Club Med Cherating Beach

Just hoping that John could post his detailed Cherating CM report here, sometime soon. I think there are a few of us looking forward to it.

Cheers

Ask and ye shall receive.

I will try to present this report in topic form, although I may stray off of that from time to time.

First of all, I must thank Maukitten for her incredible hospitality while I was in KL (Kuala Lumpur). It was much appreciated. Also, Madrigal, I enjoyed meeting you and having a few drinks and wonderful conversation. It was interesting that we met at the poker table wasn't it?

To borrow a phrase from Brian Wilson, there are some Good Vibrations at this club. It just feels real good.

Ambiance--this is almost a throwback (old fashioned) club med. It is very non-competitive. There are some contests, but not that many. They don't award medals. The winner in a competion gets a certificate, no other participants get anything (and no one complains). There is no awards ceremony, just a dinner (land sports dinner, archery dinner, even a lifeguard dinner, but I hope the photos have been destroyed from that one). It is an extremely friendly club.

Physical appearance--this is a very beautiful club. It is right up there with Bali, and Phuket, if not better. In terms of cleanliness, you could do surgery on the sidewalks. The place is kept spotless, including the grounds, which are very beautifully maintained. Although they don't mention it, there is a lake with beautiful lotus flowers at the end of the club on the way to the sailing area.

Travel--there are basically two arrivals and two departures a day, even though some people drive in from KL and park in the parking lots. One departure from the club is a 8:15 AM and one at 3:45 PM. They go to the airport in Kuantan. People are coming and going each day.

GO's--They are from all over, Japan, China, Korea, France, South Africa, Bali, and two Americans. One, Bobby works in the boutique and is from California, a very nice guy with some great ideas on how to improve the boutique. The other is Jeremy, and Jeremy, well, Jeremy is Jeremy. He is very tall, deep voice, and the Asian GO's still can't understand his Minnesota accent. Some of the GO's say he reminds them of RoboCop, and he kind of does. They mean it in a nice way. Can you believe that he teaches yoga, and does a real good job.

This was a time of change over for the GO's. They also had 7 choreographers in training there before they go on to other club meds. BTW, don't play poker with one of them, Tracey, she's deadly. The Land Sports GO's were Cliff (Sports Center), Tisna (Archery, new from Bali), Dario (Multi Land Sport), Hyun Ju (Multi Land Sport and a real sweetheart), Agustinus (Lifeguard), Jeremy (Fitness), Oliver (Golf), Laurent (Multi Land Sport), Robin (Lifeguard--I loved meeting and having multiple dinners with her and her parents who were visiting from South Africa), Sandro (Lifeguard).

I never met a single GO who wasn't incredibly friendly. They would literally go out of their way to come over, say hello, and ask how things were going.

Before I forget, Suzanne from Reception was unbeliveably charming, and yes, I did enjoy going shoe shopping with her. Christie, who is the front desk manager, is constantly bubbly and wanting to know how to make your stay better.

All of this positive attitude goes back to the CDV, Karim, who manages a good club.

GM's--Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Malaysian, a goodly number of French, a few Aussies, a suprisingly large number of South Africans, expats of mixed nationalities, and yes, one American--me. I mentioned to one GO that I didn't expect to see a lot of Americans, and he said, Oh, no we had another American two months ago. One American every two months can be enough.

GE's--I was always greeted with a Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Hello, How are you, and always a smile.

Bar--What's all the complaining about? They worked their butts off and did a good job. A couple of new bar people had some problems, but overall a nice efficient bar. BTW, the beer is Carlsberg.

Food--Extraordinary. Fren

Thanks John, awesome report. Do you know who the mini club GO's were? Do you have any pics we can see?

Thanks again.

Hi John

Not at all! Glad to know that you got home safely, and hope to see you again soon.

Yrs truly
Maukitten

Hi John,

Just curious, how's the new archery GO? There were several GOs who were looking after the place around January. Sandro is one wacky archer, and he keeps laughing alot when he's not on lifeguard duty...what a funny bunch.

