East Hotel, Taikoo Station, Hong Kong

Meanwhile, back at the East Hotel, 29 Taikoo Shing Road, Hong Kong, things are really better than the impression you might have gotten from my article on breakfasts this morning. Around 1:30 PM today, after lunch, I was waiting for something and decided to cruise back to Feast, and take some images. I ran into one of the restaurant managers who absolutely remembered me, even though I had not voiced any verbal complaints while I had been there.

He again apologized. I asked if there were a number of new staff and he said just the opposite. The staff, in the main, and despite their youth, were pretty much a veteran crew – which leads me to believe that turn-over is is not an issue, and those folks like working there. The manager went on to explain, that a large conference was being held at the hotel, it was a Monday morning – and the heavy weight turn out for breakfast at the same time I was there, was most unusual. I thanked him personally for his waiving the check for my breakfast and said that I appreciated not only the gesture, but the fact that had been made aware of the delays in my service.

So the hotel, and the restaurant, will be given another look. First let’s look at my room. I do not have the harbor view room as pictorialized in the previous post. I’ve been to Hong Kong so many times, that I would not pay extra for a harbor view room. Geez, how many times have I crossed the harbor on the Star Ferry where I could see the harbor basically at sea=level but at the same time smell the sea and have the wind on my face at the same time.

But the hotel did give me an upgrade to a corner urban view. What this means is that I have full windows, nearly floor-to-ceiling, on two sides rather than just one. The hotel is very hi-tech. Your room key enables the elevator – without the room key, the elevator won’t leave the lobby. The key itself is scanned without inserting it into a slot. The room has a big queen bed with a down comforter – very substantial linens, 4 pillows, and a master switch to darken the entire room from your bedside.

My room, and the entire hotel comes with complimentary Wi-Fi or if you need to be wired there’s every kind of cable you can think of which enables me to watch the DVDs that I picked up here in HK on a 40 inch Panasonic TV that is not only wall mounted but comes away from the wall and swivels.

The hot water is plentiful, and with good water pressure, and you have a choice between a hand-held nozzle apparatus or the rainfall style showerhead which is built into the ceiling, The bathroom also has top of the line soaps and shampoos and rich thick towels. The toilet is in its own little room, and comes equipped with a phone meaning there are three phones in the room. There’s one by the bed, one at the desk, and one in the loo.

Feast

The overall decor is a blonde wood floor with a thick shag rug beneath the platform bed. The room is trimmed in black, with lots of black venetian blinds. I’d say the room was warm and inviting, with the beige walls and beige bedding, and lacked only a decent side chair. However the desk chair is excellent and is on wheels so you can roll it away to watch TV. You can also plug your laptop into the TV via a provided HDMI cable which means you have a big screen to work with.

Feast 2

I’m going to give the hotel a very good rating, and despite the faux pas at this morning’s breakfast I’d recommend it. Two other major plusses – the hotel is literally just a few steps from the MTR D1 Exit at Taikoo Station, and you can actually exit the MTR and get into the hotel without getting wet even in a rain storm, and in 10 seconds or less

Feast 3

Also you have the two excellent shopping malls also less than a 1 minute walk away. In fact you can walk directly from Feast right into a shopping plaza without even going back down to street level. So I am going to wrap this up by saying that if business takes you to the Far East, and if Hong Kong is your destination, then head East, friends – to the East Hotel. And I haven’t even discussed the outdoor heated swimming pool and the rooftop bar and gardens.

Beginning the Day – Chinese Style

Wednesday November 2nd – It is about 10:30 in the morning. I have just returned from my morning expedition. I will leave Hong Kong for the 1st time tomorrow evening. But I needed to lay in some items for today and tomorrow. So the first item on my agenda was some orange juice. I’d not seen any that looked worthwhile in the neighborhood near the apartment. But I did see some Minute Maid OJ in tall bottles in Hong Kong MTR Station yesterday.

The Harmony Restaurant

The Harmony Restaurant, which is between Wing Lok Rd and Bonham Strand on Morrison St in Sheung Wan, was my destination. I suppose this is the Hong Kong equivalent of a diner back in the States. I had the Set B breakfast which included coffee, toast, a fried egg, a small hamburger patty and a very slender slice of cooked ham. Twenty three HK dollars – a bit more than $3 US; your basic no frills first meal of the day. Still, it beats cooking and then cleaning a frying pan and plates back in the apartment. The place was quite busy but the service was fast. I was the only westerner in the place.

