Saturday, February 12, 2011

Home sweet home

I miss home. I never knew what homesick feels like before, and now i'm on the boat. I have been hopping from hotel to another hotel for about 1 week now. 3 hotels, exactly. I like the 3rd hotel, called D'Northstar Hotel, which i've extended my booking for 2 more days. It's a new hotel, reasonable room rates, nice interior, plus, the television in the room is bigger than any hotel's television i ever encountered. So, any of you might want to visit Sandakan, please do yourself a favour, at least try check this hotel out. And yes, this hotel is located at Mile 4, so everything you need such as food, bank, karaoke, bar and etc is just within a walking distance. But then again, Sandakanians rarely walk, they'll still drive even if the destination is just 10 minutes of walking. The footpath along the roads are just for decoration. The only homo sapiens i ever saw walking on Sandakan's footpath are the tourists. Which is a wonder to Sandakanians.

Anyway, i have stayed at 2 hotels before i found this gem. And i would like to advise that it's best to avoid them. The 1st hotel is called Tyng Garden Hotel. As grand as the name can be, or how majestic the building can be, this is the time to tell you that, don't judge the book by it's cover. I only stay here 1 night. The hotel interior looks old and gloomy. It's actually a new hotel opened few years ago (4-5 years). I've stayed in this hotel 3 years ago and that time the hotel condition was still acceptable. I guess it turned to be like this because no proper maintenance. When i checked in there was only one receptionist at the counter. I tried to ask for queen bed but told only twin bed available. Later, i found out that the hotel's window leaking. No wonder the carpet smells funny. And did i tell you that this so called 3 stars hotel don't have any WIFI?

The 2nd hotel i chose was a new hotel called 1 Libaran Hotel. The room is spacious, pretty much all the basic stuff you need in a hotel is there. Not so much thoughts were put on decorating the interior. So for me, in terms of presentations and services, it is more like a hostel who charging you for a hotel price. And they don't even have workers to clean your room. I'm quite impress because they have installed a wall mounted LCD television in the room, but the channel selection very poor. For Godsake they have subscribed to Astro, why don't just put some HBO, or Cinemax, or Star Movies channel on? I checked out after 2 days staying here. I chose this hotel at first because it is the closest to home. And i wont even tell you how to reach this hotel, because it's not worth of your money. Seriously, let it go.

It's not like i would gain anything by recommending the D'Northstar Hotel to you. I don't even know the hotel owner. I just thought that it's a nice hotel and i want to share my experience. I'm sure there are more nicer hotel in the town area. Anyone who are fond of the sea should try the hotels at town. But i must warn you in advance, that you might find lots of rats along the coastline. Anyway, should you interested to check out the D'Northstar Hotel, here are ways on how to reach them. Telephone : +6089229977. Or emails nstar11@streamyx.com.


Anyway, the thing that i miss the most would be my cat. Luckily all the other cats i have send them home to my mother. Now i only have my bengal cat here with me. Now i only went home to see him twice a day, that of course that if he is home at that time.





I actually never give a name to my bengal cat. That's right, he doesn't have a name. The reason i don't gave him one because i never found a name that would suit him. So, if want to call him to come to me i just "meow". And do you know that bengal cat don't meow? Really. I just know that after watching Cats 101 on Animal Planet. At first, i thought my bengal is mute. He only make a strange sound, a "bark" according to the Animal Planet, when he see a prey. But after living with me for a year and mixing with other species of cats, he finally meowing. Yes, i now have a bengal who meow. But his meow was another issue, the sound of his meow is very strange, it's like out of tune for normal cat. It's just like that he copy my meow version. He rarely meow outside, he only does that when he is with me, or hungry.



I should be able to sleep at my apartment tonight. Mr. Boyfriend mentioned that he spotted few people looking at the fried distribution board this morning. Well, lets hope so.