Thanks!

An answer to some of your questions.

I can't remember the names of the mini-club GO's. I did do some ironing one morning with an Aussie GO from mini-club. They have irons in the laundry area. Interestingly, every evening the mini-club GO's would come up to me in the bar and say hello.

I have just downloaded 450 photos from my camera into my computer, but haven't begun to edit them. Some of the ones from the circus performance came out very well, even though I was in the balcony (I got special permission) and was shooting at 1250 ISO. For you non-photographers, most of the digital point and shoot cameras use 100 ISO rating (ISO stands for International Standards Organization) so 1250 is like shooting with very sensitive film, which should produce noise in the photo but didn't in this case.

The new archery GO arrived the day after I got there. Hyun Ju was the archery instructor the first day I was there. He has some really good ideas on how to improve the area, like putting the targets on wheels so they could be moved back, putting rubber around the target legs, and putting better backing on the targets. I kept shooting through the targets, much to the delight of a young boy Oscar from Beijing. He never did come up with an idea on how to keep the big (I mean real big) lizards away from the area in back of the targets. They never bothered anyone but freaked out some of the kids who didn't want to go back to get their arrows that missed the target.

Okay, now it is my turn to ask a question. Now I realize this may be an American thing, but why aren't there any wash cloths in the rooms at the club? I have run into this at the club before, that's why I always carry my own. I asked about it at reception and they just shrugged their shoulders and said, Well, we just don't have them. When I was at the Traders Hotel in KL, there were wash cloths in the room, so I don't think it is a Malaysian thing. I'm really curious about this.

John

Sorry John, have no answer to your question, I have never really noticed before until you brought it up. Just one more question for you if I may. How busy was the club?

Thanks

Wash cloths? Hmm...they may have hand towels but not wash cloths, I think. Malaysians don't really use a wash cloth so often, or never before.

Thanks for the update.

When i was in Cherating last year, medals were given up for the competitions eg table tennis, archery and golf. Award ceremonies were low key in that they gave the winners immediately after the tournament was concluded.

Ah Tisna is now in Cherating. Whoever goes next to Cherating - pls say Hi to him from me and ask him if his golf has improved. : ) His last practice shot ( a wild one) at Bali hit a kid - luckily it wasnt a serious injury.

I suspect one GM too many take wash cloths with the trident logo as souvenirs. Hence, no more wash clothes

Aita Pea Pea

Sammyg,
You can ask as many questions as you like. I just hope I can answer them.

For the first week and a half the club was pretty busy. There were about 350-400 GM's. The last Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, there were only about 150 people there. We did have about 60 Malaysians from one company there for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. You should have seen Jeremy when he saw 80 people for morning yoga and he ran out of mats and towels instantly. I think his expression was Oh, my God. It was a team building event for the company. They went everywhere as a group, and were always singing the old Doris Day song, Que Sera Sera. Very strange. The second week we had a French company group of about 20. They did everything on their own, including eating at a table away from everyone else.

BTW, the certificates for the competion were generally given away at the sports dinners, which tended to have the wine flowing freely (the wine was French and pretty good) .

Vinz, you may be right about the souvenirs of wash cloths, although the hand towels and bath towels were embossed with the logo as well. When I first went to the old Bora Bora club, they served drinks in "hurricane" glasses that had beautiful colored logos of Club Med Bora Bora. I can't imagine those lasted too long. Yes, I do have two of them.

There are a few other things that I didn't mention. The bar area was always redecorated depending on the clothing theme of the night, e.g. black and red. All the sofas and chairs would be covered in red and black, as well as different drapery put up. For the circus, as you went in to the theater you were given a small bag of popcorn. They had the popper right in front of the entrance. Also, one evening, the spa people were giving hand and arm massages after the show. Oh, yes, Hey Baby is still immensely popular. They do have tennis at the club, but no instructor or tournament.

John

Hi John,

wow that was a detailed report, thanks for that! can i ask if lahoucine is still in watersports and who were in the circus team?

