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The middle of nowhere in the lap of luxury
Entry 29 of 51 | show all | print this entry |
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Tara here: Here is a little story about our travels of late and it goes like this.
While planning the next leg of their journey to Borneo, an island off Malaysia, Tara reads Lonely Planet and it says "rather than trying to fly from Singapore to Borneo, make sure to fly from Johor Bahru, a town in Malaysia only one hour from Singapore - as it is much cheaper than flying from Singapore proper". Tara looks at the Air Asia web site and finds a cheap flight from Johor Bahru to Borneo - "Super" she says. She consults with Nathan, and the two agree to fly from there to Borneo as soon as possible after Cecilia leaves for Australia. This would be 6:30 am the day following Cil's departure. Sounds good, right?
Well, the night before their flight departs they think, shoot, how much time do we need to leave Singapore, cross the border into Malaysia, and drive to the airport in Johor Bahru? Having just had a couple of close calls missing planes (see previous blog entries) they decide to leave the night before and stay at a hotel near the airport. They get a taxi in Singapore to take them into Malaysia, easily and cheaply. Once in Malaysia, they get into another taxi and say "Mr. Cab Driver, please find us a hotel near the Johor Bahru airport." Mr. Cab Driver says no problem and drives half an hour away from Johor Bahru towards the airport. "The airport is outside of town" he informs us.
We get closer to the airport and he says "Excuse me, there is only one big hotel, the Sofitel. I am not sure what other hotels there are." "Well," say we, "the Sofitel is out of our budget I'm sure - let's see what else we can find." We pull up to a fairly shady looking strip mall and Nathan goes to check out two different hotels. He comes back and says, reluctantly, "Well, I guess we'll take the first one." At this point he did plead with Tara to go to the Sofitel - but Tara said in a firm voice, "No, our flight is in 7 hours - we can handle it - how bad can it be?" Well, as it turns out, it was pretty bad.
Malaysia is famous for bed bugs and we had met travelers who had been bitten. Tara took one look at the room and cried at Nathan "How can you have brought me here? You are supposed to love me and look out for my well-being. This place is a health hazard and a dive." Nathan replied, in a similar tone, (i.e. a loud one) - "You said the Sofitel was too much money." To that Tara replied "not if it's our only option it's not!" The discussion went on for some time and got progressively louder and may have included some four letter words.
Finally, Tara uses the washroom and finds what she suspects to be a bed bug crawling on the sink. At this point she turns to Nathan and yells "GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!! TAKE ME TO THE SOFITEL!!!" And so, Nathan took Tara to the Sofitel. They checked in and ordered a wake-up call for 5:30am - but being as it was 11:40 and they were in the nicest hotel they had been at in their whole trip this was altogether heartbreaking for them. Nathan had a cold, they were both tired, grumpy and a touch homesick. The King-sized bed had a feather duvet. The hotel even had cable TV and a bath tub. Sigh. After about a one minute debate they agreed to stay an extra night and re-schedule their flights to Borneo in order to enjoy the resort. Yes, they splurged. In the light of day they discovered that the hotel was gorgeous. It had an Olympic-sized swimming pool and a recreational pool that was even bigger. The service was amazing. Even the Internet was cheap. There was a sushi restaurant. In short, they were in heaven. Yes, that's right. The ending to this story is a happy one. Nathan and Tara lived happily ever after in their Sofitel in the middle of nowhere for two days. The end.
*Note, the above is based on a true story.*
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