Hotel Blog : Apollo Arthotel Brugge

Spent 14 days here, the longest I've ever spent in a hotel. There should be heaps to write about this place, we'll see how I go.

Firstly, location, location, location. It's not in the best location, but I'm glad it's where it is. Slightly away from the city center, it's surrounded by farm and grassland. A cozy spot to be in. I liked that there are no other buildings around... makes it secluded. Only the sheep, ducks and some cows for company.

Getting to the bus stop that takes you into the city is a lovely tree-lined walk. There is a small castle on the right surrounded by a tiny moat and the hotel is on the left. The white building that is seen in the picture looks to be a dorm of sorts.

Another found gem is The Frites Salon located nearby. They sell the best fries in Brugge, especially yummy when doggie-bagged and eaten soggy! They also have some yummy fried chicken wings.

Alright, the hotel itself is rated 4 stars. In Europe that's pretty good. The rooms are of an ok size, not sure about the rest of the levels but we got the top floor, which means a slanted roof on one part of the room. The toilet and bathroom was in working order with no pet moss, which is a lot coming from an European hotel. The one I stayed in while in Paris is not getting as good a review as this one is.

Staff at the hotel were all friendly and the food was fantastic, especially the breakfast spread. After eating 14 hearty breakfasts, I'm missing it already. Didn't think I'd be able to eat the same food everyday, but that's how good their spread is! It also looked like they baked their own bread. They were all yummy!

Part of the amazing breakfast spread

Hotel Blog : Toyoko-Inn Naha Asahi-bashi Ekimae

Sometime at the end of April, the hubs and I went off to Okinawa for a short vacation. The island itself wasn't too difficult to get to, the shortest way from Singapore being via Taiwan. I did another blog on the flight which we took, so I won't go into that.

Okinawa Island. Not such a small island. Could be nearly twice the size of Singapore. There is only one monorail that connects the airport to the city and about 10 minutes beyond. The public bus service is extensive as they do not have a subway system but not very frequent. Probably a good idea to rent your own car as some taxis don't even venture to the remote areas. Only con is that I nor the hubs read Japanese.

Right! This blog is about the hotel which we stayed in. Ever since a couple of my hub's friends recommended the chain of Toyoko-Inn, we've been staying at their various properties every time we go to Japan. Clean rooms, excellent locations and yummy breakfast is always included. This particular property is located a 3 minute walk from a monorail station and central bus station. Perfect place for visitors who want to make use of the extensive bus services for touring purposes.

Rooms are typically japanese sized and there's an option to pay more for a deluxe (slightly bigger), but we figured we're only there to sleep and shower, don't need a bigger room and it was clean. No pet moss in the bathroom and all mechanisms were in working order. Well maintained.

The best part of the hotel is the breakfast. The spread was a little different from the ones in Tokyo, Osaka and Hokkaido Island in that it serves a little western style too (cereal, bread, salad and sausages) on top of the regular japanese (white and mixed rice, miso soup and a local cooked dish). And we weren't expecting the mixed brown rice as the other branches usually serve a selection of onigiri (rice triangles). I would definitely go back, if only to have the yummy breakfast.

All-you-can-eat breakfast

Hotel Blog : Chisun Inn Asakusa, Tokyo

For my single week long trip to Tokyo in April this year, I decided to give the Toyoko-Inn chain of hotels a miss and stayed at this place down the road from the Toyoko-Inn which the hubs and I stayed in the last time we were in Tokyo. One of the reasons for me picking this place was the price. I had to watch the budget as I rather be spending on food than an extremely comfortable hotel room. As long as the toilet/bathroom has no pet moss and the bed is clean, I'm ok with the hotel. There was an offer on at that time (buy 2 nights, get the 3rd night free) which worked the per room night to be S$77. That's pretty cheap for a hotel in Tokyo during sakura season.

Pros:
Located in the suburb of Asakusa on a main road. I love this suburb of Tokyo.

It's within a 10 minute walking distance to the Asakusa Sensoji Temple and a 2 minute walk from the metro on the Toei Asakusa line. I realise that most of the stops for the Toei line are more interesting as compared to the Tokyo Metro lines. Anyways, this location is only a 4 minute walk from the Tokyo Metro Asakusa or Kuramae station, so you have three subway stations to choose from.

