Janda Tak Baik, Janda Baik

As I am writing this, my family is still sleeping off their tiredness after a topsy turvy two days of stay in Janda Baik, Bentong Pahang. The bad thing about the past two days is that this was the first time I had to move hotel because the first really did not live up to our expectations, and it was God's will that we got an excellent hotel room to make up for the crummy stay in the first hotel.

The problem with the first hotel is that after their media blitz in the media and what they promised in their website, I can say that Cherengin Hills definitely fall far short. I have never been to a hotel that could not serve lunch to the guests checking in just because their restaurant is serving buffet to a convention group, and due to the same they offered a so-called dinner buffet of less than ten items at Ringgit Malaysia thirty five, and like me I can say I found those guests with family drove out for dinner in droves for both lunch and dinner that day. And that was not the only reason we had to drive out, because such a big hotel did not even have a single newspaper for guests to read in the morning. Come on man, if you can't afford to give individual newspapers, at least have some public newspaper in the lobby. And the rooms, if you can get past the paint smell, you are surprised that there is no fridge to cool your drinks and the view you get is actually the roof of the next building instead of the supposed "Courtyard/Hill/Pool" view that they promised. I don't want to say much more on this but what I can say is that you may meet the "Convention" needs in your name, but you fail miserably in the non existent "Spa" portion and also to meet family guests need.

Well at least the trips out for meals managed to introduce us to great meals be it at Saufiville for excellent and affordable western meals that definitely meets our expectations as shown in their website, with a great view to boot, or rest house reminiscent meals prepared by young chaps at Andak's Place Jungle Cafe, or a simple yet great tasting malay fried meal at a kampung warung where the son of the owner emphatically said that they do not do Siamese style food when I mistakenly asked for my favourite Nasi Goreng Daging Merah.

And what is the baik or good in this, well we manage to snatch a stay in the sought after connecting rooms at Suria Hills Country House, which is all they claim and more. As the adventure is not over yet, I will blog further on this later but let me leave you with the photo of the river in their backyard, and yes my friends that are fishes in the clear river water.