The Excelsior Hotel, HK

Went away the next day after my birthday to HK for systems training and meetings in our office headquarters in HK. I was filled with trepidation of what to expect in HK, given all my fears and worries but I am glad everyday I entrusted these worries to God and let Him do the rest. All in all, it was a pretty good trip, though at the end of 5 days I was quite exhausted and simply just glad to be home.

Took the 1st flight out on Sunday morning to HK but the flight was delayed by about an hour! For the first time, I saw 10 planes queuing up on the runway to take off. Argh. Reached HK about 2pm and had to queue (again) to check in at The Excelsior Hotel. Finally got to my room, (was pleasantly surprised to have an upgrade to executive room - bigger room with nicer amenities like ironing board, small coffee maker and a couch.) And I got a double bed for me, myself and meself! The bed is simply wonderfully cosy, soft and clean. I never slept on such nice beds and pillows before. The pillows were not cotton but probably feathers or something, in any case I did not feel like getting out of bed each morning. I felt luxuriously pampered. (Yes, one night’s accommodation is like S$300?!) Plus the cool weather really makes you feel like sleeping in!

This hotel is really clean and the really very best part is the location. Oh, did I mention that there are a lot of shopping centres nearby and the train station is like 3mins walk away? You can just walk down or outside the hotel and get any food anytime anywhere. The shopping centres open till 11.30pm too and they don’t chase you out or give you black faces!

My previous stay in HK was marred by bad food and lack of food around the hotel. However, at The Excelsior HK, the food was simply good and abundant and the service staff is friendly and can speak to you in proper English. Needless to say, there were a lot of ang mohs staying at this hotel. It was simply hassle-free. The door man would help you call for taxis every morning and he looks very professional in his red gear and turban. Plus he was really friendly and I mean genuinely friendly. HK used to have a bad reputation for giving lousy service but generally not anymore. The staff really treat their guests like royalty.

Apparently the weekend English tea set in Excelsior Hotel is very popular in HK. I think it’s quite cheap at S$22 nett where there are small finger sandwiches with salmon, tuna, cucumber, etc. In addition, there were bite-sized scones, cheesecake, chocolate cake and portugese egg tart. Of course, you could select the choice of tea you like and there really really is a wide range – I could count at least 10! Thinking about it just makes me salivate, uncontrollably. Yum yum. I wished I had more time to enjoy myself there leisurely.

On a side note, I enjoyed myself during this business trip as it was a time to get to know my colleagues better. We drank, dined and shopped together. They also playfully woke me up at 2am to go to one of their hotel rooms and we were drinking chilled San Miguel beer in cold weather and basically just chitchatting nonsense. At first I was grumbling to them for having woke me up when I was in deep slumber but I guess 2 hours less of sleep was worth it. We even had pillow fights, well ok, they threw pillows at me cos I was lazing on the bed and nodding off badly. Sorry, can't show the photos they took at night cos I turned out really horrible!