If you haven’t heard, the government is pumping billions of Malaysian Ringgit into the Ministry of Tourism next year. Why the large investment into that specific account? Well, if you’ve been counting the years of celebration, next year is our 50th birthday.
Other than the Tourism Malaysia website that I think needs a new refreshing outlook, we’ve also got a cyber campaign running in conjunction with Visit Malaysia 2007. The Visit Malaysia Cyber Campaign (duh!) targets to invite the world to visit Malaysia by relying on pure Malaysian spirit to send out email invitations, e-card invitations and even SMS invitations to your friends overseas.
Since she’s coming to the big five-O, I think we local bloggers owe her a little bit more than gratitude for still being afloat. That’s why I believe our blogger spirit should be to come up with our own blogging campaign to try and help promote our dear country.
One of the easiest ways I can think of is placing one of the Visit Malaysia Cyber Campaign badges on my blog or to dedicate one entry a month about the love for my country. Be it the people, the sights, the sounds, the smells, the crime or even the politicians. Doesn’t sound too difficult so guess I’ll just give it a try. :)
Being a website enthusiast, I’d love to get some constructive criticism from everyone on the newly created Visit Malaysia Cyber Campaign. Just be honest and be yourself.
Keep things simple!
I got info for you guys to be aware! My mom and I went to Cameron Highlands from Penang on April 6th 2007 (Sunday). We stayed at the Iris House Hotel, Brinchang, Cameron Highlands. We requested upon arrival to the receptionist (an Indonesian named Siska Prima) for a 3 days 2 nights stay; and we told her that we would like to check out on April 8th 2007 (Tuesday).
We took the RM78 room. She, the receptionist then took out her calculator and calculated RM78x3 and showed us the amount to pay; RM234. That was the first cheat! It should have been RM78x2=RM156; as 3 days 2 nights, only the nights are counted, as we want to check out during the day on Tuesday. We were very tired then till we didn’t notice any of the fraud! Not even the next fraud!
My mother then paid her RM234 (wrong amount) + RM50 (deposit), with me as the only witness. She quickly then asked my mother to signed the registration forms without giving us any receipt; neither one of us checked what she wrote as we are very tired and just thinking of the nice warm bed. That was the second cheat!
On April 7th 2007 (Monday), at approx. 1.15 PM we were relaxing in our room after our excursion and shopping. Suddenly, we receive a call from the same receptionist via the room telephone, asking when will be checking out for the day. How could that be?! We both furiously went to the receptionist and confront her and stressed that we should be checking out tomorrow as we paid and requested. Confidently, she said that she only received RM78+RM50 from my mother, meaning we requested only 1 night. She denied everything we said and we had quite a fight at the receptionist counter. Even the accounts clerk cum the temporary manager (a Chinese guy wearing spectacles) supports her every point. He even said that he saw my mother only paid RM78+RM50 only, although he was so engrossed with his account work the day we checked in. What a nice teamwork of fraud!
We got so angry, and we have no choice but to leave that damned hotel. Therefore, from this experience, I would like to advice to you all not to stay at Iris House Hotel, Brinchang, Cameron Highland. So, to all, be aware!!!
Zack, I really feel for you. I’ll definitely think twice or at least read their receipt twice before paying at the Iris House Hotel.
I hope you brought this up in the VMCC forum as well. :)
Cheers.
p/s: Thanks for dropping by.