LarryU

We do not target our marketing towards the American traveler – Quote from the GM of the Hilton Batang Ai

The area that would eventually become home to Batang Ai National Park was originally populated by the Iban, whose name for the region literally means, "the river." It was one of the last areas to come under the influence of the White Rajah, James Brooke, and its ultimate subjugation led to the slaughter of 800 of its indigenous residents. At the time, well over 40 longhouses populated the banks of the river and when the dam that formed the 80 sq km Batang Ai reservoir was finished in 1985, most of these dwellings were inundated and its residents resettled. The national park was established in 1991 and now spans an area of 240 sq km. When combined with the adjoining Lanjak-Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary in Malaysia and the Betung-Kerihun National Park in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, the region forms a much larger ecological refuge covering an area of 10,000 sq km.

The Hilton Batang Ai Resort opened on the shores of Batang Ai lake in 1995 and is managed and operated by the Hilton Kuching. On the one hand, the control that the Hilton Kuching exerts on the Batang Ai property seems to be so tight that at times it appears that the local staff and management cannot make a single decision without frequent and detailed instructions from headquarters for any and every situation, no matter how trivial. On the other hand, as a Diamond VIP member of the Hilton HHonors program, my treatment by these two properties could not have been more different, ranging from superb at the Hilton Kuching to clueless and indifferent at the Hilton Batang Ai.

On its web site, the description of the Hilton Batang Ai certainly sounded quite attractive to a former ecologist such as myself. It begins, "Set on the edge of spectacular rainforest, the Hilton Batang Ai Longhouse Resort is Hilton’s only jungle property…" However, even from its inception, the reviews of the service and treatment at this property have always been a mixed bag, ranging from tepid at best to horrific at worst.

One would think that after over 13 years in business, this property would have finally found its groove but that is most definitely not the case. In the recent past, the hotel’s one saving grace was that its room rates were always very reasonable, often less than $40 USD per night. These low rates could offset some of the other high costs, such as transportation to the property and the cost of meals provided to a captive audience. This is no longer the case.

Room rates are now nearly twice what they were a year ago unless one books through a third party and thereby forgoes Hilton points and elite treatment. Then again, I could discern very little elite recognition while I was there so booking through Hilton may not produce much of a benefit anyway. The cost of meals, though never inexpensive, was now ludicrously high. In my case, each dinner priced out at 78 ringgits, an amount for which three hungry guys could dine on some very nice seafood in Kuching and still get change.

As a certified glutton for punishment, I booked not one, but two nights at this property, figuring that a two night stay would more effectively amortize both my transportation costs and the time it takes to get there. To ameliorate these costs somewhat, I booked my room as an award stay with the Diamond Desk, still a very reasonable 10,000 points per night for this category 1 property

Getting to Batang Ai requires a 250 km overland trip from Kuching to the Hilton jetty, followed by a 20 minute boat ride to the entrance of the 100 room resort, nestled serenely on the shores of the reservoir. Its web site advised that transportation arrangements should be made in advance so I sent a polite and detailed email that specified my travel dates and included all of my reservation details. After a week had elapsed, I had not received a reply to my original email so I sent another email to the manager of the Hilton Kuching and this email was ignored as well.

I then contacted the Hilton Diamond Desk, whose somewhat terse reply was that, "I guess you could call them directly." As an admittedly unrelated aside, when I recently needed to resolve an unsettled transportation issue for a Starwood property in Bali, the platinum concierge was on the phone directly with the property within a minute, took care of the issue right away and even followed up with me afterwards. From this, you can conclude what you will about the quality of support that Hilton HHonors customer service provides to its elite guests, at least compared to benefits provided by Starwood Preferred Guest.

Given that I would already be in Kuching for several days before starting my journey to Batang Ai, I scheduled my transportation directly with a concierge on the club floor of the Hilton Kuching. At the time, the cost of the transportation listed on the web site was 110 ringgits but on the morning of my departure, I was provided with a voucher listing a rate of 145 ringgits. By the time I arrived outside to wait for the shuttle van, another Hilton staffer told me the rate actually should have been closer to 400 ringgits but they were doing me a big favor.

Later on, during a very lengthy check-in process, a staff member at the Batang Ai asked me to sign a receipt for 248 ringgits, which I refused to do. Please note that guests are not obliged to make travel arrangements through the Hilton Kuching but can avail themselves of the services of any one of the myriad travel agencies that inhabit Kuching, probably at a lower cost and more honest treatment.

