Image via WikipediaThe first day was sublimely peaceful but on the second day our room was filled with the sound of mechanical woodpeckers. This was emanating from the space above our ceiling.
We had been told that there were only offices on the 13th floor, but it transpires that above our room is the cooling room for the air conditioning and this system is in serious need of an overhaul.
So for the last six days we have have manfully put up with the sound of engineering maintenance and repeatedly dropped crescent spanners.
Last night at six the cleaning maid arrived with a note and three chocolates. Staff were giving these to all guests as the air conditioning needed to be switched off from midnight to 5 am to complete the works.
We did not fully appreciate at the time what this meant for us in room 12 20. At 11:55 pm we became painfully aware of the implications as our sleep was broken by the sound of hammer drills, pipe benders, more dropped tools and the tapping of pipes being maneuvered into position.
Despite inserting ear plugs I estimate we got only a couple of hours sleep and most of that was interrupted. The racket continued all night. To make matters worse the contractors failed to empty the cooling tanks correctly resulting is water seeping in puddles into various parts of our room below.
In typical Singaporean fashion the contractors had failed to keep to their allotted schedule and had only alerted the hotel management at the last minute of their need to work through the night.
If this is to carry on again this evening we will be changing rooms but the management at time of writing "do not yet have the confirmed schedule" which sounds rather ominous.
We have another weeks stay in front of us and will make a decision later in the day as to whether we need to change rooms or not.
Meanwhile the hammering and banging above us continues and the engineer with dropsy goes about his business.
Sleep deprivation is a terrible thing!
Footnote: We are now the happy occupants of room 1105
