I have been unable to blog for several days as I could never get back to the blog site while within the PRC. Now I am in the Club Lounge at the InterContinental Hotel in Hong Kong, overlooking the harbour and the skyline of Victoria Island and feeling not only at peace with the world, but so in love with this hotel. More importantly, with the delight in explaining to anyone who travels why it makes sense to go to the same hotel year after year after year.
It's not only that they know me here. It's that they go out of their way for me and I have a comfort level when I am imposing on the hospitality, a comfort you don't get to except when you are with family and old friends.
After three days on non-stop shopping in Shenzhen, we dragged our heavy suitcases into the hotel, re-packed in the luggage room, sent some bags over to The Peninsula Hotel, our next destination when we return to HKG next week, and then snuck into the Club Lounge. Actually we didn't have to sneak, we ere escorted by Carlos Souza, one of the managers we've known for years, who has more charm than any one hotelier should possess and has made us feel welcome, despite the luggage, the re-packing and, uh, the Starbucks paper cups.
In an hour we will collect two of our six suitcases (we began with only two!) and head to the airport for our flight to Bangkok. We arranged our entire journey to pivot around this stop, and the friendly atmosphere of this hotel, because intra-Asian luggage allowances are lower than long-haul and we could not bear the idea of schlepping and paying and going nuts with all the extra bags. Our sanity has been saved by hotelier friends and loyalties-- they are more important to road warriors than you can ever imagine.
Yeah....blogs are back. We've missed them and can't wait for more. Did you get the name of the tailor behind door number one?
ReplyDeleteNames and addresses of tailors will be in a resources guide at the end of our trip...all the business cards are safely stashed in HKG right now!
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