pakdoktergolfblog: "Would you consider a 'Vacation Club'....Sir.."

4th July 2009

As reported in one of the earlier blogs, at the arrival cabana of the Koh Samui airport, pakdokter was beseiged by a group of sweet Thai girls promoting the Marriot Vacation Club packages to the arriving tourists. Nadia, the sweet and charming sales agent not only managed to distract pakdokter from pakdokter's partner but also convinced pakdokter to spend 90 minutes to listen to a presentation on Saturday morning at her downtown office and offerred in return free golf vouchers as well as free transfer to our hotel.

One of their qualifying requirements is that pakdokter must earn at least 50k USD a year. Pakdokter told Nadia that in a good season, pakdokter's bounty and harvests at best could only fetch about 45K USD, but she still signed up pakdokter for the presentation despite of this!

Deep inside pakdokter thought times must be quite bad......

Nadia called up the hotel on Friday afternoon and reminded pakdokter about the Saturday morning's appointment and detailed about the pick-up that she had arranged. Pakdokter was impressed.....

Pakdokter and partner with pakTengku and family waited at the lobby at 9.30 am. Until 15 minutes past 10 am nobody came to look for us. Pakdokter approached the reception to enquire and was told that someone had actually come at 9.30 and looked for us. Neither the pick-up man ( the poor soul was sitting there right in front of us!) nor the guys and girls at the reception had approached us to ask despite seeing us waiting there for 45 minutes......

That, in a nut-shell, described the level of alertness of the service, to be expected in Koh Samui.

We obviously arrived late for the 10 am presentation but despite of this, on arrival at the 'posh-looking' office, were taken to their lounge and offerred refreshments of our choice. Baby-sitting service was on hand with a play-room to keep the children distracted from their parents.

Hmmm...impressive..

Finally, a young Brit gentleman, by the name of Julian ( if pakdokter's memory has not failed) made his appearence and took us to the 'presentation suite'. He was somewhat 'flustered' and apologised for the fact that the computer system was actually 'down' and there was no way he could make the presentation to us without this 'technology' being available. And he tried to make 'small' of this hiccup by 'jokingly' telling us that from his 'astute' observation of us based on years of successful salesmanship ( he claims to be the most successful sales agent for the company), he knew that we were not likely to buy the 'vacation package' as our minds were more tuned to the golf that we were going to play for 'free' after the presentation.

Pakdokter took it as a joke, laughed it off, and complimented him for cleverly reading our minds.

Julian left us in the suite with some brochures to look at. He must have gone to see if the computer system was ever going to come alive or not for he obviously was not able to do any presentation to us without it. When he re-appeared some 10 to 15 minutes later he looked just as helpless as he was earlier and confirmed that no way was the computer system going to be revived, not even by their computer technician.

And he said that if we were not interested in the vacation package to begin with, he was not going to waste his time and our time to talk about it. We were free to go and enjoy our golf!

In pakdokter's mind this is 'amateur reverse psychology' with a little 'insult' thrown in, in 'high-class extortion' of potential customers.

Pakdokter did not bite the 'bait' but pakTengku came out and asked Julian to at least give a 'gist' of the plan.

Hah hah.....some possibility here .....' but are you sure you want a gist of it...No, no....no....it is going to take at least 4 hours ( without the computer - pakdokter guessed) for the presentation.....and you will not have time for your golf....!'

Julian said he was not going to spend 4 hours to give us a gist of the plan if at the end of it we were not really interested in it after all. He said he meant 'no offence' to us for we look to him to be the type that would unashamedly walk away and take home whatever 'free-bees' on offer. He was happy to let us go away easily....

Pakdokter again complimented him on how good it was of him in reading other people's minds....

'But...' he chipped in as pakdokter was trying to stand up..' as you (pakTengku) wanted a gist of it...let me at least tell you that the plan costs from 12k USD to 100k USD.' As all of us were silent and were waiting for him to tell us more, he added ' and again not meaning to offend you....judging from the hotel where you are staying, I do not think you can afford it.......so, please feel free to leave and enjoy your golf.....'

He must have sensed pakdokter's feelings despite pakdokter's laughter for he tried another lame joke saying that in his experience many people came to their office and staged a 'reverse take-away...'

In pakdokter's mind if this chap were to be retrenched soon in this economic hard-times, he could possibly try his luck as a stand-up comic...

And he pulled another punch thinking that it would make it light on us by saying that at least he found us 'Malaysians' easy to deal with. Malaysians would leave their premises willingly and happily unlike the Indians who would swipe clean their drinks counter and ask for more cookies to take home as well.......

To borrow pakTengku's often-used Manglish statement....pakdokter thought " eh....this is cannot..."

So pakdokter came out with the 'tomoi' kick' and said....

" by the way Julian, can I ask a stupid question.... is this plan the same as the one offerred by Bernie Madoff....."

Poor Julian probably did not expect this coming but was quick to retort ' yes....this is in fact exactly what it is......'

Pakdokter 'belum habis...' and so asked him ' would this plan last 125 years....?

Julian had to joke that he would offer pakdokter a 25% remission and with that pakdokter and company collected our free vouchers and hopped on to their free transfer to the Royal Samui Golf Course.

In the car pakTengku confessed to pakdokter that if pakdokter had not been there pakTengku would probably have bought one of the more expensive plans just to show Julian what stuff pakTengku is made off.

Well, to Julian, good luck. If only he knew that the intial M after pakdokter's name stand for Mohamad @ Mittal........for in pakdokter's past life, pakdokter had hailed from the Kingdom of Maharashtra.....