~ 23rd March 2014 ~
After being driven through quiet highways and lonely towns, we finally see some live on the road. Will show you the night market along the shoulders of the road soon. The van driver dropped us by the road side and our hotel was really by the road side. We wanted to pamper ourselves with better hotel stay so Pinky booked for us Lealea Garden Hotel in hope of a sea view and sea breeze. Such were our imaginations gone totally wild. We really pictured ourselves in a hotel room with such beautiful view that we were quite shocked to find our hotel by the roadside. When we were in Sun Moon Lake, we saw that Lealea Hotel and we told ourselves, we needed to be rich people to stay there as it has such expensive and classy-look. Our words came to pass so soon and before we knew it, we were standing in front of Lealea Garden Hotel. Such was the blur-ness of my travel buddy who didn't even realize what sort of hotel she booked and it's a four-star hotel with no garden view at all.
None-the-less, we were really excited and we were on top of the world. Forget about any garden or sea view. It's not like we would stay in the hotel room to enjoy any scenery outside. Do you know that we wouldn't even realize whether there's a window or not in our room? Even if there's a window, we would make sure that the shades are drawn and our room well-shaded from the sun or from the outside world. Hermit-living we enjoyed :D
We were greeted with this welcoming board, people penning down their wishes. We stood there for some time, reading and laughing at some funny phrases.
The lobby might not be top notch like some hotels but after staying in so many minsu without lobbies, we were quite happy to see one. We imagined ourselves sitting there, resting but that never come to pass. We never even rest our butts on the sofa set. We were too busy running around.
We wanted to tour Kending. Mind you, what's written in the tourism board was so unlike what we experienced. All those beautiful printed coloured photos with holidaymakers were not even real. As the Malay saying goes 'Indah khabar daripada rupa'. What you see is not what you get. Since we did not make any plans, smart me told mi madre and the travel buddy that since we were staying in a 4-star hotel, definitely they will be able to arrange something for us. Thanks to my Kuching experience where I got the hotel to arrange for me a driver to drive me around. So, in less than a minute we got ourselves a driver for the next day's tour.
When we entered the room, our mouth were gaping open like a fish out of the aquarium. There were two queen size beds for the three of us. Usually we would only have one queen size and one single bed for the two of us. The bed looked so inviting but we were cautious not to jump straight onto the bed lest we break our bones if those mattresses were rock solid hard like those mattresses in Alishan Gou Hotel, made of solid rocks.
We looked behind the door and there was another queen size bed. We were so excited to see three queen size beds. 4-star hotel it was! We looked a few times thinking it was the reflection of the bed through the mirror but it was really three beds in one room with ample of space for us to mess around.
We hardly stay in hotels because we have the same kind of thinking whereby we would only need a place to sleep in and the next day, we would be bouncing off already. So, why bother paying so much for just a few hours of rest? Well, now I truly understand. You pay for the comfort if not the service. That's all.... comfort. The travel buddy said that according to the Chinese mentality, everything must be taken home no matter what. Therefore, being Chinese, we helped her grabbed everything into the luggage. No wonder our luggage were exploding.
Then, the mini coffee area was fantastic as well. The whole room was painted in apple green. I could accept that colour but I like the red of the door most.
We had more than enough towels but in the end we rescued the room from being flooded as there was a big leakage from the bath tub and the water spilled out of the bathroom. We used the towels to soak the water. Instead of calling the hotel service department to make a complain, we changed up to go for dinner. We're not those fussy people who complain but when we do complain, it's not good news anymore.
We like the table lamp and that standing television remote control. Shouldn't we take those two home as well? Nah... there's not enough space in the luggage and it's equivalent to stealing. We've heard a lot of stories where the Chinese tourists would take everything home including the toilet rolls. They took so many rolls home that by the time they reached home, they could keep those toilet rolls in the storeroom to be used for another month.
The only view we had was facing the lobby area. The next morning, we didn't need an alarm clock to wake us up. There's one whole bunch of Chinese tourists who spoke so loudly like they were talking in the marketplace. That really messed up our mornings. We did not like our sleep to be disturbed before our alarm clocks rang. That was the only incident that spoiled our stay there. Such unaccounted for morning calls of loud, rambunctious talking. Overall, the location was perfect for those pining for food.
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