Orchid Haven — Hotel in Pahang

From the get-go I was extremely put off by the appearance of Orchid Haven, and wanted to switch hostels. Unfortunately I was not in the position to do so as I was traveling with others. ||||My double room had smelly bedding, stained towels, yellow sweat stains on the pillows and long stray hairs on the winter blanket. ||||In the 16-bed dorm room, there are no bedsheets between the mattress and the itchy microfibre winter blanket. My friend was so disgusted by hers that she wrapped herself in a beach sarong to avoid the blanket touching her directly. ||||The first-floor shared bathroom was perpetually wet and urine-scented, with a pair of used flip-flops recommended for communal use to shower. Verruca? No thanks. ||||Although the switch for hot water was turned on, we got less than one minute of hot water before it turned cold. ||||Cameron Highlands is a cool mountainous place, so I was looking forward to fresh air at night but that is not the case for most rooms at Orchid Haven. The room I was given had no window, no fan, no air- conditioning - just a noisy extractor fan. There was no air circulation, no escaping the smell of sweat and my towel could not dry either. ||||The hosel has a list of rules displayed at the entrance, including "be quiet after 10pm because this is a family hotel." On the first evening, a family in the dorm next to me made so much noise from midnight to 4am that I was too exhausted to hike a trail the next day. Two children played loudly, repetitively banging their bedroom door while their parents played music. The hostel may have rules, but rules don't mean anything if staff does nothing to prevent disturbances. ||||On the second night, I saw one of the reception staff sleeping on top of a double bed in a vacant guest room, and early the next morning, I saw them exit the room, leaving the same bed straightened up but with unchanged sheets... perhaps this explains the hair and sweat smell on my own bed?||||Breakfast is free, but simple. Sliced sandwich bread, instant coffee, artificially-flavoured jam. I'd recommend a cheap and cheerful roti canai or a nasi lemak around the corner for 3-10 ringgit. ||||I will personally not be staying here again, but if I have to consider any positives, Orchid Haven is budget and backpacker friendly. It has dorms and private rooms, a kitchenette and a water dispenser. Staff is friendly and full of suggestions on what to do and see. They seem to offer a cooking course. The hostel is close to hiking trails, it has your basic essentials (i.e. bed, shower, wifi) and it is very centrally located, making for an easy walk to restaurants, bus station, banks, market and shops in the heart...

We stayed here for 2 nights on our trip to the Cameron Highlands. First impressions were really good. It's in a good location, nice interior design and quite clean also. Check in took longer than usual as staff haven't got very good English. We were showed to our room.. we booked a private double room with shared bathroom. The room was nice but just very small. It was cramped and not much room to move around. There did appear to be bigger rooms beside us and I'm not sure why we got landed with the smaller room. The bathroom had a shower and was constantly wet. No dry loo roll. Water from the shower was the coldest I've experienced in any country in south East Asia before (Cameron Highlands is quite a cold area.) My boyfriend wanted to watch a soccer match and although there was a tv in the room there was barely any channels. He was willing to pay the 10rm to watch it and he went downstairs to ask them could they help him buy it (instructions were in Malaysian so he couldn't read) . The staff had no idea what he was saying but he eventually managed to get them to come to the room to take a look. They didn't know how to order it and said they would get someone to come take a look but they never came . Lastly, there was a small child crying in the room beside us for the entire night. Not sure a youth hostel is the place for small babies. All in all this place does have potential. They provided us with clean towels and soap on arrival and the kitchen area was clean. Breakfast consisted of bread and jam. This place has potential but I think they need to hire someone with English ability to communicate...

So on arriving at this hostel we we're greeted by a friendly member of staff who showed us to our room. To cut a very long story short, the guy who showed us to our room turned out to be a volunteer who had been left in charge of the place, whilst the manager had gone on holiday for a week. He was however very friendly and helpful, but as you can imagine - didn't have a clue how to run a hostel. ||The dorms are laid out in a strange way, as if they have tried to cram too many beds into one room, and it is clear the beds are not changed and cleaned regularly. 2 girls we met we're told by other guests that their bed had definitely not been changed since the last guest. Gross. ||The bathroom was clean, but the shower did not get hot. Which was very frustrating as the highlands are considerably colder than the rest of Malaysia, so you do want a nice hot shower. ||Although there was no alcohol allowed in the hostel, it had more of an atmosphere like a house party than a hostel. There wasn't much structure to where each guest was, and the front door was non-existent, making it feel very unsafe. ||There is not a lot of choice for hostels in the Cameron Highlands however there is a basic level you should expect when staying in a hostel and this just did not meet...