I have seen wash clothes in US CMs, former Cancun, Turks, and there were no logos. I did not see them in any of the CMs in the European zone: I think their presence is cultural.
It must be (very) rare for CM to serve good wine ( excluding a la carte) at the restaurant; I did not experience it at all.

Surprisingly the wine wasn't bad, especially the reds. I remember being in the Bahamas and they served "imported" wine--Gallo of California!

I didn't participate in the water sports that much, except for Kayak. There was very little wind most of my time there. As the sailors said, The kayakers could beat us. I don't remember any sailing competition.

I never participated in circus. I do remember one female GO from Canada. However, that being said, the circus GO's were very friendly. I will try and find out who they are.

Suzanne wrote me yesterday and said that there are 700 Chinese at the club this week and about half of them speak no English at all. It must be a wild time at Reception. They are earning their keep this week.

John

John,

Great report. Here are a few more questions! <lol> I presume Jeremy worked at Turks and Caicos a year or two ago......Is this club good for someone traveling single...best of time of year to go....how long is the flight any connections or hotel stay needed?

Thanks!
Marcus

El Presidente for Life!
Calvin and Hobbes Fan Club

Marcus,
I'm sure that is the same Jeremy.

There aren't a lot of single people at the club. It is not adults only. The singles went there not looking for other singles, but just looking for the Club Med experience. As to whether you would feel welcome there as a single, absolutely, but it is not a Turks type of experience. I especially got to be friends with two Aussie singles, one male and one female. They were not there together. Singles just blend in with the other GM's.

Avoid going during our winter--November to February. It's the rainy season. Others can give you a better idea of the weather, but I think that I am right on this.

Let me give you some details on my trip. I cashed in 90,000 miles on United to fly business class from Chicago to Singapore. However, I flew on ANA (All Nippon Airlines) that is part of the Star Alliance. Excellent service. The cost (tax) for the trip was $47 US. I stayed at the Club for 12 days and I think the cost was around $1,700 including transfers. I know, pretty cheap vacation.

The first leg was Chicago to Tokyo--13 hours. Then a three hour layover (on business class you get to use the ANA lounge which is very nice, or you can use the Red Carpet Club if you wish). Then a 7 hour flight to Singapore. I arrived at Changi Airport around midnight. I chose to stay at the Ambassador Transit Hotel at the airport. They sell 6 hour blocks of time. The cost was $38.93 US. Well worth it. Since the hotel is right in the airport (there is an hotel in each of the two terminals) you don't go through Singapore immigration or customs. The bad thing is that you can't get your luggage either. Buy a razor and toothbrush in the terminal.

That morning I was on Malaysian Airlines to Kuala Lumpur (1 hour flight), then a domestic flight to Kuantan (45 minutes). I went through immigration in KL, but I never went through customs, ever, but I guarantee you someone opened my luggage and went through it very thoroughly.

BTW, I checked my luggage all the way through from Chicago to Kuantan, and it was about the first off of the plane. No problem. When I arrived at Kuantan, some people were asked to open up their luggage. The official asked me where I was staying in Malaysia. I told him the Club Med at Cheating. He looked at me and said, Oh, then you can go right through. I never opened any luggage. As you exit the luggage area the Club Med office is immediately, and I mean immediately, to your left. You go in, tell them who you are, get your luggage tag, pick up your papers, and get on the bus. Very seamless operation.

I know, this response proves that I go into too much detail in my answers, but I hope this answers some of your questions.

John

Hey John,
I have a few questions for you as well.
Did you meet the following GOs: Joanna(Malaysian, Teens Club), Joan(indonesian, nurse), Jenn(Malaysian, bar), Maria(Korean, boutique), Soraya(French Canadian, boutique), Alin(Malaysian, kids club), Rick(Australian, circus), Sarah(Canadian, bar), Han(Malaysian, business center)? They are my friends and I just wanted to know if you got a chance to talk to them at all.
Also how was the weather while you're there? Is it true they put a fence in the pool?

