Worswick;
<<Your post from the resort was gruelling.>>
Life in "paradise" is never all its cut out to be as I know you know. But here is a management story right out of a Gahan Wilson cartoon. Its made all the more macabre by its veracity.
A friend of ours manages a high toned spa on the Island of Langkawi. She is well acquainted with the hotels on whom she depends for referrals. She told this story to us over lobsters and Chardonay on the beach one night.
Seems that the Berjaya Resort has an Austrian resident manager and the obligatory Malay general manager. A problem that all the resorts have is the trespass of unwanted animals. As you probably know Muslims regard dogs as "unclean". The Malay GM's response to dog control was to have the animals captured and sent to the local tourista crocodile farm for feeding time. The resident manager, upon hearing this, had all the cats rounded up and sent to the croc farm for the same treatment in retaliation (Malay's love cats). As of my visit the GM must've been winning as I saw two cats and no dogs on the property. At another hotel they were having problems with the monkeys. The island has a huge population of two different species. One of these, locally called "black face" monkeys, are very impish and brazen. The local staff hit upon a solution. They captured a monkey and spray painted it dayglo green. They then released it. Scurrying back to its tribe in confusion, the now tinted monkey, scared the bejeeezuz out of the other monkeys and they headed for the hills screeching all the way. No more monkeys...for a day or two anyway. A week later a staff member reported that his neighbor, searching for wild honey, came across the carcass of the tinted monkey. Inevitably the monkey tribe turned on him and killed him. So much for man's endeavors at controlling nauture. Wisely the hotel kept a hush on the event and now endeavors to educate its vistors about monkeyshines relative to disease, leaving things laying about, or patio doors open, etc.
Kiddie challenge: In the above stories please spot the real monkeys.
(special hint: Monkeys don't like chardonay and lobster).
Best,
Stitch |
