I wonder if they still served those delicious dumpling at the breakfast buffet at the Mandarin Oriental hotel during the recent uprisings?
It’s hard to believe that the serene situation that welcomed us after our long flight to Hong Kong was right in the center of the protests.
When we arrived at the hotel we were beyond grateful to have a chance to fall into bed to regroup, and recalibrate our brains and bodies for the new time zone.
They seem to have thought of all of the comforts of home to help us through the process, including this attractive control center filled with useful amenities (including a magnifying make-up mirror!)
The various levels of curtains that were hung in the room gave us a chance to customize the lighting. If one couldn’t sleep they could let a little light in to this desk area, but draw the next set of curtains (where the bed is) so as not to disturb any sleepers.
I think it is always interesting to see how hotels manage to maximize their minimal space to suit the needs of their guests. The layout in this bathroom does just that. Rather than take up an entire wall of space for the sink, they have it jutting out in the middle of the bathroom. This gives guests access to the sink from either side. The ghost seat, that fits under the sink, allows this plane to double as a vanity table, and the pivoting double-sided mirror that is on the outside edge of the sink/vanity let’s one make sure everything is A-okay both coming and going….. and that dark gray marble is very soothing to the weariest of eyes.
Somebody had their thinking cap on.
It is impossible to describe how wonderful this shower felt in the morning (evening??).
The levers and the shower heads both pivot so you can set up the ultimate cleansing rainstorm to help wash away all of that jet lag!
I’m not sure if this sign was leading up to the protest or not…. but I liked it, somehow graffiti always looks betting in another language. I actually think it is referring to music (masuk).
The hotel is filled with beautiful Chinese art and artifacts. Many of the hallways were adorned with framed lengths of beautifully embroidered silk.
A great idea for bringing depth to wide open spaces.
And of course, all hallways (eventually) led to that fabulous breakfast buffet! We loved the expansive mix of delicacies we found here. They clearly make the effort to try to please the palates of the broad international mix of guest who come to this famous hotel.
My personal favorite was the local cuisine. I loved exploring the stacks of petite bamboo steamers that looked like little gifts (see image above). Each steamer ensured the ideal texture and temperature was maintained for these delicate dumplings filled with a variety of meats, seafoods and vegetables.
This beautiful golden honeycomb was also a popular stop, you could scrape the honey off the comb and drizzle it over a combination of homemade yogurts, dried fruit and nuts.
I didn’t even take a shot of the fresh juices, because no image would do justice to those pitchers of incredibly fresh and hydrating watermelon juice we enjoyed. There were also pitchers of fresh orange and grapefruit juice and plenty of other interesting, refreshing concoctions.
And then, everywhere, there were the chandeliers. Sometimes, large chandeliers can look a little too grand in these hotels, I think. But they really made some brilliant choices here. First of all, the crystals are not all the same, by using a mix of shapes and sizes in the strands the piece looks more interesting and natural, more like a stream of water reflecting sunlight that an over-the-top formal light fixture.
The sheer size of some of these pieces was incredibly impressive, the sparkling waterfalls were found pouring down from the ceilings above and dripping through several stories of open stairwells throughout the property.
Thank you to everyone at The Mandarin Oriental, for helping us start our journey off right.
Ready to continue the tour?
Next stop: Viet Nam.
Hi Emily, I originally ready this post when we were flying home from our trip to Hong Kong on Wednesday. It made me smile and miss that great city already! We stayed across the harbour in Kowloon at the Ritz Carlton (115th floor – what a view) but I visited the Mandarin as well. What a beautiful hotel!
The protests are winding down a bit but still disrupting traffic – we walked through the "tent city" – it is cool to see history happening. I loved the dim sum, as well! I will eventually be posting about HK but I am posting in chronological order so will do Japan and Singapore first.
How did you manage with the jet lag? It is killing me – I have been up at 2:30 am for three nights running! Thankfully it is the weekend!
xoxo