Sadly, after the change in Club Med's biz direction in 2004, no club in Asia has really been good for singles, but not sure about Kani though. And now, with the compulsory surcharge for singles, I think it's obvious that singles are no longer the target customer. In fact, I think they are just telling us that they don't really welcome singles, except during the off season when they waive the singles surcharge. I'm just waiting for them to reverse the biz direction, and spin off a few clubs with the old concept! Kinda Club Med Original Version.

Has anyone seen the Club Med summer brochure? The thick book? It's all about families!

:-(
Maukitten

Hey John, how's the downloading of your pics going? Any chance we can see some?

I do have some information on the circus GO's. Someone had asked who they were, and since I am not Mr. Trapezeman, I had to ask Robin, a lifeguard at Cherating. I just got a note back from her yesterday. BTW, she says that after 700 Chinese GM's at the club last week, her Mandarin still sucks.

The circus GO's are Clayton, Marina, Rick, Alil, Sonia, and Jas, and as typical of all of the GO's there, they were incredibly personable and nice to be with.

To answer Ginger's question. Maria from the boutique was the person who showed me to my room and on the way there we stopped by the boutique and she introduced me to Bobby, an American GO. She is really a lovely person, and we had a lot of conversations together. I don't think Soraya is there. A new boutique GO came in about three days before I left. She created quite a stir because she is Chinese and about six feet tall. She also is going to be a big success in the boutique, because she is very personable, and works with people extremely well. One evening she saw me in the dining room and said, That really is a nice shirt and goes well with those slacks. She's smooth. I think that she may have been in Bintan before, but I am not sure of that.

Ginger, the weather was hot and humid (no surprise there). Most of the time, there was very little wind, so the sailors were bummed out. The mornings would generally start out cloudy. We rarely had any rain during the day, except for some very brief showers. However, two nights we had some pretty good thunderstorms. One started during the evening show, and one started about two minutes after the dinner ended around the pool.

Yes, they do have a fence around the deep end of the pool, but it is not a big deal. If I can figure out how to post pictures I will put a photo in here. (A little help here please)

Sammy, I have just started to edit the 450 photos in Photoshop, so I am working on it. However, I am more of a nature photographer than a people photographer.

John

John, do you know if the GO's who were there are the settled team for the next few months or are they in the middle of changing over?

Thanks

Sammy,
They were changing over when I was there. Obviously, most of the GO's are not changing clubs. About three new GO's came in while I was there. There was a GO named Lauren who worked in the bar area. I saw her the first day and didn't see her after that. She either moved on or went on vacation. Jeremy was in Phuket on vacation the first week that I was there. Sometimes when you don't see a GO whom you were expecting to see, they could be on vacation. I got the impression that most of the moves have been made.

John

Thanks John.

most of the G.O's have just been or are on vacation. but coming into june now most of the change overs should have happened. sonia has left to go back to the american zone and has been replaced by new south african G.O nick and lauren was on vacation in sth african but has since returned to the village.

Thanks, CC, I knew Lauren was from South Africa, but didn't know she was on vacation. I knew her for less than a day but she was a very nice person, and we had a great conversation at the bar in the afternoon. I remember she told me how she got to be named Lauren. I saw her in the dining room that evening and she looked ravishing. I was kind of taken aback and mentioned how lovely she looked. She looked at me and said, Oh, I really do clean up nicely don't I? Even after just one day she impressed me as someone who had a pretty quick sense of humor.

John

haha sounds like u have a bit of a crush on her there john ;)

**fly high**

CC writes:

"haha sounds like u have a bit of a crush on her there john ;)"

No, (I say laughing), it usually takes more than an afternoon conversation. I was just impressed by her quick retort to my compliment.

John

Hey John, you have been back for a while now. Can we see any of your pics anywhere, even if they are just nature ones?

Sammy,
I know some people post them in this forum. Does anyone know exactly how to do it?

John

PS: The one's I shot of the circus performance while in the balcony came out very well. I sent photos and CD's back to Robin and Suzanne.

quote:

---

Originally posted by John-Chicago
I know some people post them in this forum. Does anyone know exactly how to do it?