The trip out to the dam took exactly four hours, including a rest stop at Lachau, where the driver grabbed lunch and guests can avail themselves of a pay toilet and some small shops. If you are intending to load up on snacks in an attempt to sidestep some of the usurious food prices at Batang Ai, this will be your last chance to do so. The road itself is fully paved, at least until one comes within a couple of miles of the dam. If you are expecting to traverse a pockmarked crater-filled dirt road, the quality of the surface will greatly exceed your expectations. If you are anticipating a modern, smooth, evenly paved roadway, then you will be slightly disappointed.



Once we arrived in the vicinity of the Hilton jetty, I was led to a small covered waiting area from where one can wait for the arrival of the boat, well protected from the sun or any inclement weather, should there be any. After 15 minutes, I could see a boat on its way across the lake, so I walked down a paved driveway and hopped aboard, seemingly accompanied mostly by local folk.



After a 20 minute cruise across the calm lake, the expansive Hilton Batang Ai property came into view, its dark brown, longhouse style buildings blending in naturally with the surrounding lush green landscape.



Once the boat pulled up to the Hilton Batang Ai dock, two friendly staff members assisted me up several flights of stairs and into the lobby, where we sat on a couch and talked for about 20 minutes. I learned that the hotel expected to serve about 24 guests on that Thursday evening but they anticipated that this number would double for the weekend rush the following night. I also learned that the majority of visitors are typically affiliated with various package tours and relatively few of them are Americans. Indeed, based on subsequent conversations with some of the other guests during my visit, this turned out to be a very accurate assessment. Most of the visitors spend a day or two but I was astonished to learn that there was currently one guest in residence who was currently in the midst of a 30 day stay and had already been there previously. Yikes.



I was trying to be as polite as I could as I sat there and pondered why I was not checking in. Early on, when I asked the staff members about it, they explained that there was already a guest standing by the front desk. But that guest had long since wandered off and here I was still sitting on the couch. I ultimately just thanked the staffers for the pleasant chat and ambled over to the front desk on my own, standing right next to the silver Hilton HHonors plaque.



I presented the front desk clerk with all of my credentials, including my Hilton HHonors Diamond card, a credit card and a printout of my two night award certificate, clearly bearing the words, "Diamond Redemption." Perhaps it was me but nearly everything I did or said seemed to confuse her. I asked about breakfast, about a diamond upgrade and about bottled water in the room. I could not get a straight answer about anything. I don't think it was a language barrier because I encountered very few communications issues with any other staff members and I interacted with many of them.

When she presented me with a transportation receipt for 248 ringgits, I showed her the voucher issued by the Hilton Kuching, clearly spelling out a price of 145 ringgits in bold letters. She responded that she would need to get instructions from the Hilton Kuching, which seemed to be the standard response to even the most minor question during my stay.

On the lengthy walk to my room, I learned that only a few of the buildings on the property are currently open for guests due to very low occupancy. The room itself was very small and dingy and I could not understand why something better was not available, especially when one considers that there were very few other guests at the hotel. When I asked about bottled water and one of the staffers pointed to the tap, I had had enough and told them I would be returning to the lobby.

Once back at the front desk, I asked to speak to the manager on duty and was eventually greeted by Jalan. I explained my concerns and disappointments to him and he said that though the computer system had my Hilton HHonors number, it did not indicate anything about my elite status. This response certainly seemed very strange to me given that I made the reservation through the diamond desk and had received several subsequent reminders from Hilton about my upcoming stay. The Hilton Kuching certainly seemed very well aware of my status and they metaphorically constitute the puppeteer who pulls the strings of the Batang Ai marionette. And I suppose that the Hilton Diamond membership card that I presented when I initially checked in was not functioning well either.

Nevertheless, Jalan eventually straightened everything out both pleasantly and graciously. I was reassigned to a spacious duplex suite a short walk away from the main building. The bedroom was located upstairs and, though not as cool as downstairs, had its own air conditioning unit and a ceiling fan so it was eminently survivable. There was a bathroom on both levels and downstairs was a minibar that contained two complimentary bottles of water. ^



After I settled into my room, I went for a long walk around the very beautiful property. From my longhouse, I walked past the pool, back through the lobby and the restaurant and then descended down towards the dock and waterfront.



I walked as much as I could around the well landscaped grounds, richly planted with a nice variety of flowers, fruit trees and other attractive vegetation.



Corn-ucopia

At 7:00 PM, I materialized at the entrance of the restaurant for dinner, where one can enjoy numerous dishes derived from a wide variety of local jungle fare:



OK, I'm just kidding about that, that's actually a list of creatures that you are not supposed to eat. Each night, a buffet dinner is available in the Nanga Mepi restaurant, according to a schedule mounted on a wall not very far from the entrance to the restaurant.



