Delhi Belli Strikes Again

Not much happening as I've been struck down with the dreaded Delhi Belly (& it's not fun) !

We leave Delhi on Sunday for Mumbai then basically I have a month to settle in there & I'm off again to Malaysia & Australia.

Um, Nature calls (AGAIN).

Here are pics of today's excursion...

Travelling Around

I've been busy travelling around for the past week, my itinerary has been something like this; Penang, K.L, Phnom Penh, K.L, New Delhi.

So after a terrible flight with M.A.S & equally bad check in experience at Crowne Plaza, Gurgoan we are currently in ND, India - Land of the power outage, I swear power cuts happen at least 10 times daily here ! I'm used to living in hardship locations & so far the power outages here have been the worst I've experienced in a long time.

G.M is back at work on Monday, Initially at head office for 2 weeks then its off to Mumbai for a pre opening position at a new build hotel which is scheduled to open mid 2009.

Only good thing about the move is we finally get to live in a house again rather than a Hotel/Resort. I've been living in Hotels for almost 3 years now, I'm looking forward to being inconspicuous again & maybe even buying a little doggy or kitten.

Here are some pics from the killing fields, Cambodia. Not a particularly pleasant place to visit hence the grumpy look on my face.

On The Move ... Again

GM finished his posting here yesterday, So is now officially in between jobs.

Our visa applications for India are currently being processed & should be ready & in hand by this time next week.

As soon as we get our passports back I want to head off to Phnom Pehn, I've been to Siem Reap twice but never Phnom Pehn. I can only manage 3 days or so before we head off to New Delhi but regardless it'll be better than sitting around here.

And 6 in laws have turned up today to impose (oh joy!!)

Duty Manager Report,

0230 hours - Czech Republic Dragon Boat team was drunk and making noise at the beach front. Some of them was naked. I had informed group leader to advised
his team members to be well behave and stop making noise as it will cause other guest complaint.

0300 hours - 2 guest from the same group swimming at pool and *** had chased them out.

at least some one is having fun here.

Long Time No Post,

They say if you can't say anything nice, Don't say anything at all.

That's how things are at the moment.

GM has been pissed off with the delays with his transfer & the way the news was broken to us.

It's peak season and being an Islamic country the majority of the tourists are from the UAE. No one seems to like them much, the beach boys have gotten into fights with them, as have the fishermen. Every day the Arabs report a "stolen" mobile phones (always from a public area). When the guest is invited to view CCTV footage they quickly back down and suddenly the phone re appears. They pull all sorts of stunts to try & get discounts but writing about them will just piss me off.

We had a security guard take our car out the other day, He was on suspension for a week pending the outcome of the investigation, Then terminated.

He is trying to take the Hotel to court for unfair dismissal, Little does he realise we have CCTV footage catching him in the act & GM likes to make an example out of these clowns so is prepared to hire a lawyer & fight the case rather than pay the hush money to make it go away as is usually what these idiots ask for (its generally about half what the legal fee's will add up to hence from a business perspective its usually cheaper to pay up, extortion at its finest.)

Anyway on the bright side: Last day is 15th August, then a week off, will probably go to Batam, Bali or Singapore for some R&R. Then off to Delhi then Mumbai on the 1st September.

Blame The President

The new GM was set to start here on the 28th July,

I've been plodding away at my charity thing trying to get that set up & running, ready to hand over by the time we are set to depart, At the close of June hubby was pleased that he wouldn't have to do any more month end reporting for the Hotel as "the new GM is coming in".

Well yesterday the New GM was chatting to Hubby, She casually advised her start date was in fact mid August, not the end of July as we understood it to be.

Hubby informed her that, the new date was news to him & asked if the date was 100% confirmed.

She replied "Not Sure, I haven't even received my contract yet"

Great, so fuming hubby sent a curt email to head office, 5 mins later receives a quick call from HR to say "Received the email, will call with details in 40 mins"

Pissed off Hubby switches off phone.

Fast forward to this morning, after a lot of ass kissing on HR's side and a few phone calls.

Turns out, YES indeed New GM's start date is delayed by approximately 2 weeks.

Why? New GM currently holds the position of 2IC at a sister property in Thailand, The Pres (yup, Bush himself) has decided to stay at that Hotel during an impending trip to Thailand, So it's all hands on deck there in preparation for his arrival !

I questioned why The Pres & his crew wanted to stay at that particular Hotel, I was curious as it's doesn't have a 5 star rating & I personally like to stay at the Shangri-la when I'm out that way. Seems that secret service was out on a recon mission recently and this particular hotel is the only one that meets security requirements & has an approved escape route i.e The hotel sits at an intersection so if the proverbial hits the fan and Pressy needs to abscond he can have 4 different escape routes as opposed to possibly being stuck in one way traffic if he stays at the other hotel.

Oh well, 35 days to go & counting ....

Finally some gossip

We are approaching peak season at the hotel & business has really picked up in the last month.

One thing has also become apparent in the last 2 weeks, We have a thief in our midst.

On 2 occasions guests returned to their rooms to find cash & valuables missing, This kind of thing in NOT TOLERATED at the hotel, Security has investigated, found a suspect & advised the guests to report the matter to the local police as theft is definitely within their jurisdiction, Not the GM's.

The Suspect: Not difficult to figure this one out, You know the keycard access locks that Hotels use? Well the retain information on all comings & goings from each room. All security needed to do was see what card accessed the lock after the guests had left.
On both occasions it was the same key belonging to one of the housekeepers.

On the first 2 occasions the guests refrained from filing police reports.
GM's hands were tied in the matter & he was unable to terminate the staff member with out an admission of guilt or the police reports being filed.

Yesterday another guest reported money missing from his room, This time the guest did wish to file a police report. Security & police investigated & found the same housekeeper had accessed the room during the time the guest claimed to have been away from it.

She was questioned on the hotel premises, denied any guilt so was handed over to the police to be taken to the police station for further questioning. A union member went along with her to represent.

This morning, the proverbial has hit the fan. The unions are up in arms & threatening strikes! Why? Because while in police custody the housekeeper was strip searched.

GM is now off holding an emergency meeting trying to explain to the dim witted union members that he has no control over police policies or procedures on how they deal with suspects. If a cop chooses to strip search a suspected thief, GM is powerless to stop them, furthermore a union member accompanied the housekeeper to the station. So he was present to object to the strip search & contact legal aid for advise prior to it taking place.

Oh well, it's just another day in paradise.

P.S GM's time is coming to a close here, Looks like Mumbai is the next location with a tentative start date of mid August.