So I say to the waiter, “Is it normal to serve white wine at room temperature in Singapore”, Well according to him it is, but he can chill it for me if I wish but it will take 5 minutes. Welcome to the Changai Village Hotel, or maybe it should be the Changai Village Catering School.

In my past life before I got into IT I was a Hotel Manager back in Ireland. After spending my school days working at the Leopardstown Inn, I did a 3 year term at Cathal Brugha St (Catering College in Dublin) followed with 10 years hard labour in the trade .

In the latter part of my hotel life I was trained as an instructor for a state agency in Ireland called CERT and subsequently put in a couple of seasons as a Bar and Restaurant Service Instructor. Tonight, sitting in the restaurant of the Changai Village Hotel I was suffering Deja V’ue frm those days.

Let me set the scene, on my way to Sulawesi in Indonesia for that long awaited dive trip, Singapore Airlines to Singapore and their local subsidary, Silk Air, for the Singapore to Manado leg. Introduce Volcano Eruption! Yeah, you read it right “my flight was cancelled due to a Volcano!” How often does that one happen to you!

Sounds mad doesn’t it, until you call the resort in Manado and they don’t know anything about a Volcano and all the other airlines are flying into Manado, no longer sounds mad, indeed, starting to get mad. Anyway, flight cancelled and we’re shafted till the next day so 7 and a half hours after departure time (it was a comedy of errors and incompetance show by the Singapore Airlines staff) we make it to a Singapore Airlines Executive Hotel called the Changai Village hotel.

Well you have heard the story about the restaurant already.

So why am I writing this, am I just mad about todays experience? Maybe that’s part of it but there is more bugging me…its a 1960′s hotel thats in need of renovation, the bar and restaurant is over staffed to make up for staff inexperience and its like, well, all the staff are Indonesian and Indian and it looked like the boss were locals, there was just something very wrong…its an amateur show, like Singapore Airlines earlier.

Just ignore me, I’m bitchin’

Roll on Sulawesi tomorrow..