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Ahhhh…the hotel! One of the most important aspects of a trip, for me at least!

For this trip, we stayed at The Peninsula at Tsim Sha Tsui. It was within walking distance to everywhere…the MTR, the small eating shops, the big shopping mall!

I can now understand why The Peninsula is considered so ‘exclusive’. The size of the room itself is at least double of normal HK hotel rooms…440 sq ft!

It has a foyer, and a bathroom with a bathtub and separate shower and a TV. And an evil lighted magnifying mirror that kept me in the bathroom for an hour every night as I perused and scrutinized every wrinkle and pore on my face!

The sheets and pillows are luxuriously soft…

…there’s a plasma TV, DVD player with an in-house DVD library, a memory card reader so that you can ‘watch’ your photos on the TV, a fax…

…channel and volume controls by the bedside (on both sides!), phones that also tell you the temperature outside, radio speakers directly above the bed so that you can play soft soothing music to fall asleep to, different fresh fruits every day…

…and….wait for this….remote control for the curtains! Haha…yes, I kid you not! Hubby was trying to close the curtain on our first night there, and he was wondering why it was so difficult…until he spotted two buttons against the wall, and a few minutes later, the same buttons on the side of our beds!! Each morning, the first thing I did was to open the curtains. And close them. And open them again…

Oh oh, and there’s a little inbuilt box in a cabinet in the foyer for you to either collect the current day’s newspaper, or leave your shoes for overnight polishing. We couldn’t figure out how it could be done unless the staff comes into the foyer part of the room…until the morning of the second day when we walked out of the room: There’s a little flap in the wall next to the main door…something like a cat flap. The newspaper gets slipped through the flap right into the inbuilt box without the staff needing to even step foot into our room!

And more importantly…the shower! Groehe showerheads and extremely strong water pressure. Showering was absolutely a dream especially after walking for a whole day!

Yes, I know I get excited over the small stuff!

The Peninsula is also famous for it’s high tea. When we arrived on the first day, it was near to 3pm, and there was already a long queue of people waiting to be seated. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to try the high tea, but the atmosphere is one of hushed tones and classical music, coupled with three-tiered silver platters bearing small cakes and scones. English tea, anyone?

In the basement, ground and mezzanine floors, you can find many small boutiques…mostly clothes and jewelry, and also Dior, Chanel, LV, Manalo Blahnik and Prada. Very convenient for the rich, very tempting for the not-so-rich!

But…

Despite some reviews regarding the service, I was a bit disappointed to note that the staff at the reception did not even realize it was hubby’s birthday the day we checked in even though he had hubby’s passport right in front of him, and he even wrote down the date on a form! In the past 3 years, I’ve always booked a holiday during hubby’s birthday, and those hotels have always noticed, even though we didn’t check in on the actual day itself (one gave us an room upgrade and cake, another gave a cake as well). Wasn’t expecting an upgrade or cake, of course, but a courtesy ‘Happy Birthday’ would have demonstrated a sharp eye for detail!

Or maybe that only happens for guests who check into the suites, perhaps? *grin*

Coming up: The best part of HK…the food!