The cost of the buffet dinner amounted to a very expensive 78 ringgits but an ala carte menu is available if you ask for it. The presentation of the buffet is actually very attractive and I thought that the food for dinner was fairly decent. I was less impressed with breakfast, which I found to be unimaginative and bland. Of course, I readily confess that I had been quite spoiled by the superb breakfast fare provided by the Hilton Kuching and the The Westin Kuala Lumpur.

Overall, the service and staff at all of the meals were very friendly and attentive. Perhaps a little too attentive when one considers the very high ratio of staff members to guests.


I wrapped up dinner by sampling a diverse assortment of flavorful and attractive cakes, fruit and ice cream. The latter was available in three flavors, chocolate, strawberry and what I initially assumed was a yellowish tinted vanilla but actually turned out to be corn flavored. If you are unsure about whether or not you will enjoy corn ice cream, just try to recall the taste of canned creamed corn. You can now imagine the taste of corn ice cream. It appeared that nobody else was willing to try the corn ice cream except for me so I had a second helping because it was looking very lonely and neglected on the buffet.

From what I understand, the dominant player in the local ice cream market, Nestle, plans to introduce other popular local flavors into East Malaysia such as sago and yam. As odd as some of these ice cream varieties may seem, they are still fairly innocuous when compared to some of the more interesting and bizarre flavors such as raw horse flesh and other exotic flavors that one may encounter in Japan.

Each evening, the hotel advertises a free video presentation and nature talk. When I arrived at the designated room at 9:00 PM, all of the windows were closed and both the ceiling fan and air conditioning were initially turned off. The nature video itself was entertaining enough but it seemed somewhat incongruous that it focused on the orang utans inhabiting Sepilok, which is a sanctuary located in Sabah. I would have thought it would have been more appropriate to play a video emphasizing some aspect of nature endemic to Sarawak but what do I know about running a longhouse resort in Sarawak. The next evening turned out to be a repeat performance, including both the airless room and precisely the same Sepilok video. From what I learned, they have evidently replayed the same video every night since the inception of the hotel.

Prior to heading back to my room, I inspected the list of activities that were available to guests. I signed up for the free morning sunrise walk and was instructed to present myself in the lobby promptly at 5:45 AM. I also signed up for a one hour nature walk that would begin later in the morning at a cost of five ringgits for the walk plus an additional five ringgits for an optional bottle of water. I also contemplated booking a fishing trip but, like most of the other activities, it was priced for a minimum of two people and I was unwilling to bear the entire cost of this activity alone. On the way back to my room, I picked up a brochure listing these very same activities and could not help but notice that the prices listed on the printout were completely different from those on public display in the lobby.



Learning the Ropes on the Canopy Walk

The next morning, I woke up early from a sleep that proved to be quite difficult because the soundproofing between rooms was so poor that I could hear every disgusting gasp, snort, retch and wheeze from the unhappy guest in the adjoining room. In fact, he sounded so bad at times that I had briefly contemplated notifying the hotel staff that the fellow might require some medical attention. As I left the bedroom, I encountered an unfortunate room design flaw. There is no light switch at the top of the stairs to illuminate the lower level so one is forced to stumble down the oddly pitched stairs in complete darkness and then fumble around for a light switch downstairs.

I arrived in the lobby a little before 5:45 AM and by 6:10 AM, nobody had shown up to lead the hike. After some friendly prompting on my part, a fellow eventually materialized and off we went, just the two of us, towards a point of land about a 10 minute walk from the lobby. To be honest, he seemed a little bit surprised that anyone showed up at all so I would guess that guests attending these early morning strolls must be relatively rare. We talked quietly for a bit but he seemed more interested in smoking than anything else and soon we just stood in silence and listened to the sounds of all of the birds who had arisen early to greet the dawn.



At 10:00 AM, I met two guests from Holland in the lobby and then embarked on the brief nature walk with a guide, Peter. We sauntered around the property for a short while and then undertook a steep but very quick climb that eventually placed us at the foot of an old grave in the middle of the jungle. At one end of the grave was a large ceramic jar and a couple of smaller empty glass bottles, both very well weathered and partially covered with moss. Scattered amongst the leaves that littered the moist surface of the grave were a large number of ringgits, mostly coins but there was also a smaller tray containing some paper currency.



