Wednesday 11 November 2009

This year I have stayed in quite a few lovely hotels ... but of all the new openings, The Upper House here in Hong Kong and The Elysian in Chicago are firmly up at the top.

The Upper House has a sister hotel in Beijing - The Opposite House. TUH is owned by the Swire Group which in turn owns Pacific Place which is a HUGE piece of land on which there is already a Conrad (hmm) & a JW Marriott (umm). TUH is "on top" of the JW - starting at floor 6 (where there is a Garden). Up to the top floor (49th) - there are 11 floors that house 117 rooms & suites.

The 49th floor has reception/library and Cafe Gray (from Gray Kunz - the NY chef) - which offers breakfast, lunch and dinner. I had a superb meal here tonight - Willem van Emden is an outstanding "director of restaurants" ... and the sommelier Kimberley Drake is one of the best I have ever had the pleasure meet and talk wine with.

The hotel has been designed by Andre Fu - who is the hottest hotel designer in Asia at the moment.

TUH is run by the excellent General Manager Dean Winter - ex-Mandarin Oriental. I have had a couple fascinating chats with him. This hotel is a winner - now in the top three of properties in Hong Kong (with The Four Seasons and Peninsula) ... and a lot of the success is down to him.

The hotel has 21 suites ... mine is HUGE ... and has brilliant views of the harbour and the hills ... I have nothing to complain about! The attention to detail is impressive. REN products in the bathroom, a lovely amenity bag filled with goodies AND very stealable all-lead pencils!

I have had a lovely day catching up ... drinking wine ... meeting up with old friends and drinking more wine.

In 4 hours I fly back to London ...

Song of the Day - The Labour of Love - Hue & Cry
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gxMvb9VrzY

Weather: delightful

the view at 0500
view at 0545
view at 0630
49th floor view from men's room!
whoo-hoo!
view internally from the 49th
arty
ground floor to 6th
my bedroom
my lounge
my bathroom part 1
my bathroom part 2
my walk-in-shower
with priscilla & willem
 
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