Celtic Lounge

This is my first trip to Amsterdam this year. This time I decided to stay at Sofitel Amsterdam, one of the better hotels around Schiphol Airport. The hotel is not cheap! EUR 230 per night including breakfast. That’s approx RM1083 which I can get a nice suite in Malaysia! Here are two pictures of the room.

My flight arrived at 5.40am, so after check-in, I took a nap while waiting for the shops in the city to open at 10~11am. The easiest and cheapest way to get to the city is by train. So from the hotel, I took the hotel shuttle bus to Schiphol Airport which takes around 10 mins and at the airport there is a train station. The tickets cost EUR6.50 roundtrip.

I love the trains in Holland. They are clean, not crowded and double decker! There is a train every 6 mins from the Airport to the city centre. Travel time is only 15 mins. Oh, I forgot to mention the trains doors don’t open automatically. You need to press a button at the side of the door.

Amsterdam city is very much the same. Kalverstraat (the shopping street) is as busy as ever. I did not walk around much this time as it was raining. After picking up some stuff, I headed back to the hotel.

My first business trip of the year. This time to the Land Island of Gods, Bali. It’s been 10 years since my last trip. My trip to Bali this time is for the Asia Pacific Conference. I stayed at the beautiful Grand Hyatt in Nusa Dua. The hotel compound of the hotel is so huge that you need at map! Serious! I got lost the first day as the whole compound is so huge. There are a total of 5 swimming pools and 700 rooms located in the different villages - North, South, East and West.

The conference started with an optional dinner on the beach. Even though it’s mention as optional. You are expected to be there. It was a relaxing evening as a band was brought in to entertain us. Did not stay too late as conference starts at 8am the next morning.

In the conference, there was going to be Awards for 2006/2007. Malaysia was nominated for “Best in Direct Sales and E-Business”. Guess what, we won! I really happy with the award as my hard work has finally paid off. Our internet sales surpassed more advance countries like Singapore, Korea and Japan. With the award comes some bad news, my target for 2007/2008 is 200% above what I did for 2006/2007. Sigh… how am I going to do it?

Day 1
Arrived from Paris last night. After being in Paris for the last few days, Amsterdam is a fresh air! Everyone in Amsterdam speaks English unlike Paris. Plus I’m far more familiar with Amsterdam than Paris.

After breakfast, I head downtown to shop. I love Amsterdam during Christmas, you feel that it’s really here with large christmas trees, christmas lighting and carols everywhere in the city. I managed to pick up some goodies. There were so many things that I want to buy but budget does not permit. The exchange rate is RM4.8o to 1 Euro.

Day 2
Nothing much happened. Had to go to the Amsterdam Head Office for a training. Quite boring actually as I already know the system inside out. After training headed to the airport for my flight home.

Business trip to Paris with two colleagues - CW and SPW. Both of them cannot get along with each other.Day 1
The first day was an adventure for us as we had some trouble looking for the bus to the Suitehotel. I did not know there was more than one Suitehotel around the airport. On arrival in CDG1, CW and I took the bus to Suitehotel to find out it’s the wrong one! We took the bus back to CDG1 and the information counter could not help us - “Sorry I cannot help you if you don’t have the address”. Sigh, can’t they call one of the Suitehotel to ask? Stupid French attitude.

We took a risk as I know there were many buses at the CDG1 train terminal that we can take to hotels. While waiting at the bus stop, SPW appeared. All three of us made our way to the train terminal and asked around. The information counter told us to take the public bus while the FREE Suitehotel pink bus was at the other side of the terminal. Again stupid French attitue!

The public bus stopped 300 meters from the hotel and we had to walk in the cold and wet weather! We checked in and had some rest before going out. The Suitehotel is quite unique for a European hotel as it has a microwave in the room!

At 11am, I called CW to ask if she wanted to go out as SPW already has her own plans. I could not get hold of her. So I called SPW to check on CW. We tried many times to call but no luck. I went to the hotel lobby to catch the shuttle bus and met two colleagues from Philippines. They mentioned that CW just left and said that we did not want to include her. In my heart, I went “What the *toot*”. I have been searching for her for 30 mins and she tells people that I don’t want to include her?

Anyway I was not feeling well (fever, coughing, flu) so I just went to Carrefour for some warm chinese food.

