FCL Incentive trip to Batam

The FCL incentive trip has come and gone. The dates we picked to go? 21st to 22 June, to Batam island. It's the first time I've ever been there, and it's a nice place to go to for a short trip. However, it doesn't seem as safe as (maybe)... Bangkok? The roads are really dark at night and doesn't give you that overall 'safe' feeling.

Discounting the little 'shortfalls' that happened along the way, it was a pretty enjoyable trip. One thing I've always reminded myself for trips to places like these... "Give big discounts on expected services and stuff. That way, you won't be too disappointed or critical of the service shortfalls and you're more likely to enjoy yourself. Besides... nobody likes a smart aleck and you've been in their shoes before. Actually, you still are in their shoes".

Little things did happen. The ferry left late. For whatever reason, I don't know. Another thing to happen was that many in the group had to check in late. We were lucky to have had our room early, Cheryl and me. Some of the others... weren't so lucky. It was past four in the noon before they got theirs. The reason? The hotel assumed we were going to be there late so they gave up our room keys to an earlier group! By the time we got there close to four in the afternoon, at least half of the rooms weren't ready and they lost the keys to some of the rest! Things were a bit haywire with the duty manager, staff and the tour guides trying to pass the blame for the shortfall to the next person. What we found out later was that the HR team came very close to telling them (sarcastically) to let us take over the room assignments and stuff if they couldn't cope. After all, in this particular group of ours were BOTH the folks from Reservations (me and the witch), Front Office, Housekeeping, Engineering, Security, Concierge, Finance, HR... the whole lot! Even for dinner (which was in a restaurant somewhere out there)... we almost made it there; except that OUR bus broke down just before we left the hotel. Broken fan belt. Thank goodness it broke down in the driveway. The roads didn't have street lights so it was almost pitch dark. Just imagine what would've happened if the bus had stopped in the middle of the road! In a way, it was a good thing 'cos... I wasn't too keen on going out for the dinner anyways. I was pretty happy with the option we took in the end; we had dinner in the hotel, with the HR team. They'd decided to eat in too.

One thing about this trip, though... I was tired almost all the time! I was asleep quite early... about 10pm or so Batam time (11pm our time). Just after Lord of the Rings on the telly. I was so tired, it seems I was the only one who didn't know it rained heavily at night. And even after waking up LATER than Cheryl, I still came back to nap after breakfast. I felt like such a pig! But... it was all worth it. It was a great trip.

For the record, the witch was on the trip too. And I avoided her most of the time. Still talked to her a bit when she approached (I'm not rude, you know) but still... kept my distance. Thank gawd I'm on leave tomorrow. One more day to sleep in, do my ironing... and brace myself for crap I'm in for on Tuesday.