So we went to this place called Puncak. Recommended by a fellow partner of my husband's company.
We were worn out before the trip. We had 3 birthday celebrations & we also had a cold the whole time. Pushing ourselves through the parties & very little sleep may have a lot to do with why we were worn out. ;)
Anyway, the last guests left at 3:30am. We had Saturday to rest a little but with two babies, of course I was busy making sure that we have everything they need. Us adults are the least priority. Our stuff was packed last.
So at 8am, we left home heading for the airport. We took Tiger Airways & with two kids in tow, they decided to put us on the very last seat. It was tough with two little babies on our laps & needing more space than ever, we were squeezed tight when the person in front of us decided to recline since our seats are not able to recline back.
Thank god it was a mere 1hr 40 min flight. By the time we touched down, my cold became worse. I started to have a temperature.
Upon reaching to the baggage claim area, we were tauted by young men in uniforms begging us to choose them with our luggages. We would have pay them of course. I declined politely even though I was so ill by then.
We took our luggages & left the premises, met our driver & was led to our car -again we were ambushed by people simply coming to us, grabbed our luggages, threw it into our car & demanded for money. I was astounded. I didn't even ask for that service. When we wanted to pay - they were all arguing that they were the ones who helped us.
My son cried from all the commotion. The driver did nothing to help us. That was enough for me to just threw some money into the air & slammed the door shut. That was when the song "shut up & drive" would have been good!
We drove 3 hours (due to heavy Sunday traffic) to Puncak. The kids were getting tired & my head was thumping. I asked the driver to stop for lunch. He said yes but made no sign of stopping at all. I got upset. I needed to have some painkillers badly but I need food in my tummy first.
We finally dropped by a crappy Japanese stall. The food was not really Japanese but because I sort of expected that, it was fine. We continued our journey to the hotel.
If I was 18, I would asked to stop in the beginning of the road & explore the local life there. Every bit of it was interesting! But with two kids in tow, we have to do something simpler. The kids would find it too boring for them.
The hotel has three buildings. We went to the first one, then led to the third one & finally led shown to the second where they have rooms for family.
In my opinion, the concept of this hotel is excellent. It's beautiful & it reflects everything Indonesian. Every inch has been engraved to remind you that you are currently in Indonesia. The landscaping is incredible & they do have lots of fountains! That's for sure
The rooms are spacious & nicely decorated. The view was incredible . What's lacking was the maintenance of this whole complex. You can see that it hasn't been thoroughly cleaned or rather they do not take cleanliness seriously.
The bedsheets smelled like this room has been vacant for 6 days. There were ants crawling all over the bedsheets. Possibly even nesting among the bedsheets, who knows. When we walked around the complex there seemed to be ants everywhere. It's rampant here. The towels smelled like as if it was hung over the smoking area. The bathrooms are clean yet the "old" feeling come into my mind. It must have been around for a while.
There is no wifi even though they boasted the password at the reception area. if Internet is required, we would have to go to the restaurant or the reception area.
This is probably the only hotel where we had to pay extra for a cot! While we usually need two cots, we paid for one & tried to make do with my oldest child to sleep on the single bed.
Ahh, that's the other thing. My two year has a reputation of moving all over the bed & too often she fell off the bed. So to make do with the single bed we have (and which we already paid for), we pulled the mattress to the floor so that she would be sleeping between two single bed. The chances of falling is reduced to nothing.
Anyway, we got back from breakfast & they cleaners were in our room in the midst of carrying the mattress back to the bed. I told them to leave it there since my daughter would have her afternoon nap there anyway. They pointed to me to a sign that they would have to charge me 150,000 rupiah for taking it down. I was like "it was on the floor. I was just telling you to leave it there."
They just gave me a blank face & again pointed at the sign. I gave up. I told them not to do anything. My husband will put it back WITHOUT CHARGE.
The other disturbing thing was that, for such a lavish resort, their restaurant serves cheap quality food & food which was really not to even faint for! It was rather embarrassing. I mean Thailand boast their fantastic cuisine & wow were they good. Somehow this hotel, apart from having all signs in bahasa, also have their menu all in bahasa. I'm lucky to have my maid to do the translation since she is Indonesian. But what about everyone else?
The doors & walls were also very thin. The noise level from the road outside & from people talking at the corridors were so disturbing that the children woke up from them.
So yes it's a nice getaway for a bit & it's a beautiful place but no .... I can't simply recommend this place to my friends. I wouldn't do justice to them.
Upon checking out, they told my husband that they noticed that the mattress from the single bed was pulled down to the floor. We explained the situation with our two year old. At first they claimed that any pulled down done by the staff has to be charged. Of course, everything there is about money. When told that my husband did it himself, they changed the rule to - every pull down needs to be charge because the staff had to put it up on the bed.
My husband explained that the mattress was placed back up ourselves & the only reason why it was on the floor was due to safety reason. They then changed the rule to - any pull down needs to be charged. The rules were changed 3 times in one conversation.
It was so ridiculous that it was laughable! We paid for the hotel but as much as they argued about it, we told them we wouldn't pay for the mattress issue. No other hotel has such a law! Although they claimed that it was a standard law in every hotel - did they really think this was our first time out of our country??
Right! Never again. It's really sad that a nice place like that wasn't maintained well to boast their initial lavish reputation.
Oh well ... it's good that that's all over. Now I need a real holiday! ;)
