December 10, 2008
Its Pronounces as Argh!-Famosa Holiday Resort
Looking at the title, you can probably guess that the A in A Famosa Resort means Anguish.
On the 6th of December, I embarked on a journey south towards A Famosa Resort with my sweetheart and her family for a 2days 1night holiday to commemorate my sweetheart’s brother’s wedding. Her brother did the reservation for 6 which cost about RM138/pax inclusive of entrance pass to the Animal World Safari and Cowboy Town (which was fully paid for in advance by credit card), and all I need to do was to show myself and have fun. At least that was the plan.
Due to some unforeseen circumstances, sweetheart’s brother was delayed. Since I was there first together with my sweetheart, we took the liberty to check in, or at least register at the resort to claim Animal World Safari and Cowboy Town entrance coupons to be used later in that day.
Upon passing through the guard house the thing that struck me was how big that place is (1300-acre). The signboards are well placed and are hard to miss, with many LARGE “CHECK IN” signboard which points to the resort hotel. A quick inquiry at the resort hotel reception re-routed us to the right direction which is at Beverley Hills Condominium/condotel a few kilometers away. Its a good thing that I drove, because that place is huge. The staff there were friendly and well informed. So far so good.
Checking In
Then, we reached the condotel, got down, and went to the registration counter. There were only two guest in front of me checking out (it was 11am), and it went down hill from there. What seems to be a 3-5 minute job per guest took half an hour to get to my turn. And when it’s my turn at the counter, the crowd has swelled to a throng.
There was only one person at the counter when I went into queue, they added another one 30 minutes later which doesn’t seems to be much help either.
The official check in time is at 4pm, the keys weren’t given to us until that time (they need time to clean up the room and replenish the toiletries), fair enough I think. However, I was allowed to “check in” register and verify the reservation to claim those entry vouchers. So, when 4pm comes, I just need to goto the counter, give them the reservation number and pickup the key, easier said then done. Find out more at Getting The Keys.
So, I’ve already got the entry coupons and “checked in”, with sweetheart’s brother not in sight, we scour for a restaurant at the condotel to kill some time and to calm myself down from the horrid “check in” encounter. We found one near the pool, which was the only restaurant at the condotel. The operation hours was 11.20am till late 11pm and its already 11.30am and nothing was prepared. The waiters were seen hurriedly trying to set the buffet table which is still empty, and the bar counter look ill stocked for a bar counter. Angry and hungry, I left for the Animal World Safari hopefully will be able to find something to eat there.
Animal World Safari
At the Animal World Safari the ticketing counter was filled with people. I stopped counting at 50. As I was queuing in that train of hot and sweaty visitors with wafting stench of manure from inside the park reeking out to the ticketing stand, a staff came to me and told me to go to the redemption counter (since I was holding a redemption coupon) which was much cooler (it’s air conditioned), less then 5 people in queue and redeemed those entry tickets with no drama. My spirits were high again.
A little over 12noon, the rest of the family arrived and we entered the Animal World Safari. Once inside, the first place I looked for is the Bamboo Steak House near the entrance which was marked at the mini map on the A Famosa attraction pamphlet. It just open, the stove wasn’t even turned on yet, nothing was ready. We then headed to the food court and there were visitors all over the place queuing at both the cashier and at the food counter to collect their food. it was orderly but slow.
Paid RM12 for these. Even public school canteen food tasted better then these. The curry is tasteless with almost a centimeter layer of oil floating on top. Its the same price for a KFC snack plate plus drink, but there are no KFC or any fast food chain around.
Done with lunch, we went for our first show which is the Wild Wild West show. We were seated and waited for the show to start. While waiting we were entertained with music from South Park! Imagine that, there are children around and they play Uncle Fucker out loud on the PA system. I’m not even a parent and I already feel disgusted in their distasteful choice of music.
The show however was okay.
After that was the Animal Show. It was meh.
Then the Bird Show, which is the only show I enjoyed as I find it very interactive with the audience. Like the RM10 donation, where an audience would stand up with his donation of RM10 held up high, then a parrot will fly to the donor, perch on his hand, pick up the red RM10 note with its beak, and fly back to the bird trainer on stage. I think they have easily made RM200 or more in that short 10-15 minute stint.
a visitor waving his RM10 donation to attract the attention of the parrot
parrot picking up the donation. i didn’t manage to take action shots of the bird flying off.
The Elephant Show was meh.
Lastly we embarked on a truck ride to tour around the large holding area where the animals are kept and allowed to roam free ala Jurassic Park style.
Getting The Keys
It was 6pm by the time we left the Animal World Safari and headed back to the condotel.
Instead of quickly handing over the reservation number and getting the key which takes less then a minute, I was made to wait again, this time there’s 5 more people ahead of me waiting to check in (the full registration and validation process) NONE of them looked pleased. I was tired, had a lousy lunch which was ridiculously overpriced and had songful of profanities played to me at the Wild Wild West show. Yes, my temper flared that very moment. So, what did A Famosa Resort Beverly Hills condotel management do to handle the throng of guest? Placed a guy to loiter at the counter with a piece of paper and a pen to write down names for the “waiting list”. Instead of queuing at the counter, we are seated for our names to be called. They didn’t even check with me if i need to register or not and Mr Pen and Paper wrote my name as Ms Wong. WTF!?!?!
Over the years I’ve seen government services improve its efficiency with better equipments, online/standardization program, better staff courtersey, service with a smile. I’ve got better, faster, friendlier treatment at the local Municipal Council DBKL a week ago to apply for my factory premise license. And a resort like this that ‘won’ so many so-called-awards that is not even on par with government agencies. Since they like winning awards so much (6 awards since 1996), it is my honor to dishonor them with my 2008 Craptacular Award which I specially made for them under 30minutes.
No it doesn’t end there. There’s more.
Cowboy Town
After a content meal of KFC dinner at the nearest town, Tampin (there’s no way I’m going to patronize any F&B outlets in A Famosa after the horrible lunch at Animal World Safari), we headed back to A Famosa for the Carnival at Cowboy Town. It reminded me so much of the national day parade, but instead of marching uniform men, it’s the stars of the many show from many A Famosa Resort attractions that parade themselves down the tarmac. I was awed by the fire breathing and fire juggling Red Indians. The show ended with a fireworks display.
Then the visitors made a beeline for the exit, which was also the entrance strategically situated next to the 4Dcineplex and public toilet which draws crowd from the opposite direction. Passed that bottleneck you’ll meet with another jam through the shopping arcade with their 12-15 feet walkway blocked with souvenir display smack in the middle of the walkway, narrowing the path to only 3-4 feet on both sides with mixed traffic from two directions. A Famosa Resort has very very very very poor crowd control.
The Condotel
The rooms were adequately furnished, there’s a dressing table and wardrobe in each room in addition to the bed with clean sheets. At least it’s better then Sri Malaysia where the rooms are musky and sheets which is any color but white.
I find the bed comfortable enough the sleep in and maybe sleep till late morning, if it’s not because of noisy neighbors perched outside the entire condo unit. I’m no zoologist so I can’t say for certain what species birds they are or if they are migratory birds, but the only thing in certain is they comes in a flock and are extremely noisy till midnight and woke me up in the wee hours of morning with their collective loud chirping.
I should’ve followed the advice in Trip Advisor to save myself from all the unnecessary stress, especially when it’s suppose to be a holiday. I’d NEVER visit that sick excuse for a resort, EVER!
December 14th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
Shame on the management…
It seems like a nice place without those disturbing issues. I also read the reviews at Trip Advisor. The management really should pay attention to all those complaints.