Working Trip to Langkawi

I went for a one week seminar to Langkawi. We stayed in a "once a nice hotel". The cruise ships use to dock there with visitor from our neighboring country. However, the situation there is now the opposite.

The hotel was run down, the rooms are not in a good shape. When I first went in the room, just as I open the door, the rooms smells like as if 1,000 people had smoked inside. The smell of cigarettes was so strong that I have to open the glass door to ventilate it for the whole afternoon.

The food they offered was also nothing impressive. All the meals were covered under our seminar packages, all buffet meals, however, after the 2ND day I had enough. The menu seems the same everyday. Especially breakfast. Everyday is the same dish. As for lunch and dinner, the usual dishes are there everyday with only one or two dish that is different.

One this good about the place is the seminar rooms were big and the air conditioner is really freezing cold making everyone sleepy, especially after lunch.

In the seminar, my effort at work was recognised by the management. The company awarded me with Certification of Above and Beyond the Call of Duty (ABCD) for the work that I have done for the pass year. It was signed by our Group Vice President from the US which happens to be there for this seminar too.

All together we spend 4 days and 3 nights there, in which it was totally roaming in the hotel area only. Non of us left the hotel for the 4 days. Nights were spend by chatting up with colleagues with drinks on the unlimited tap.

During this trip, I manage to meet up with one of a manager which I worked with very closely when I first join this company. He is now based in Australia and he was so keen to see me helping him with his work there. During this time also, grounds were set for the coming year and what is the finale that the company wanted to see by December 2009.

Overall rating, the seminar was good. It manage to set clear the goals for this year and the coming year. Just the venue was not as desirable, but then again, during this slow economic times, at least our department manage to secure budget to organise such a seminar as compared to other departments which need to cancel their yearly seminars and meetings, there is nothing that I can complaint.