Ancestor worship is a fundamental component of Iban spirituality because of the firm belief that the dead can influence and be influenced by their living descendants. The living hope that their ancestors will look favorably on them or, at the very least, not screw around with them. From what I understand, once a year the family of the deceased gather by the grave to have a picnic to honor their ancestors. Of course, extra food and drink is brought along to share with the dead.

From the gravesite, we walked a bit further through the jungle until we found ourselves at the threshold of an elevated rope walkway, wending its way amongst the treetops suspended 30 meters above the ground. Semi-firm footing was provided by well-aged narrow wooden planks that often groaned and squeaked under the weight of my steps. The suspended walkway wobbled considerably as I slowly inched my way along, tightly clutching the web of rope netting that held it precariously off the ground.



Halfway along the canopy walk, I arrived at a wooden tree platform, elevated 40 meters above the ground. From there, I was afforded stunning views of the turquoise waters of Batang Ai Lake, rendered an even more intense blue because of its juxtaposition against the verdant green backdrop of the surrounding terrain. From the platform, I ascended a rickety wooden ladder that gave way to another rope walkway, this one deployed on a sharp incline. That walkway terminated at another viewing platform, affording additional stunning views of the surrounding landscape.



At the conclusion of the nature walk, we returned to the environs of the Hilton an hour after it had begun. Afterwards, I continued wandering around the area for a bit on my own, walking down each trail I could find until I could go no further. Along the way, I examined a variety of interesting fruits and flowers and spotted a fish farm anchored serenely in the middle of the calm lake, evidently holding red tilapia until they were large enough to eat.



When I returned to my room to relax and cool off a bit, I found that it had been fully serviced by housekeeping but my two small bottles of water had not been replaced. Various staff members in the lobby stared it me blankly when I asked for two more bottles until Jalan wandered by and took care of it. Sort of.

When I returned to the room about an hour later, I found two new bottles of water in the room. However, upon closer inspection, I could readily see that they were not sealed! So, I would presume that hotel employees must retrieve discarded water bottles from the garbage, refill them with some species of water and then redeploy the bottles back to the guest rooms. This rather defeats the intent and purpose of bottled water, in my humble opinion.

Later on, I decided to sit out by the pool a bit, protected from the searing sun by the ample shade provided by a very large umbrella. Even with that, conditions were still somewhat uncomfortable due to the thick and dense humidity. One other guest showed up while I was there and then she too wandered off, presumably to cooler pastures. I must confess that I was not especially disappointed when the skies began to darken and the hotel staff scurried out and take down the large umbrellas, forcing me to go indoors for a bit and replenish my air conditioning deficiency.



Yours is a Very Bad Longhouse*

Given some of my unsatisfactory and profoundly bewildering interactions with the front desk staff thus far, I reasoned that it might behoove me to budget just a little extra time for me to checkout. So, I wandered over to the front desk immediately after breakfast, figuring that a full four hours before my noon checkout might be a sufficient amount of time for this complicated task.

The desk clerk presented me with a bill that contained some very interesting charges indeed, including about 30 ringgits worth of erroneous minibar fees and room charges in the amount of 332.35 ringgits per night! I asked the desk clerk why I have any room charges on an award stay and she seemed not to understand. I wrote the word "award" on the bill right next to the charge and underlined it, all to no avail. I showed her my diamond card and pointed to the silver Hilton HHonors plaque positioned prominently on the front desk that was seemingly deployed only for decoration.

She claimed the computer system had no evidence of the award redemption nor even of my Hilton HHonors membership. I was inundated with a wave of déjà vu as I thought back to my prolonged and confusing check-in difficulties just two days prior. Clearly at a communications impasse, I ran off to my room and returned to the front desk clutching a copy of both my reservation confirmation and my award certificate.

A reasonable person would have concluded by now that all of this documentation should have successfully resolved this issue, a problem that should never have occurred in the first place. But it didn't. Still unwilling or unable to either grasp or acknowledge that I have already paid for their hospitality via the currency of Hilton points, the desk clerk finally responded with the all too familiar mantra that she will need to call the Hilton Kuching for instructions.

I retreated to a comfortable corner of the couch and observed her efforts from a safe distance. Phone calls were made, faxes were exchanged and there I sat. After nearly one hour of patiently twiddling my thumbs in the lobby, I approached the front desk and asked the desk clerk whether the problem had been fixed. When she responded with a simple, "No," I quietly and firmly instructed her to summon the general manager immediately. It was now after 9:00 AM and she explained that he was still in his suite. "Please ask him to come to the front desk," I repeated, before returning to my couch.