Free internet. Let's face it. Most of the hotels, even the budget ones, throw in free internet. Japan is amazing in that way.

24 hour convenient stores located on the walk back from all three subway stations. Yummy hot food and a selection of Japanese takeaway. Great place for meals if you're on a budget.

Cons:
No free breakfast included in the price (Toyoko-Inns include daily all-you-can-eat breakfast) but it wasn't difficult to find breakfast with the convenient stores located nearby.

Hotel Blog : The Langham Place, Hong Kong

I thought I'd write this before things drastically change. I don't think a lot has changed in the past couple of years, right?

I had the opportunity to stay at the Langham Place which is located next to a shopping mall in the district of Mongkok on the main island of Hong Kong a couple of years ago. Purported to be a 5 star hotel, it didn't disappoint.

Plus points:
I managed to find the time to take morning swims before breakfast, a different experience I would recommend everyone to try as the pool was a roof-top one and neighbouring office buildings which are higher than the 50 something floor are able to peer down at me swim. Luckily the buildings are not right next to each other, otherwise no one would get any work done! The pool itself is rectangle in shape, 2.5m deep on one side and what I liked about it was the richly coloured small mosaic with smatterings of gold specks.

The room itself is medium in size, I'm not sure which category we got but there is a big bathtub in the bathroom which has windows that open out to the bedroom and if you're adventurous enough, you could have a bath while looking out into the city lights! All modern ingenuity has been fitted in the room, flat screen telly, including a cordless phone which you can bring up to the Spa and pool area. I didn't have the time to figure out how to use the phone... it was too computerised even for me.

Location, location, location! The suburb of Mongkok is an excellent place to stay when you're a tourist. The hotel is located a couple of minutes walk away from the Mongkok subway station, a minute walk away from the Ladies Market, Sports and the Electronics streets, surrounded by little coffee shops serving all sorts of goodies, it's an eclectic mix of Hong Kong's culture.

Cons:
Only the price... it's not for all and sundry to stay.

Hotel Blog : The Fullerton Hotel, Singapore

I thought I'd start this as a filler on some days where I have nothing much to write about. It would also give me a reason to reminisce.

While flipping a free newspaper on Thursday, I chanced upon an advertisement for this place. At S$288 per night, I thought it was pretty good, considering it's purported to be a 5 star property.

The Fullerton Hotel belongs to a chain of it's own. It's not part of the Hilton chain or the Raffles chain, it's in a chain of its own. The reason I'm using 'chain' is because they'll have another hotel opened next month, The Fullerton Bay Hotel, located a stone's throw away. The building used to be the general post office of Singapore, being a heritage building, a lot of the interior was kept.

Anyways, small as the room was (on the upside the bathroom was larger than the bedroom!), we kind of got upgraded to a river view room and the service and food was impeccable. I ate too much and am currently suffering for it.

It all started with their buffet breakfast this morning. Decent selection of Japanese, local, Chinese and European. I had a little bit of everything except the Japanese and went back for seconds. Probably not a good idea, but at the cost of S$45 per person for breakfast, mentally you'd want to eat more. Their nasi lemak was yummy, sambal was not extremely spicy by my standards, fresh roasted peanuts and crispy fried anchovies. Their duck congee was also pretty yummy with sesame oil, broiled peanuts, fried shallots and pork floss.

After being absolute gluttons (the hubs went back for 4ths and 5ths!) the hubs and I waddled and burped our way towards Boat Quay and got onto the river cruise, something that we've never done as residents of Singapore. The weather was perfect, not muggy or too sunny, and the boat ride took us around the Boat and Clarke Quay area. There was nothing else for us to do after the half hour cruise as we've pretty much done that area of Singapore, so we headed back for a nana nap. Probably not a great idea as I don't think it allowed the food to digest much. Lunch was a simple fare of grilled cod and some mushroom risotto.

Within the S$288, breakfast for two was included, a dining credit of S$88 was included, late check-out, complimentary parking and a half hour river cruise. After calculating everything, the room rate ended up being S$9. That's for a 5 star hotel. I hope they throw in more of these deals *grin* I'd definitely go back.

The Pool