With a window seat in a small booth – I had a commanding view of the pedestrian traffic. For the most part, more people seemed to be coming down from the higher levels of Sheung Wan heading for the mass transit MTR Station. These folks would be heading to their jobs and businesses. But then there would be a strong flow of folks heading in the opposite direction, deeper into the Sheung Wan’s commercial and business district. While I didn’t think of it as I watched for the first time – it came to me on the next day – the pedestrian traffic inbound into Sheung Wan was no doubt linked to the fact that an MTR train had arrived. Sheung Wan is the last and most westerly station on the Island Line of the MTR, and those folks were going to their places of employment in Sheung Wan.

Blake Gardens

I made my way back up into the hills with a patterned walk of first up a hill for a block – via either a street or stairs, then turn right, go a block west, then go up another street or stairs for about three reps until I came to the bottom of the Blake Gardens which meant I was only about 2-3 minutes away from the apartment unless I stopped to rest, to read, or to admire the roots of the banyan trees.

Banyan Tree roots

Friday – Nov. 4th – I arrived here in Yangshuo, Guangxi Province, China last night. My Flight to Guilin arrived at 11:30PM and it is about a 70 kilometer drive through the mountains to Yangshuo and specifically to the Yangshuo Mountain Retreat. I got through immigration rather quickly – no doubt the result of the fact that I sat in the 4th row on the plane and I am six feet four tall and my long legs just allow me to walk faster than most. I had to wait a bit for my car and driver as the flight had been early and he was still in his car while I had cleared immigration. The 70 klicks went by in less than an hour. The night desk clerk Jenny was there waiting for me, and she short-cutted the check-in by saying that I could hand in my passport in the morning.

Since I had arrived late in the night, and the drive down from Guilin had followed the G65 highway through the mountains and had passed through no towns, there had not even been a single billboard – I hadn’t seen a thing.

Room with a view

These were the views from my room the next morning.

The Yulong River, Yangshuo, Guangxi Province, China

Breakfast here was a real treat. You could sit wherever you liked in the dining room (below), or you could sit outdoors at the many tables beneath umbrellas on the banks of the Yulong River. The Set 2 breakfast was choice of juice and coffee or tea, scrambled eggs, with a choice of bacon or ham, plus toast. The waitresses all spoke English and remembered your room number and your name. The pretty girls with their perfect manners – just a marvelous way to begin the day.

Part of dining room in Yangshuo Mountain Retreat

Monday – November 7th – I’m back in Hong Kong and staying at the East Hotel in Taikoo. This is a decidedly hi-tech hotel (more about the hotel later; we are still talking breakfasts). The breakfast is served in Feast – get it? East Hotel and F for food = Feast. Breakfast is handled by a young staff all in tee shirts and jeans or blazers, tee shirts and jeans. The hotel is doing a brisk breakfast. I hear about a dozen different languages and the crowd is made up more of people about business than people who are tourists – but wow, so many beautiful women.

Feast in the East

Service is horrendous. A lovely hostess picks me up at the entrance and seats me and asks if I want coffee or tea. This is a two part breakfast – a continental breakfast buffet style plus cooked to order hot breakfast chosen from a menu. I’ve traveled extensively in Asia and always – repeat always – the coffee has been poured and is waiting for you by the time you return to your table with your selections from the buffet.

Not this time. I finished the buffet items and had read half of the South China Morning Post. In New York you have the Occupy Wall Street people; in Hong Kong the brokers are organizing protests because the Hong Kong Markets wish to EXTEND the trading hours. Anyway I have to ask for the coffee again because it was MIA. Finally it arrives but no hot breakfast menu. I request the menu and ultimately place my order- Scrambled eggs with bacon – the works. My second cup of coffee is also delayed. The food takes forever to arrive.

Room with a View 2 - Hotel East in Taikoo

After the food arrived, and I finished it – I called for the chit to sign. A moment later, a young man comes over and apologizes for the excessive delays with my breakfast. Per his manager, breakfast is on the house. No charge. Well then – there you go. And off I go back upstairs to write this piece since I am no longer burdened by the Great Firewall of China.