Fifteen minutes later, Jonathan walked slowly into the lobby and stopped for chitchat with various people along the way, with an air sort of like Kurtz overseeing his minions in the heart of darkness. He did not seem to be in much of a hurry and neither made eye contact nor attempted to approach me. I finally approached him and attempted to explain the problem. He also appeared to be unable to grasp the evidently difficult concept of an award stay. In all of their years of operation, could I have really been the only guest foolish enough to waste my hard earned Hilton points at this property? I presented the manager with a copy of my of my documentation and he stared at the sheet of paper for a full five minutes before acknowledging that it does indeed have the word "award" printed on it.



But even that acknowledgement was seemingly insufficient to convince him to take some sort of action and actually fix the problem! "What would you like me to do?," he asked. I patiently explained that a good start would be to remove the room charges for the award stay, which he finally but reluctantly agreed to do. And while he was at it, remove the erroneous minibar charges as well.

I told the GM that I cannot understand how a simple and straightforward award reservation made directly with Hilton personnel could not be acknowledged by his property. Why would a reservation show up correctly in every Hilton mediated computer system except theirs? How can a property exhibiting the Hilton icon for more than 13 years, appear to have neither the interest nor inclination to honor the word "honors" in Hilton HHonors?

He thought all of this through and then slowly replied, "We do not target our marketing towards the American traveler." Perhaps he is correct. At the very least, they certainly do not appear to be targeting visitors who have even the most remote acquaintance with Hilton HHonors. Of the various guests with whom I spoke, not one of them was a member of the Hilton HHonors program nor demonstrated even the slightest familiarity with it.

I told the GM that I was very unhappy about all of the issues that I had encountered during my stay. I wasted more than an hour checking in and nearly two hours this morning and felt that it was not reasonable for the hotel to steal so much vacation time from me. He thought about it a bit and then offered me a cup of coffee. I explained to him that three hours of my time is worth a lot more than that and asked him to remove one of the dinner charges as compensation for my time. With some reluctance, he said that he would do it. After finally obtaining a revised copy of my bill, I wandered back to my room to wait for the appointed hour at which I could finally make my escape from this place by boat.

I returned to the lobby promptly at noon and then wandered towards the dock, accompanied by two couples, one from the UK and one from Australia. On the way down, we passed a large assemblage of children, who had just arrived at the Hilton Batang Ai, evidently part of a school outing.



After a wait of about 10 minutes, the boat pulled into the dock and then shoved off a few minutes later for the return ride back to the Hilton pier near the dam.



Sizzling Serian

On the long ride back to Kuching, I shared some tales of the Batang Ai with the four other travelers in the van. They told me about a French woman who was furious because she had paid a fee to play tennis but when she arrived at the court at 10:00 AM, it was covered with dead tree limbs and other large chunks of detritus. Explaining to the staff that the tennis court was completely unplayable, she asked to have it readied for use as soon as possible. She checked several times throughout the day and nothing had been done about it so she eventually escalated the problem to the manager. By 4:00 PM that afternoon, the court still had not been cleaned up. One thing is very clear, the Hilton Batang Ai is probably one of the most ineptly managed hotels I have ever visited.

As we continued along on our way back to Kuching, we stopped at the Lachau rest stop again, where the driver grabbed a late lunch and one of the passengers stoked her lungs with numerous cigarettes. Once on the road again, dark storm clouds began forming in the southern mountains that demark the border between Sarawak and Kalimantan, Indonesia. It began to rain torrentially for a while but the precipitation dissipated by the time we reached the outskirts of Serian.

Serian's main claim to fame is that its one of the primary areas in the region for growing the "delicious" Durian. In fact, the town has constructed a large monument to the malodorous fruit, positioned prominently in the middle of its central market.

As we drove along the Pan Borneo highway through Serian, our driver announced that, "This is Serian Town. Last year this was on fire." He added, "This is a new one."



I would guess that fire must be a relatively common occurrence here because, according to one web page, "In this land, fire rules supreme." There is even a slide show of the fire, which gutted 27 companies in 75-year-old buildings over a two block area.

After arriving back in Kuching in the midst of rush hour, the other passengers were dropped off respectively at the Holiday Inn and the Crowne Plaza; I returned back to the Hilton. After checking in, Angela called to see if I wanted to have dinner with her and Idzuan and Azman on the other side of the river. However, I decided to wimp out for the evening, preferring to relax and vegetate in the Hilton club lounge and regale the concierges with exciting tales of the Hilton Batang Ai Ai Ai.

Next Chapter: Jungle Grub …