At dinner, there is only one other table behind me, two Indonesian men on their laptops and ipads, talking audibly to someone on the screen. I couldn’t concentrate on my reading because they are so obliviously and clearly loud. So I decided since I can’t see them, and I can’t shush them, I am going to pay attention with my ears so intently and make this post all about them.
I seem to walk into them discussing details about a new hotel, and one of them was reading off a list of criteria perhaps for an online listing of some kind. He would go ‘ Hotel pool: "no", Massage: “no”, Hotel Gym: “No”, Beach: “yes”, Wifi: “not yet”, Garden: “yes?! I think it’s a yes, what do you think?”, he asked the other guy, and the screen yelled, “yes, what we have count as garden!!”. The person on the other end of the screen sounds like a voice of reason, and also sounds like a woman. They continued their loud waffling totally unaware that I am listening to everything. Suddenly there’s a ringing on the screen and the woman answered what appeared to be her phone, then she started speaking in English. Over the voices of the two men, I could hear her trying to explain tour agent-like what time and what something is, and that there is 70% chance that they will see 'the bird', they have to arrive really early in the morning before the bird arrives. Over her voice, one of the guy seem to be explaining to the other guy that this is a tour to see a beautiful bird of paradise, that tourists would have to take a boat at 4 am and then hike for an hour to where these birds would be. Then they went back to talk about their new hotel, there seem to be some kind of online questionnaire to fill. So the next question seems to be an 'about us' bit question; ‘when was this hotel built’. He said "2012", then screen objected "no, are you sure?!", the guy said "Ok so 2013?", the screen answered with "lets just say 2011 ". There are many inflections I cannot translate from Indonesian to English that actually suggest a lot of ‘lets make shit up as it goes a long so we look good, accuracy isn’t important’. The ways these conversations goes, sounded a lot to me as if they’re playing, even when the topics are serious, banking details etcetera, the tone of their conversation is overly casual, sometimes down right goofing off, especially these two men. Since I agree with most of her points including the bits that is slightly offering inaccurate information for the purpose of good impression, the woman on the screen seem to sound the most serious and the most clued in on how to run a hotel. The tone of this dinner conversations does not indicate that this hotel actually exists and it's all just for fun. It is likely that this hotel does exist, but having heard this conversation, it doesn't make me feel confident that they are 'professional hotelier'. and I don't want to stay there.
Then they carry on talking about what time should check-in and check-out be? The man who sounded most bossy says’ tell them they can check in as early as 10 am, and the screen hissed and said ‘no, that is only for special requests, isn’t it?”, the man retorted; “ no, its fine, if they come in their own motorboat, they will arrive early, and also tell them they can check out as late as 3pm”, the other man added casually “4 pm”. Bossy man reiterated to the screen with pride “ yeah, they can check out as late as 4 pm even”. Then they discussed banking details again until they said to the screen that they now need to eat their dinner so the lady wished them "Selamat makan" and hung up. Now the two continued a bit more discussing their kids. Then they started the process of ordering and asked what is the speciality, what would the waitress recommend. Then other guests started to arrive. I now can’t hear them that clearly anymore.
I seem to walk into them discussing details about a new hotel, and one of them was reading off a list of criteria perhaps for an online listing of some kind. He would go ‘ Hotel pool: "no", Massage: “no”, Hotel Gym: “No”, Beach: “yes”, Wifi: “not yet”, Garden: “yes?! I think it’s a yes, what do you think?”, he asked the other guy, and the screen yelled, “yes, what we have count as garden!!”. The person on the other end of the screen sounds like a voice of reason, and also sounds like a woman. They continued their loud waffling totally unaware that I am listening to everything. Suddenly there’s a ringing on the screen and the woman answered what appeared to be her phone, then she started speaking in English. Over the voices of the two men, I could hear her trying to explain tour agent-like what time and what something is, and that there is 70% chance that they will see 'the bird', they have to arrive really early in the morning before the bird arrives. Over her voice, one of the guy seem to be explaining to the other guy that this is a tour to see a beautiful bird of paradise, that tourists would have to take a boat at 4 am and then hike for an hour to where these birds would be. Then they went back to talk about their new hotel, there seem to be some kind of online questionnaire to fill. So the next question seems to be an 'about us' bit question; ‘when was this hotel built’. He said "2012", then screen objected "no, are you sure?!", the guy said "Ok so 2013?", the screen answered with "lets just say 2011 ". There are many inflections I cannot translate from Indonesian to English that actually suggest a lot of ‘lets make shit up as it goes a long so we look good, accuracy isn’t important’. The ways these conversations goes, sounded a lot to me as if they’re playing, even when the topics are serious, banking details etcetera, the tone of their conversation is overly casual, sometimes down right goofing off, especially these two men. Since I agree with most of her points including the bits that is slightly offering inaccurate information for the purpose of good impression, the woman on the screen seem to sound the most serious and the most clued in on how to run a hotel. The tone of this dinner conversations does not indicate that this hotel actually exists and it's all just for fun. It is likely that this hotel does exist, but having heard this conversation, it doesn't make me feel confident that they are 'professional hotelier'. and I don't want to stay there.
Then they carry on talking about what time should check-in and check-out be? The man who sounded most bossy says’ tell them they can check in as early as 10 am, and the screen hissed and said ‘no, that is only for special requests, isn’t it?”, the man retorted; “ no, its fine, if they come in their own motorboat, they will arrive early, and also tell them they can check out as late as 3pm”, the other man added casually “4 pm”. Bossy man reiterated to the screen with pride “ yeah, they can check out as late as 4 pm even”. Then they discussed banking details again until they said to the screen that they now need to eat their dinner so the lady wished them "Selamat makan" and hung up. Now the two continued a bit more discussing their kids. Then they started the process of ordering and asked what is the speciality, what would the waitress recommend. Then other guests started to arrive. I now can’t hear them that clearly anymore.
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