A Southern Getaway @ Johor Bahru (Part 1)

Discovering a new place is always our hobby. We like spending a short getaway whenever there is a celebration (eg. birthday, anniversary celebration :p). And for this year Be's birthday, we had decided to travel down South to this 3rd largest metropolitan city in Malaysia - Johor Bahru.

This is definitely not my first visit to Johor Bahru. I used to travel here very frequent when my sister was working here 14 years back. Haha, yes, that was 14 years ago. And I got to travel here due to business trip when I was with URC which HQ based in Pasir Gudang. But it was everytime a rush, and meant for meeting purpose that I have no chance to really discover this beautiful city.

We have our accommodation booked via our favourite accommodation booking site - Agoda. We decided to choose Doubletree Hilton Johor Bahru as this is one of the newest hotel in town, with good reputation and sleek design. However, this turned out to an unpleasant experience with Hilton. For full story, click here for the details.

Agoda
http://www.agoda.com/


On the way down to Johor Bahru, we stopped by at Yong Peng for the famous fish balls! We headed to Yuan Yean as it serves one of the better tasting fish balls and noodles. It operated since 1988, which is nearly 3 decades long. Probably it was a Monday, thus when we reached the shop at around 9am, there were only few tables occupied, and plenty of parking bays available right infront the shop. There's lot of newspaper cutting featuring about Yuan Yean, they seems to be quite famous :) Good choice we have made.

We both ordered the famous fishball noodles, with different types of noodle. I opted for Fu Zhou noodles, while Be choosed his all time favourite, Kueh Teow.

Dried Kueh Teow with fish balls RM6.50

Irresistible bouncy fish balls 

Fu Zhou soup noodles with fish balls RM6.00

We could taste the freshness of the fish balls and its fine texture. Yuan Yean fish balls are made from Ikan Parang, thus the bouncy and Q texture. Nice! We ordered the fried Tai Ping egg as well, but unfortunately the kitchen missed out the order and so we did not get to try this specialty of Yuan Yean.

It is easy to locate Yuan Yean as it is just a short distance from the toll. Yong Peng is basically a strip down, so Yuan Yean is just located at the main road, right beside a Caltex petrol station and few shops next to KFC. Customers parking bays available right in front of the shop thus no worries on parking issue :)

Environment: 4/ 5
Food: 4.5/ 5
Price: 3.5/ 5
Service: 2.5/ 5

Yuan Yean Fishball Eating House

123, Jalan Besar,
83700 Yong Peng, Johor

07- 467 4985

Opens daily from 8.30am - 7.30pm (close on alternate Wednesday)


Journey to be continued... ... Stay Tuned :)

My staying experience with Doubletree Hilton Johor Bahru @ Johor Bahru

As a blogger, I have always wanted to share all the happenings around me, all the bad, or all the good ones. This time, I would like to share my staying experience with Doubletree Hilton Johor Bahru on 25th May 2015.

We've made our reservation for a night stay in Doubletree Hilton Johor Bahru through Agoda since December 2014, in conjunction with my Be's birthday. We've been longing for this short getaway, can't wait to discover this place that is famous with all the cultural sites, nice food and heritage building.

We reached Doubletree Hilton JB rather early, at around 1.30pm. Car park was good, with bright lighting and big parking lots size. Lobby lounge with sleek and modern design, comfy sofa chair. We went for check in, and as predicted, the staff informed us that the room was still not ready yet. This staff then helped us with the check in, and deposit payment, and informed us that they will try their very best to have the room ready for us asap, hopefully by 2.15 or 2.30pm. Be and I were totally fine with it as we initially planned to have a walk out and have a lunch at It Roo Cafe which is just within walking distance from Doubletree. This staff then handed us 2 large warm cookies, which is the signature welcome cookies from Doubletree; and informed us that they will give us a call once the room is ready. Well, excellent service so far. Be and I were totally happy with our choice for hotel this round by far :)

Doubletree Hilton at night

Axis Lounge area @ Lobby

Axis Lounge area @ Lobby

Welcome cookies 

Large and delicious warm cookies :)

We went out for lunch, and by the time we were back to the hotel, it was almost 3.30pm. Hhmmm... ... , wonder where is the promised room (which the staff mentioned will be ready by 2.30pm) and the promised follow up call? I guess the room by latest should be ready by 3pm as that's the official check in time! (Note: highlighted this to the management twice in my complaint email, but not clarification were given even after my gentle "reminder" for them. Guess they were just trying to escape from whatever they were unable to answer, haha.)

Ok, fine then. We proceeded to the front desk again, to collect our room key. This round, a Chinese lady staff was there to help us. We informed her that we have done our check in procedure and now would just like to collect the room key. As usual, this lady staff had to ask a question for the verification purpose before handing us the room key. And out of so many questions to ask, she choosed to ask my Be :"May I know when is your birthday, Mr. Wee?". My Be answer was simple:" Today". And guess how this front desk lady staff who stay front line, and being the first most impression for the guests had answered? She said:"Sure". That's it. "SURE" was the only word uttered from her mouth, and not happy birthday! Being as a frontline staff in a hotel that highlights its outstanding hospitality, that's how she treated a birthday guest, hah!?