---

First I resize my photos to 640x480 max, and save as jpg.
You can then upload these <98K jpgs to the cmplanet server.

When you post a reply just click the "paper clip" at the bottom of the form to attach a file. (you also have an option to reuse previous files)
After the upload, a link(to your photo) will be inserted into the message form.
Normally I edit this so that the image is displayed inline instead of as a link.This involves deleting all but the "img" tags, so that you have

[ img] Photo URL [/img]

-- Joel

Hey John,
Thats awesome. Yea I've known Maria since 2005. Shes great. I miss her a lot. I hoep to see her again this year. I actually talked to her when the 700 chinese people were there. she told me that they were being kept quite busy:).
Did you see jenn, the malaysian girl at the bar? How about joanna, malaysian chinese girl from TEENS CLUB? Joan(indonesian, nurse)? I think those are the ones I know there still...its changed so much since 2004 its hard to keep track. Let me know if u met them!

I'm obviously doing something wrong. I click on the paper clip, browse to select the file (it's under 98K), click to attach, and get a message that says invalid string.

John

First, Apologies for hijacking the thread.

quote:

---

Originally posted by John-Chicago
I click on the paper clip, browse to select the file (it's under 98K), click to attach, and get a message that says invalid string.

---

Is that a windows/browser error or from the web file server?
Are you using a simple filename with no punctuation in the full path name?
I assume you are using a "standard" windows browser.
Your browse may not be encoding the URL in a "friendly" way.

-- Joel

Jschantz writes:


Is that a windows/browser error or from the web file server?
Are you using a simple filename with no punctuation in the full path name?
I assume you are using a "standard" windows browser.
Your browse may not be encoding the URL in a "friendly" way.

I wish that I were techy enough to answer your questions. I thought it might be because I use AOL, but I switched to the MS internet explorer and got the same response.

Ginger---I tried (successfully) to avoid the infirmary, and I didn't get down to the Teens club so I did not meet those GO's. I don't remember Jenn, but someone different always waited on me at the bar. BTW, you are right. These are some of the nicest and friendliest GO's that I have seen at any club--and that's a lot of clubs. That's an interesting statement, because these GO's come from all sorts of backgrounds and cultures. My travel agent asked me where most of the GO's were from and I just gave her a blank stare because there didn't seem to be a good answer to the question.

John

Thanks, John, for providing so much info on CM Cherating. During the school holidays in Singapore, the CM Singapore office arranges return-trip bus transportation to CM Cherating. I'd been wondering if it'd be worth sitting in a bus for 8 hours from Singapore to Cherating & another 8 hours return trip just to spend 4 nights there. Now I'm convinced it's worth it.

Dear Med about U

Whether 8 hours is worth it ?

Well, unless you are the type that can fall asleep or travel a lot of buses, then it's worth it. I took the coach a few years back: you have to be at the bus pickup point at 6.30am. The bus is usually the 26 or 33 seater which IMO isnt very comfortable unless they are using the new Super executive buses which Transtar and Grassland are using to KL.

You stop for about 1 hour around YongPeng for a break, and then again at about 12 noon for lunch in Pahang before the bus reaches CM at about 2 pm.

Personally, if you have a choice, I suggest flying to KL and connecting to Kuantan.




Aita Pea Pea

Dear Med,
I'm very glad that you found my report helpful. To my mind Cherating is one of the most beautiful clubs in all of Club Med. The GO team is exceptional, just unbelievably friendly and helpful. I really miss them. When you go make sure to say hi to Robin, who is one of the lifeguards. She is easy to find. She has the really blond hair. Tell her that John from Chicago says hi. She is one of my all time favorites. Also, I am going to try to have some photos up on a web site soon. Have fun.

John

Gingerbr75,
Jenn has stopped working in Cherating and now she's all set to move to Ria Bintan! Joanna has moved into Bar since May and of course, I'm still talking about Cherating. For Joan, she left Cherating in June but I don't have any info about her next destination.