I took out my notebook. I looked the opposite of entitled but who cared. This is one of the most com

Well, not really a free lunch, more than that. Try a room, a hotel room, a harbor view hotel room looking straight across the water at the magical light show of Hong Kong island s inimitable skyline. It all cost $329. Normally, to normal kenny chesney fan fiction andnot tickets tour people. We paid only the tax on that: $30. Yes, less than backpackers were paying at nearby hostels and, we re at the five star Intercontinental Grand Stanford, with it s sweeping foyer, grand piano, hushed luxury kenny chesney fan fiction andnot tickets tour and well heeled kenny chesney fan fiction andnot tickets tour international clientele.
How are we here? How indeed? Hotels.com is how. With every ten nights booked through this fabulous online booking agency you get one night free. That s one night with a price limit of $400. This is not a shabby freebie.
But that s not the main event, although perhaps it should be. The main event was membership of the Grand Stanford s hallowed Executive Club. This was included in the price of the room and I had no expectations. Sometimes this means nothing more than checking in somewhere private and eating an inanimate free breakfast in a windowless room with wireless and other stuffy executives hopefully not like you.
Not this time. This time we got whisked away from the reception desk and the milling commoners. A uniformed butler type person discretely inserted us into the next elevator going up to the first floor. From this entirely different kenny chesney fan fiction andnot tickets tour altitude you could disdainfully gaze down upon the hapless rabble. I was getting the hang of this.
We were checked in at a private desk where no-one mentioned tasteless things like money or, for that matter, freebies. We were just in time for cocktail hour. Oh yes, you mean the small grubby glass of boxed wine hurriedly downed in some draughty corridor and the lonely plate of cheese cubes? No? That s no, no and no!
We waded through the luxury carpet s knee deep pile and found ourselves a table facing the glitter of water and light. Around us, small puddles of discretely happy people from Germany, France, Britain, Australia, The World.
The Germans looked the most to the manor born. Just disheveled enough to appear casually entitled they sat in groups drinking pearly long glasses of champagne and murmuring sophisticated things to each other in their native language. An occasional peal of laughter disturbed the urbane surface.
I took out my notebook. I looked the opposite of entitled but who cared. This is one of the most compelling reasons to be a writer, to heedlessly kenny chesney fan fiction andnot tickets tour indulge my wonder and curiosity, snatch up the unusual kenny chesney fan fiction andnot tickets tour and gaze at it unselfconsciously and from all angles. To stare, to watch, kenny chesney fan fiction andnot tickets tour to observe.
I was visiting a land I don t often frequent. Not Hong Kong, I m fortunate enough to pop in there several times a year but this, the land of the rich. It was enchanting, in a Cinderella, sort of way, to hear the sounds of the rich swell and recede around me.
Most of the women in the elegant, long room, wore versions of black; narrow skirts, pale nondescript blouses, dark expensive kenny chesney fan fiction andnot tickets tour jackets and sharp, slim heels. The men wore polo necks and tassled loafers with no socks. I was in a baggy black smock top with traveled kenny chesney fan fiction andnot tickets tour in jeans, boots and a limp, bedraggled scarf.
My party of three Australians made several trips to the loo only to return to find their drinks replenished, again and again. Everyone loosened up visibly and audibly. Confidences were exchanged ever more boldly and with heightened hilarity. It was a joy to watch.
To my left a man in his forties sporting the loafers, black polo neck and a well preserved physique was attempting to chat up the Filipino waitress who looked 20 years younger than she was and turned out to have a husband and three grown children. She eventually extricated herself from the awkwardly protracted question and answer session and he returned to fiddling dolefully with his cell phone dreaming of contacts he wished he had and the ones he does.
The snacks were spicy and warm. A far cry from their impoverished relative, the dried out cheese cube. The night wore on and when it ended we were in no position to mourn its demise. Quite satiated we decided to cancel our dinner reservations at The Press Room on the island. We ve had way too of a good thing and happy to repair to our glorious, and almost free, bed. And all that for $30. Who says there s no such thing as a free lunch?
Il bel far niente kenny chesney fan fiction andnot tickets tour means the beauty of doing nothing ... [it] has always been a cherished Italian ideal. The beauty of doing nothing is the goal of all your work, the final accomplishment for which you are most highly congratulated. The more exquisitely and delightfully you can do nothing, the higher your life s achievement. You don t necessarily need to be rich in order to experience this, either. Reply Delete Add comment Load more...
OH, THE PLACES YOU'LL GO ! China ~ Shanghai/Beijing kenny chesney fan fiction andnot tickets tour ~ Shenzehn ~ Guangzhou ~ Hong Kong ~ Guilin ~ Beijing Vietnam ~ Ho Chi Minh ~ Hanoi Halong kenny chesney fan fiction andnot tickets tour Bay ~ Jasmine Junk Luxury 1 ~ Jasmine Junk Luxury kenny chesney fan fiction andnot tickets tour 2 ~ Life That Floats Thailand ~ Backpacking vs Shangri La ~ Bangkok ~Chiang Mai - coming Malaysia ~ Taking The Massage Coach To Malacca USA ~ San Francisco ~ Las Vegas ~Chicago - coming ~Cape Cod - coming ~ Memphis ~ New York City ~ Santa Fe NM South Africa ~The Winelands - coming ~ On Safari: Where The Wild Things Really Are ~ Johannesburg Australia ~Sydney - coming Europe ~Barcelona - coming ~ Venic e ~ Paris ~ Paris At An Angle ~Cologne - coming General Avoid This: ~ Where the Driven Go ~ Guilin Bus Tour
Hong Kong ~ If you want a night off Chinese food try a copper bowl of surprisingly authentic Lamb Masala in the Metro Lounge at the Eaton Hotel , Hong Kong. Under $100 HKD it's a delicate helping but the real deal. This is not Chinese Indian curry. This is true Indian curry. ~ A night in heaven. If you care about sleeping and you want to do it in the arms of Orpheus, and you get it at a special rate, like we did, then you must try the beds at the Intercontinental Grand Stanford . Somewhere between the ephemeral goose down duvet and the mattress - which is not a mattress, it's a poem - you will find yourself so thoroughly cocooned you may never wake up again. What a way to go.