Left Excelsior Hotel for Marco Polo

October 16, 2015 Friday

We checked out of Excelsior Hotel in Causeway Bay after one night. The front desk asked me why and I gave an honest answer. I found the rooms too small and a bit old. Also, I didn’t like the view from my room. If I would pay extra to upgrade to a suite room to have a full harbour view and 50 square meters of space, then I’d rather stay at a different hotel with newer rooms.

Edmund blamed me, mahilig daw kasi ako sa mura. Excelsior is not mura, it’s about US388 a night. And I used to like this hotel. Nostalgic.

Excelsior is operated by Mandarin Hotel Group. It has a fantastic location for shopping and eating. I’ve stayed there dozens of times before, ten, fifteen, twenty years ago.

It took a while for the door man to get us a cab to cross from Hongkong side to Kowloon. Kesyo traffic daw. There’s one that agreed to bring us to Marco Polo but he wanted to pass another route and tunnel with a $50 toll fee. The doorman assured me that the distance was the same. I said no, that’s a lot longer, I insisted that we take the old tunnel which is just right there in Wanchai.
the driver wasn’t happy, panay ang buntunghininga. I was right, meron konting traffic but it was not as bad as in EDSA. And the toll was only $10. I paid $88 + $20 for the two luggage + $10 toll = HK118.

We checked in at the Marco Polo Hongkong Hotel in Canton Road, Harbour City, Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon. We got the last available harbour view room.

Considerably more space

Twin beds for mom and Nyke

Very nice view at night.

This is what we pay for.

That night when we were already in bed, the lights were off, parang bigla kong naisip tila ang mahal yata nung room namin. My eyes were already closed, bigla akong napa mulat nung nacompute ko how much I would pay for the room.

Omb——“Anak, I think this room is very expensive, about US$600 a night, plus tax pa, that’s US$2,000 for three nights.”
Anak——“Mom, stop thinking about it, you’re on vacation. If you don’t stop thinking about it, that’s just all you would think about the whole time”.

Oo nga naman.