Tanjung Rhu Resort in Pulau Langkawai isn't quite the poetic retreat of natural beauty that it's advertising materials made it out to be. But then who wants to wax lyrical about poetic charms when all one is looking for is an enjoyable holiday with courteous service that's good value for money?

Yes, I'm a pleb where creature and wallet comforts are concerned. TRR looked after both splendidly.

First, their quality of service is world class -- something which Singapore is always talking about but hasn't quite made it where customer satisfaction is concerned.

Those put in charge of looking for service standards for Singapore to benchmark against may learn something from a trip to TRR as their staff can teach us a thing or two.

Everyone working on the resort is ever ready with a smile and a greeting. From the gardener and the cleaner right up to the managers. They make eye-contact and aren't shy to initiate a greeting.

I found this quite a change from what I've experienced at home, even at clubs where I'm a member and staff are supposed to know the members.

Yet the service at TRR is not servile. They ask about your day/meal/whatever but they also know when to beat it after the exchange of pleasantries and/or the delivery of service. Quite unlike other service providers I've encountered elsewhere who mistake over-familiarity with good service.

Of course, warm greetings mean nothing if they don't also translate into service that anticipates the customer's expectations. And TRR's service does go beyond smiles.

Truly, it's the only good class hotel I've stayed at where there was no need to ask for fresh towels. They are replenished twice during the day, without waiting for the guest to ask. For the two of us sharing one room, there were five large bath towels, four hand towels and four face towels at any one time.

I've come across hotels which, under the pretense of caring for the environment, ask their guests to ask for fresh towels sparingly. I think there are better ways for hotels to save the environment other than stingeing on clean towels and bedsheets.And they have the cheek to charge the full room rates.

TRR is also the first hotel I've stayed in for longer than I can remember where the tissue paper box is always full and the loo paper plentiful. I was spared the worry of having to call housekeeping, a detail which alas not many hoteliers nowadays take too much care over.

Then, I must rave about their food. The package I was on included full board. Except for alcoholic beverages, everything was incuded. We could eat and drink, 24 hours, if we could stomach it.

There are three restaurants, a poolside cafeteria plus a reading room which serves high tea and truly imaginative finger-sandwiches.

Much attention has gone into all the menus. There is local fare; there is Midetteranean fare. There is fine dining which offered dishes that in taste and presentation put some of the fine dining offered in Singapore at Singapore prices to shame.

Even a casual salad by the poolside had pizzaz. When it came to fine dining at the Rhu, the extra mile was taken. Sorbet served in between dishes to allow the palate to better appreciate the fresh taste of a new dish came in a bowl made out of carved ice!

Painstaking in detail and taste too was the pumpkin and watercress soup presented yin-yang style which ensured that the taste and colour remained distinct and separate. A treat for the eyes and the taste-buds.

Given that TRR had already impressed at so many levels, I thought it would be difficult for it to impress further. But I was wrong.

Yet given the high standards it has set and achieved, I really shouldn't have been surprised that when a few drops of rain from the open balcony where we were dining caused us to change tables to escape the elements, the restaurant manager actually gave us fresh glasses of wine, even though we had almost emptied our original glasses. And all without extra charge.

The reason? A waiter replied: The rain might have diluted your wine. And we were drinking only plonk ordered by the glass.

I can't end my breathless praise of TRR without some mention of the variety and quality of its bread. If man has to live by bread alone, then he had better make sure his baker is TRR.

The bread at TRR is made from different types of flour, moulded interestingly into different sizes and shapes offering different tastes and textures.

My companion was fascinated by the onion puree she found on breaking open a bite size roll while I couldn't get enough of thin crisps encrusted with sesame seeds.

And what sinfully sweet-endings are offered by TRR! I particularly liked the chocolate and ginger cake which oozed warm chocolate that wasn't sweet or cloying. It was so good that even though I was full to the brim I couldn't stop eating.

So, forgetting what the dessert was named, I decided to call it "Death by Chocolate". Surely a gourmet way to exit a truly memorable holiday resort.

Best viewed with with your screen set to 800X600
Copyright � 2000-02. All rights reserved.