's most famous beach. The trip takes about 30-40mins and is almost always full so do remember to make reservations at the hotel concierge. I think the reason is that the room rates at Golden Sands Resort are twice that of Traders Hotel and most of the shops along Batu Ferringhi are closed in the day. However, as the well-known Chinese saying goes "Yi Fen Qian, Yi Fen Hou" ie what you pay is what you get and Golden Sands appears to be a far nicer place to stay at than Traders. Esp so if one likes the resort-style type of hotel, and if one has a family with small children. The grounds and concept of the hotel is much like Singapore's Rasa Sentosa as you will see from the pics.

The pools here are really lovely and family-friendly. It's all very nice really - right from the reception area to the paths down to the pool and then further on to the rather clean and well-kept stretch of beach. I took the picture below standing on the beach and I bet you'll agree with me that the resemblance to our Rasa Sentosa is undeniable! The picture also shows the famed Penang restaurant called Sigi's which opens right to the beach. Mum and I are not fans of alfresco dining given the stifling heat and murderous sun rays but the view from the outdoor tables at Sigi's was simply far too lovely to resist. So sat outside we did taking in the view of tall coconut trees, white sands and blue seas. And it wasn't hot because they turned on the ceiling fan and there was the cool fresh ocean breeze. Ah bliss!

Sigi's has a lunch time menu which means that plenty of items are not available in the day, in particular seafood like scallops and all.

If you know me, I'm allergic to chicken because it triggers my anger mgt issues (okay, I know how lame that sounds but it's better than not having an answer when questioned about this alleged allergy). However, my mum likes chicken so I decided to surprise her. The Slog Reviews: 8.5/10. The cook did such a great job of tenderising the chicken meat that my mum thought it was fish meat (as I didn't tell her I'd ordered the chicken). And with the melted cheese which lends a very nice twang to the meat, even I who hate chicken would recommend this dish to a friend! Definitely do not miss eating at Sigi's if you are at Batu Ferringhi!

We stumbled upon this on the hotel's grounds, as I said, this is a very family-oriented hotel and there are no lack of activities for one to engage in and at pretty affordable prices too! Traders Hotel's guests are entitled to use the facilities here as well free of charge but not the facilities at the Rasa Shangrila Hotel located next door. If Golden Sands is this impressive (for Penangs' standards), I wonder how good Penang's Shang is given the rates are double Golden Sand's! The sign above isn't to be taken lightly - there ARE jellyfish in the seas. However, the water sports like para sailing, jet skiing are so affordably priced that it would be a pity to miss these while holidaying at Golden Sands. There is also a reflexology/massage shop by the beach. Here is a picture of the Batu Ferringhi beach taken from Golden Sands' grounds. In the short time we were there, there were at least 3 brightly colored para sailing folks up in the air! I wish we had brought our swim suits because even my mum was tempted to go para-sailing. She has been a really good sport recently, having gone white water rafting in Australia with us just a few months back and I reckon I will bring good old mama for some para-sailing some day!

Traders Hotel @ Penang

For our mother-daughter trip to Penang, the choice of hotel was easy - Traders Hotel. Not only because of its superb location but also cos one should not bring one's mama to stay at digs less than decent. In any case, I figured I could use my Golden Circle membership which I'd acquired in 2008 staying at HongKong's Shang when travelling for work. The orangy card is my membership card and the reddish card is the special room keycard given to GC members only. And guess what, it does nothing more than an ordinary room keycard - bah.

Given that we were in Penang so near to the festive Chinese New Year period, the hotel lobby was decorated (rather garishly I felt) with lots of red. I'm not sure how the hotel lobby looks like on an ordinary day but I would think it doesn't quite look like tt with lots of dragons & lanterns.

No luck for a free upgrade to a club room despite the GC membership so a deluxe room (as I'd booked) on the 12th floor it was. I know that this isn't the Shang (although before it was re-named Traders it was called Shangrila) but I was quite surprised that this hotel was quite so old and old-fashioned. I didn't like the corridors of the 12th floor which were dark with thread-bare carpets and as for the room, well, how many hotel rooms these days still have CRT TVs! Even budget hotels have LCD TVs. And don't get me started on the limited cable channels. There was complimentary broadband service but no free wifi. The only thing I really dug about were the beds and beddings which were so plushy - it was so easy to fall sound asleep and a real struggle to get out of 'em in the morning.

We had a view of the city from our room - a view that reminded us of the blazing sun and merciless heat outside. According to a local, it hadn't rained for a month and this is the monsoon season we are talking about!

We didn't use any of the hotel facilities such as the pool but we had dinner at Island Cafe. The prices of the food are ridiculously cheap, esp for a Shang group hotel - RM25 nett for a large steaming pot of salmon fish head curry. The Slog Reviews: 7.5/10. Spicy definitely (esp if you eat the chilli in the pot) and more than enough meat for 2 adults to share because an entire fish head was used. However, sweet pink salmon meat doesn't really go so well with curry (or maybe I'm not used to that) so this dish isn't a must-try.

Now, when I say superb location of the hotel, I meant the hotel's accessibility to one of the bigger shopping malls in Penang - Pranglin Mall which spans two atriums. It has a Parkson at one of the atriums as well as a Giant supermarket, Watsons, Guardian and all sorts of local clothes and shoes shops. Nothing high street like Mng, Zara much less, Bebe or LV. There is also a cinema on the top floor of Pranglin Mall.

And right next to Pranglin Mall is the new shopping centre called First Avenue. It appears to be very new with a (not-yet-opened) covered linkway to Traders Hotel. There is supposed to be a supermarket here but it isn't opened and the shops look slightly higher-end (there is supposed to be a Coach store soon) but that remains to be seen as the place isn't fully tenanted.

The Slog Reviews: I'll rate a stay at Traders Hotel Penang 8/10. While you should not expect to be blown away or even the least bit impressed with the rooms or the state of the hotel because of its Shang branding, the location (shopping) and accessibility (not just to public transport but to all the famous eating places at Jln Penang / Jln Burma) makes it a viable hotel option. There is also a free daily (11.30, 2.30 and 4.30pm)shuttle bus ride to and fro Golden Sands Resort (also under the Shang group) which one has to register for early due to the limited seats (lots of Japanese tourists stay at Traders and use this facility).

Because Traders Hotel is right next to Komtar, one can take the public bus 401E from the airport to Komtar and walk the 2min walk to the hotel. The bus ride costs only RM2 per pax as opposed to taking a taxi from the airport to Komtar at RM44+. However, I should mention here that I had waited 45mins at Komtar for the 401E to get to the airport on the last day and it never showed - the taxi driver we used in the end mentioned that there is only one bus and well, if that bus gets stuck in the a traffic jam (which Penang is famous for) or breaks down, one could wait a really really long time...like more than an hour!