Sunday, May 27, 2012

Rainy days and Sundays


Tried this new photo editing app, VSCO. 
View from our office window, Gloomy.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Review: Chateau Royale Sports and Country Club

Dear Reader,

A few weeks ago, me and my bestfriend decided to purchase a deal for a day trip to Chateau Royale in Ensogo. The deal costs 299 and it included:

"Lunch, free use of the swimming pools, kids playground, free guided tour in Orchidarium and Organic Farm, unlimited internet, free meditation in Lotus Garden and free use of Shower Room"
  
Since both of us are dying to have a weekend getaway, we immediately called for a reservation for three pax for May 19.

The Place

Chateau Royale is located at Batulao, Nasugbu, Batangas. In our case, it's a 1-hour drive from Las Pinas via Emilio Aguinaldo Highway (We left at 6:30am, then arrived at 7:30am). The place is not hard to find and the map that they provided in their website was very clear and easy to follow.

 Entrance

Check-in

After getting our stuff from the car, we went to the reception area for check-in. We were asked to pay P300 pesos/per pax for security deposit (which will be returned upon check-out). Although it was stated in the fine print in the website when we purchased the deal, they didn't explain what that "security deposit" was for. We just assumed that maybe if we broke something in the resort then the 300 pesos will be used to pay for the damages.

Reception

Amenities: Swimming Pool

After checking-in, we were simply allowed to go our way, no instructions or whatsoever. They didn't tell us where the shower room was, when and where the free lunch will be served and when the "guided tour" will start..

Swimming Pool (kiddie pool on the other side)

There was only one pool that we saw, we asked one attendant there if we could also swim in the indoor pool (as advertised in ensogo), the attendant told us that there was only one pool in the resort, but when we told her that we saw an indoor pool in their advertisement in ensogo, she just told us that there was indeed an indoor pool and we should ask first the front desk/reception if we are allowed to go there. Tsk. Ano ba talaga? Meron o wala? Since the pool was so inviting and the people are starting to take a dip in the pool, we let their shortcomings pass.. AGAIN.


In less than an hour that we started swimming, *boom* the pool was slowly being crowded with people. The ambiance was nice since pool is surrounded with lush trees in the back (as you can see in this picture)  and sand to emulate a beach feeling.. But it lacked enough shade for people to lounge around by the pool. Painitan ang trip dito! 

By 9:30am it was already to hot to swim so I decided to switch with Nas (my bestfriend's boyfriend) in safekeeping our things (we decided to take turns in looking after our things instead of renting a locker). They swam for another hour then they also decided to get out of the pool as well. 

I wasn't able to take a picture of the shower room, but the doors in the rooms had no lock and the glass door had a mixture of frosted and clear glass (there was a part there where other people can see you taking a bath), so we covered that part with our towels and soiled clothes. Some showers were not functional (no shower head, no water coming out of the shower).

After taking a bath and changing our clothes, we left our things in Nas' car so we don't have to bring our luggage everywhere.

"Free Lunch"     

Since the good receptionist didn't tell us where we could claim the lunch included in our deal, we went to their cafeteria to inquire where we should go. The girl told us that lunch was going to be served at the Grand Ballroom so we went there. When we got there we assumed that they're already set-up since it was only a few minutes away before 12noon. But to our disappointment, there was no food ready to be served... Only an empty long table with the OJTs standing behind it. I asked one OJT there what time the food will be served, and she told me that it was just 11:25am. I looked at her, then looked at my watch, then looked at her again then told her that it's just 5 minutes till 12noon. Since most of the people in the room had the same time with my watch, they started falling in line to the buffet even though there was no food ready to be served.

15 mins had passed, and that was the only time when the food came and they started serving people. So yay! we thought, food is here! But more time passed  and we started wondering why our turn to be served is taking so long, so my bestfriend asked what is taking so long. One OJT told us that they ran out of food. WHAT. How can you run out of food? We saw people leaving with the same amount of food and I guess no one came back for seconds since the attendants are getting the food stubs/coupon before serving.

It was past 1pm when we were served, imagine more than an hour standing and waiting in line, only to get this amount of food:


Chicken bones, dry tasteless pancit and 1 cup of rice. Yes, this was our free lunch. 1 hour of waiting time for this. SMH. 


Naubos po ulit yung manok.

Very disappointing. Just because our lunch was a part of a promo, we shouldn't be treated short. If they didn't include a free lunch in their promo, we could have just ate somewhere ahead of time instead of being subjected into this kind of ordeal.

Since we were already dismayed with the service that we were getting, we decided to just finish the whole trip and leave immediately. 

Zoo, Organic Farm and Orchidarium

Nobody told us when was the guided tour so we explored the whole premises.




Ugh, the plants are poorly maintained and the animals are not receiving proper care.. One horse was even loose and was allowed to roam freely the premises. Tsk.

Final Verdict

I give Chateau Royale 2 out of 5 stars. Poor service and the major lack of planning in behalf of the management brought a complete disaster to our supposed to be relaxing getaway (we heard from another guest that Chateau Royale failed to include the guests who availed the day trip promo, instead of their estimate of 100 guests, they accommodated 600, imagine the difference). 

I do not recommend this place at all.

Friday, May 4, 2012

Photo Diary: Matryoshka dolls

Dear Reader,

Today, I decided to take out my camera and take a picture of our Matryoshka Dolls. These dolls were given to us by our family friend from Azerbaijan. Matryoshka dolls are a set of decreasing wooden dolls placed one inside the other. I only took a picture of 4 of them, but there are more than 10 pieces of these dolls. I'm pretty much amazed of the manual dexterity of the artisan who made this doll because when you reach the smallest doll inside, you can still see the full details of the face (as seen in my last photo, stubby fingers I know, but those hands may save your life someday, lol i'm digressing). It's sad because from what I've read in some websites, the craft of making these dolls is slowly dying. Hope they'll continue to make this kind of doll or else we'll all just be relying on photos like these to appreciate.













Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Growing up..

Dear Reader,

Gosh I forgot to write "Dear Reader" on my previous posts.. You see i'm trying to write ala Stephen Chbosky in his novel "The Perks of a Wallflower" which by the way, I haven't finished reading up to now... (shame on me, I know). Anyway, to update you of my shitty status at work...

Well, we had a meeting as mentioned in the previous post. Nothing drastic has happened since (except for the good boss leaving), but the big boss has been trying subtly to "make-up" for their short-comings. We've lost and will lose a considerable number of people, so the workload is still and will be shit craaaay. But she's been   saying "Thank You" a lot these days and showering us with promises of candies and fingerless gloves. Whatever she's doing, it's cool but you cannot sweet coat the harsh reality that we're still underpaid and unless they send someone to manage us, things will always be the same.

Enough of that negativity. I'm so excited for tomorrow! Me and my (2nd) college buddies will be having a reunion.. I'm thinking of bringing my cam tom since it has been a tradition to take pictures during gatherings. Hmm.. :) 

Anyway, I'm so sleepy! Still have work tomorrow. =(( Good night!