Day 2
Breakfast at Suitehotel was croissants and coffee/tea. That’s it! There is no butter or jam. Both SPW and myself looked at each other and we decided to go to CDG2 for Mc Donald’s brunch. We asked CW to come along but she decline. After brunch we went to head office for our forum.

After our forum, we were shipped by bus loads to the Aeronautical museum for dinner. The dinner was so-so. What can we expect when dinner is a sit down for 1,000 people. CW sat with us and she was anti-social the whole night while SPW, Yani, Clara and myself were enjoyed each other’s company.

Day 3
After breakfast, we were again shipped to Hyatt for a conference before proceeding to head office for part 2 of our forum. CW continued to be anti-social while SPW was being herself. Our flight from Paris to Amsterdam was 1730 hours. At 1500 hours, SPW is no where to be found and CW was grumbling about the shuttle bus being full and there were 400 bags in the luggage room. I did not want to hear so I walked away. Found SPW at 1545 hours and quickly rushed her to collect our bags and take the shuttle bus. At the airport, chaos started between CW and SPW. CW started scolding SPW over flight details, the e-ticket…etc. I did not want to be part of it, so I went straight to the lounge to take a drink and snack before the flight.

On arrival in Amsterdam, we parted our ways. CW and SPW had a connecting flight from Amsterdam to Singapore before reach Kuala Lumpur, while I will continue to be in Amsterdam for the next two days.

My schedule for this and next week is fully occupied!

06 - 07 Dec : Miri, Sarawak
08 Dec : Kuching, Sarawak
10 Dec : Kuala Lumpur/Paris
11 - 12 Dec : Paris
13 Dec : Paris/Amsterdam
14 Dec : Amsterdam
15 Dec : Amsterdam/Kuala Lumpur

Arrived in Paris at Charles de Gaulle 1, 5.45am. MAS uses the old terminal which is very different compared to Charles de Gaulle 2. It a very long walk from the gate to arrival. Had to take a walkalator that goes into a long tunnel before getting to the main terminal. Above the long tunnel is actually the runway. At the main terminal building, I had to take a rather confusing escalator before getting to the immigration and customs.

I had to catch a bus to Dorint Novotel and had to wait outside the arrival hall in the cold morning wind of Paris. The bus came about 10 mins later and I was the only passenger on it. On arrival at the hotel, the check-in staff gave me a room without any problems unlike my last stay at Novotel Roissy.

I got a nice room. Very spacious for European standard. I took a shower and slept for a while. Woke up at 11am and got ready for shopping at Carrefour at Sevran Beaudottes. It’s the nearest hypermarket to the airport. It’s only 3 stops away but cost EUR8 roundtrip!

The Christmas decors at Carrefour brought out the child in me! I could not resist and bought a house with a figurine of two persons singing, one lamp post and one x’mas tree. I also managed to get 6 bars of my favourite Nestle Fruit and Nut Dark Chocolate. I spend about 5 hours at Carrefour as there were many other interesting things that I wanted but could not buy. Not enough money and could not carry.

Travelled on MH20 this evening from Kuala Lumpur to Paris. Not used to Economy Class as I’ve been spoiled in Business Class whenever I travel on KLM. Anyway, the Economy Class on MAS is not that bad. The food is more Asian and the inflight entertainment is quite good. I was quite tired and managed to sleep on the flight.

Took an early flight from KL to Penang. Arrive in Penang Cititel and immediately started to get ready for the seminar. The Sales Executive, Helena met up with us and treated us to lunch at the Cititel coffee house. I enjoyed the food and can say that it’s one of the better hotel food in Penang. The service rendered was good.

After the seminar, we had to rush over to Mayflower for an in-house briefing. We managed to squeeze a 4 hour seminar into a 1.5 hours seminar for them. We finished around 8.30pm and Madeline and Shanice picked us up and we went to dinner at “3 roads” street. We had the Penang Hokkien Mee and fried toufu. (The Penang Hokkien Mee is known as Prawn Mee in KL). From there, we proceeded to a stall in front of Traders Hotel (the former Shangri-la) for glutinous rice balls. It came in a big bowl and each had 15 small and 1 large ball. The large one contained peanuts. Yummy!

We were so full after dinner and tired after the long day that we headed back to the hotel to rest.