China Trip Journal - 10

---

China Trip Journal - 10 ***

Monday, October 20, 2008
2:34 PM

Today I thought I should write about some of the things I've notice during my two week stay at the hotel. Since I have too much time in my hand, I reflect, react, notice more things that I probably wouldn't notice if T and I are simply on a vacation. So here it is…

For the last two weeks, I have been observing the way things work at this hotel. From food, to café service, to breakfast buffet, to house keeping, to how they approach the guest. So here I am some sort of a victim of culture shock and lack of a better service.

The hotel attendants at the front desk when we checked in:
1. They didn't necessarily paid attention to the fact that I am also a guest in the hotel, and directed all the checking in and talked to T as if I was not even there.
2. Very rude and unprofessional. And I guess it's a part of the show to have the manager of some sort to get spanked in front of the guest. T just didn't notice.

The Breakfast Buffet:
1. The first few times, there are three guys at the Omelet station. One practicing how to cook a sunny side up eggs very carefully, the omelet guy basically doing the same thing, then the third guy was teaching and supervising.
2. The omelet came out very runny and half way cooked. The worst part, I think the bacon bits was not smoked and it's just simply raw. Just imagine, a semi raw egg, a semi raw bacon, then have that for breakfast.
3. The fruit. It's basically tasteless.
4. The rest of the food are Chinese food, and probably up to Chinese standards of Chinese breakfast food. So not much I can say about that, other than it's not very appetizing for me in the morning.
5. The bread. It's fine.
6. The juice. It's not chilled enough, but everybody have their own preference.

So basically I haven't had a satisfying breakfast since we arrived.

The food we get for dinner is definitely a hit or miss, and it was more of a type where it would put you on a screaming mode asking for something better. That! It's enough of what I've tasted so far, and I am ready to crawl back to my own comfort zone. My own cooking if not the food that I would normally eat.

The hotel attendants:
So, what I have notice is that they have a lot of attendants, but it doesn't mean they are very attentive. The efficiency is plain poor. Customer service is alright if you're Caucasian. But, it's a problem for someone like me; an Asian American.

The attitude I've received is somewhat appalling. T and I would walk to for breakfast buffet and there have been several occasion that they would only greet him and welcome him. They don't even hesitate to not offend me. They have ignored me in front of T. And, we just had a discussion about that last night. What is it???

So I've decided to test out my theory, since T never had this problem. Duh! Yeah! As if we actually look a like! One morning, we walked together to the café and there it was another proof of me being ignored. This had happened many times, and I've lost count.

Other thing; one of the girls in the bar, serve T with a smile and totally shoved the rest of the my drink and the snacks in front of me and walked away with out looking nor a hint of a smile.

So, really…What is it???

Is it just plain mentality? Is it because they are not use to serving Asians like themselves politely? Is it insecurity in many of them? Is it policy? Or Is it more of me just having a culture shock, with the difference in attitude and dealings with people in general?

I don't want to judge anyone, because I don't know enough! I don't understand the reason behind why treatment varies from a white visitor to an Asian male business man, to an Asian woman, to an Asian American visitor men and women.

It's really puzzling. Unfortunately, my expectation for this trip is very optimistic and I guess I was wrong! I didn't realize that I would experience such treatment. But on the other hand, some are simply misunderstandings. The lack of a better word to communicate well in English. A language barrier.

Some are simply intentional. It's probably how other Chinese people comes and go and treat the servers like their beneath them. Even so…the idea of a business hotel or a vacation hotel should not be as stiff guided with this type of mentality. It's painstaking to go through. It's sad to think for an Asian American me who tries to get to know and was excited to learn about the culture would feel so unwelcome. I thought more of great experience of hospitality on this trip. Then again, I was dead wrong!

---