LordGluck

these Hiltons, located in Eastern Malaysia (Sarawak) seems to be located in a very interesting region and are extremely cheap.

Has someone an experience to share about them ? What about the long journey (4 hours in speed boat) to the Batang Ai ?
Any security problems in Kuching and Batang Ai ?

Cheers,

LordGluck

Koala

Kuching Hilton has a superb view, and is located in a central position, from which you can easily walk to many of the nicest parts of town. Kuching is one of the nicest cities in Southeast Asia, relatively unspoiled. Strongly recommended. Have stayed there a number of times, nowhere better.
Batang Ai Hilton is reached by a 3.5 hour bus trip, then 25 minutes [or less] across a man-made lake. Location is picturesque, and the trip well worthwhile once. At the Batang Ai make sure you spend time with the 68 year old part-Burmese tour guide, who is a fount of local knowledge. His father was an elephant keeper, brought over by the old Borneo Co. to assist jungle logging. He knows and loves the fauna and flora. Koala.
ps no security problems at all. The greatest threat will be from mosquitos in Batang Ai. Take repellant and use it liberally around dawn and dusk.

[This message has been edited by Koala (edited 09-04-2000).]

LordGluck

Thanks Koala !

myriad

I also stayed at Batang Ai and can recommend it. The guide previously referred to, Winston Marshall, is a real gem of knowledge and stories. He is the best reason to go. The hotel proper is nice though some of the activities they promise in brochure/website are not available. For example, the list 'mountian biking' on area trails. The bikes were in awful repair and the trails totally overgrown for biking. As it was hot as an oven there, in the end I didn't mind that one too much. Being that it is totally isolated the hotel restaurant is the only choice and does get a tad old after a few days. Definitely do a trip upriver to see a longhouse village and the river scenery, well worth it. Overall, a definite recommend and say hello to Winston!

I did not stay at Hilton in Kuching but can recommend the town as a charming place. The museum is very good as is the Orang Utan 'reserve'. Further along into Borneo there are huge Caves in National Parks...no Hiltons though...that would be worth seeing.

If you are flying into Singapore flights are reasonable over to Kuching. You can also cross the causeway from Singapore to Johor Bahru in Malaysia and fly much cheaper. FLights from Kuala Lumpur are inexpensive as well.


[This message has been edited by myriad (edited 09-05-2000).]

[This message has been edited by myriad (edited 09-05-2000).]

Karen2

Bless our souls!! Only on Flyertalk! I cannot believe so many people have been to Batang Ai! We were there about 3 yrs ago and loved it. The two Hiltons are connected so you arrange your trip to Batang Ai at Kuching. My husband wanted to stay in a real longhouse but after we visited one, I was even more sure that the Hilton was a great substitute! Nice new hotel and a boat ride to see the real thing! Back to clean room and shower! Supposedly, if you are ambitious, you can hike to Kalimantan from the Batang Ai hotel. Ask for a river view room at the Kuching Hilton.

Karen2

Oops, one other piece of advice about flying around that part of Malaysia: If you book all your local flights with one airline, Malaysian, your total air cost will be about half what it would be if you even have one leg with any other airline. For the sake of the schedule, we wanted to fly one leg with Brunei's airline and that's how we found out about the one-airline deal. Go to Brunei while you are there. It is certainly different from either Sabah or Sarawak.

LordLuck

Thank you very much Koala, Myriad and Karen2!

estnet

I'm really enjoying my gold status - arrived at Hilton KL, went to desk to check in - "you have been upgraded to executive plus proceed to the 10th floor for check in". Check in at a comfortable seat in front of desk - whoops I made the reservation for the next day! No problem - they take care of it with a smile, and would I like some tea after my long journey? Oh, and we don't have a room ready yet but if you give us 10 minutes we will have a junior suite ready for you. (Mixed blessing - the hotel is older so the amount of street noise with the extensive windows was quite loud and there was a connecting door that was NOT insulated. OTOH a LARGE fruit platter was delivered in the afternoon along with a small box of chocolates.
The lounge had 3 food services and kind service all day. The noise really bothered me so I asked if I could go to Seremban a day earlier - no problem with a smile - a few minutes on the computer and it was taken care of.

