It was raining when we reached our hotel, Mercure la Defense Grand Arche.
It was confusing because there were two separate buildings. The reception ares is one building and there’s another one nearby. Pabalik balik kami, kaladkad yung mga maleta.
The check-in people couldn’t find our reservation. Kesyo meron daw but cancelled. It’s been 26 hours since we left our house to come to Paris and you couldn’t expect me to be patient and forgiving. The #@4&^%+? reception girl insisted that we didn’t have a reservation. We told her to contact the tour operator but she said she didn’t know who to call *&6543@.
I texted Edmund to contact the Manila travel coordinators.
Background:
We qualified for two all expenses paid trip for two people. I registered Oyen and Nyke for this two seats. I am really scheduled to come back to Paris for the Global Summit of Women this first week of June. It was only a coincidence that Federal Phoneix chose Paris for their loyalty rewards.
We didn’t avail of the two free Emirate’s economy tickets. Instead we bought our own tickets and came here a day earlier so we could rest. Instead of staying in another hotel for one night and then transferring to Mercure to join the group the next day, I just requested the travel agent of Federal to book us in the same hotel for our convenience.
It was almost 11 am and we still couldn’t get a room. I was so inis na. We contacted the travel agent and I told them I would get a room and I would charge to them double. Maya-maya merong French lady who came out of the hotel’s office and confirmed that we DO have a room reservation. Inis na inis ako dun sa isa. Ang sama-sama ng tingin ko sa kanya. Alam mo yung feeling of aghast. I kept saying Oh my God! Gusto kong sabihin you are soooo tangengok. She apologized naman and she seemed a nice person. Pero they should be more efficient, ang hirap mag-hintay pag pagud na pagod ka.
Pinag-tripan namin yung complimentary waffles. Matigas and super tamis. Pero okay na rin, libre.
Finally, we got our room keys, Room 332 in the other building. kaladkad na naman namin sa ulan yung mga bagahe namin. No reception area in this building, basta swipe lang the room keys for doors to open.
This is room 332 of Mercure Apartment hotel. Mukha talagang apartment or dormitory. For US$260 a night, parang lugi yata ako. Pwede na rin basta may kama. Sa pagod at rayuma, any bed is good.
I took a thorough bath as soon as we entered our room.