Given the 2nd chance, I was still hoping that probably there was a small note or card wishing my Be happy birthday, but again, another dissapointment, nothing found inside the room. Sigh... We have done an extensive of travel for birthday or annivessary celebration, and I have always found that most of the hotels are pretty accommodating and try to do something special. But unfortunately, not Doubletree Hilton this time, even though I did saw plenty reviews from guests who mentioned the surprise cakes from the hotel in conjuntion of the guests' birthday celebration. Probably my Be was just the unlucky one. Or it is just simply because we've made our booking through Agoda, and not the fancy suite we were staying thus deserved a lousier treatment, haha :) (Note: Reason given by the management for overlooking my Be's birthday: This was simply an oversight of one of our people at a very business moment. Hahaha. I  can't stop laughing when seeing this reply from the management. An overlook? Even when my Be told them the birthday is TODAY!?" What a joke of the day!)

Luckily the room condition was still satisfying, big corner window, nice city view from the 21st floor, nice bed, plenty of tv channels up to choose.  And the motorize curtain for the shower glass was interesting. But... ..., when I went into the bathroom, I did not see any Crabtree & Evelyn bathroom amenities available, but only Aroma Active Essentials found. No way! I thought one of the description highlight Doubletree was stating in Agoda, was they are using Crabtree & Evelyn amenities! I quickly ran through Agoda again and yes, there was this statement highlighted the Crabtree & Evelyn amenities. (Note: unfortunately I was unable to screenshot it down, the management had got all these removed after my complaint to Doubletree Hilton last week).

Room key card

Shower glass with motorize curtain in between the bed and bathroom

where is my missing Crabtree & Evelyn?

Arrgh, and the shower area is totally a mess. The gap is not great enough as when you are taking shower, the water will just split outside even though you have the glass door shut. The water temperature was also a problem, where it fluctuated up and down, very inconsistent. Not to mentioned also the no in-room wifi provided, you will have to pay RM25 if you want it.

Another shock came in when we were back from our dinner. While not aware about the "turn down service" is available in this hotel, we were really shocked when we noticed someone actually came in to our room without us requested for room makeup service. We checked with the front desk, and they was quite surprises also. They apologised and mentioned it might due to the housekeeper went into the wrong room. (Note: "Went into the wrong room" was the reason given by the front desk, but when I logged my complaint to the management, the reason given was: this is the "TURN DOWN SERVICE" provided to all the suites and executive rooms". Well, I can understand the turn down service, but why is the different answer from the front desk staff and the management? Still wondering... ...?)

To be fair, forget about all the down side I have encountered, the hotel does has its strong points. Else how they gain the 8.4 review score points from Agoda users? The 24 hours operate gym room is definitely a plus point. Facilities are not topnotch, but good enough for some simple workout. Swimming pool is nice. Like the white lounge chairs, but not the water temperature though. It was quite cold all the time. Jacuzzi and sauna are available on the same floor as gym room and swimming pool, but nothing really fancy :)

Pool side at night

Pool side at the morning

Breakfast at Makan Kitchen was another plus point for Doubletree Hilton. Nice ambience, friendly staffs, great varieties. Makan Kitchen offers an awesome breakfast buffet spread, from Chinese, Malay, continental, to Indian food; and not to forget the fresh juice corner, and the homemade ice cream and yogurt. Don't forget to try the unique variety of ice cream eg. pomelo, grapes etc. We did enjoyed the breakfast much there.

Makan Kitchen

The Chinese food action kitchen

Indian food action kitchen

Coffee & Tea corner

Homemade ice cream corner

Check out time was at 11am. It was fast and don't forget to validate your parking ticket before exit to entitle the free parking.

Overall good and bad found for Doubletree Hilton Johor Bahru. Guess the service delivered was not very consistent, that's why some very good reviews can be found for it, but in the same time, very bad reviews also from the guests. The management reply on my feedback was very defensive, which I don't feel the sincere apology at all. Fancy and sophisticated words were being used, but for me, it is just a pretty standard formal reply.

To sum out, here's the plus and minus for your review:

Plus + :
1. Spacious car park with free parking for in-house guests (Remember to validate your parking ticket whenever you need to drive out)
2. Nice lobby lounge area.
3. Delicious warm welcome cookies upon check in.
4. Room is good enough for two, nice view and great tv channels selection.
5. 24 hours operate gym room.
6. Nice swimming pool.
7. Awesome breakfast!

Minue - :
1. Inconsistent service and bad follow up. It's all depends on your luck whether the best or lousy staff who served you that might change the total experience you have with Doubletree JB.
2. Inconsistent water temperature in bathroom.
3. Terrible design for shower area.
4. Flat pillows.
5. No free in-room wifi provided. Free wifi only available in public area, but it was not functioning well during my stay.
6. Defensive attitude and no real action being taken from the management for the feedback/ complaint made.

Good luck to those who plan a stay in Doubletree Hilton Johor Bahru! All the best and Happy travelling! :)