Seremban - about an hour south of KL, famous for a "lake" which the locals are embarassed about now - it is a polluted dirty body of water, but the hotel is quite nice and has a waterfall arrangement as part of their pool. When I arrive check in is painless and I am escorted to a suite! Lovely bathroom with separate bath and large shower (which unfortunately ended up not having any hot water), bedroom, living area and dining area, nice view of the pool and mountains (I did ask to look at the regular room which was nice but much smaller and the one I saw had a nice view of the roof! I'm sure others have better views)
Amenity was 3 bottle of flavored water and 3 chocolates in a lovely black lacquer box (no I don't think the box is for taking, in fact I almost thought it was just a bedside decoration - and it was not replenished the next night), no special fruit plate - but there was fruit already in the room with a few pieces of exotic fruits (which were also not replenished)
The lounge was quite large, but food was sparse (maybe because the first day there must have been only 10 guests in the whole hotel, but the next day when there were a lot more guests the food was a bit better but you had to get it fast - once it was gone it was not refilled). Breakfast and a cocktail hour-no lunch snack. I choose to have breakfast in the restaurant because the variety was much better there.
Service in general was very good, staff was very friendly and the manager even had coffee with me and we had a nice chat. There are some things to be worked on - the pool lounge pads haven't arrived (it's been 2 months since they opened) which was a little hard on my body but your body may be more accomodating. The TV in my living area kept coming on and off mysteriously- first I thought the insulation btwn rooms was bad, then ? was I hearing voices (horrors) - but then I noticed the glow from the tv and once I unplugged it the problem did not reoccur Guess I wouldn't have had this problem if I didn't have a suite (no complaints here).
There was some construction noise but when I complained I was told it would be taken care of immediately if it happened again (and it didn't)
All in all two stays that make me want to stay at Hilton again!

Danial

Estnet,

Nice to hear that you had a wonderful time with Hiltons of Malaysia. As for KL Hilton, they won't be known as Hilton anymore coming this Mar 2001 as they will be called Royal Mutiara as Hilton doesn't want to extend their contract as there will be another new Hilton opening at KL Sentral in 2003. But this KL Hilton is excellent when comes to Gold and Diamond members as they will upgrade you before even you check in, and YES, their exec flr is one of the best in terms of service and varieties of food and snacks.

As for Seremban Hilton, may I know what rate did you pay them as they are quite stingy in giving upgrades especially when you have some younger staff. They even had a nerve to charge the executive flr upgrade in my account eventough I am Gold, and their exec flr lounge is one of the worst eventough they have been opened since Dec 2000.

You show have contacted me as I am staying near Seremban about 8 kms out.

estnet

Danial,

I paid 180 or 188 ringitt an "introductory" rate. Don't know why I was so lucky (maybe because they changed the booking from the KL executive desk - but I don't know if Seremban even knew this - it certainly had to do with gold because during a nice chat I had with the front desk manager later in the evening she said "you must travel quite a lot to be gold", there also were very few people staying in the hotel - which is probably not rare since they are so new, but the second night they were much fuller because there was a big party- the wedding of an important persons daughter) but I really enjoyed it.
Sorry I didn't know you were near there - would have loved to get in touch. In fact I was so impressed with the hotel that I may stop there again. Is your offer of a get together good for later? Feel free to email me.

YVR Cockroach

Note that this hotel has very recently terminated its management agreement with the Hilton and now belongs to some local chain. The only Hilton near KL is at Petaling Jaya.

Explore

Any reports? The prices are rock-bottom and Sarawak is said to be a really friendly place, within easy reach of Singapore. The Batang Ai resort sounds fabulous. Of course, many Malaysian hotels are known to lack maintenance, so new often means better.

As Gold using an award, can I expect an upgrade at the Kuching property, e.g. riverview?

SanDiego1K

I was given an upgrade to the Kuching club floor with river view as a Diamond in April. The hotel is great, with a very friendly staff.

There is an informative thread on the Batang Ai.

[This message has been edited by SanDiego1K (edited 09-30-2003).]

Asian_Traveller

Kuching Hilton has very friendly staff. You can probably get an upgrade if you are a Gold or Diamond member, just politely point out the terms of Hhonors if they forget. The reservation people usually go out of their way to please.

Batang Ai Hilton is a three hour drive from Kuching and is a hideaway type of resort. If you seek peace and solitude, this is the place. The reservatio is controlled by Kuching hilton, so you can make both reservations at one time.

Quality of finishing in the rooms are pretty good. Rooms are clean and of high standard.

Cheap friendly and relaxing. What more do you want?

[This message has been edited by Asian_Traveller (edited 10-02-2003).]

Explore

Thanks for the replies! Very informative, especially the Batang Ai thread.