Thursday,,,, our last morning at the Peninsula was spent packing and getting ready for our trip to Vietnam. (And yes, another p90x video) --- breakfast was served in our room,,,, we didn't end up leaving the room until about noon. We went downstairs,,, checked out and shipped a few things at the concierge's desk. After that we stopped by Eddie's for one last fitting then we zipped to the airport. I uploaded the last few photos to the Hong Kong album a few entries below.
Overall Hong Kong was a lot of fun but not on our list of places to rush back to. I do have to mention the bell service was amazing. You call and within 2 minutes they are in the room. From there you don't touch your bags. In fact, once we packed our luggage in Hong Kong we didn't touch it until it was in our room in Vietnam. We were driven to the airport where the Peninsula representative met us and escorted us through check-in, customs and security. It was a breeze.
The Hong Kong airport is just like downtown with every single shop you can imagine (Prada, Cartier, Hermes, etc) except, no store to buy Advil, band aids, etc. There was a nice looking Chinese restaurant so we stopped for our last meal in Hong Kong. After that we were off.
Vietnam Airlines was nothing special. The flight attendants wore nice robe like things but overall it was just like flying first class in America. The flight was an uneventful 2 hours. Once we got off the plane we were greeted by two reps, one was our tour guide and the other was the airport help. They got us through customs and loaded up in the car. The drive to our hotel took about an hour. It's amazing to see how many scooters are around this area. Not to mention, who is driving them. We saw families on one scooter, Mom, Dad and Baby,,,, crazy.
The hotel arrival was amazing. The Peninsula and the Ritz were all fantastic,,, first class,,, but here, they are excited to see you and to help you. Not just excited but more like we are a present to them. We felt like a royal family arriving,,, they wanted to do everything for us. Half of them were just staring at us with smiles on their face, ready to help at a moments notice. Overall it was a great experience. As soon as Katie stepped out of the vehicle they congratulated her on our marriage and presented her with a dozen red roses. Then, three people escorted us to our room. They were so proud to show off this amazing room and to help us get situated. They wanted to unpack our luggage but we declined (I'm still wondering why we declined). In the room they had chocolates and drinks setup in the living room and in the bedroom they had a box of chocolates surrounded by rose petals in the shape of a heart --- awesome!
After our butler showed us around (yes butler,,, more on him later) the room attendant showed us a miniature box of pillows that represented the different types of body pillows we can request. They asked if we preferred feather or non-feathered pillows. After that she presented Katie with a box of oils to choose from for her bath. She wanted to prepare the bath but again we declined. After what seemed like 30 minutes of saying thank you and no thank you, everyone left and we were alone. It was about 5:15 PM and we had until 6 to meet our butler for drinks. Our butler, Bui, was/is here to assist us with anything we need or might not know we need. At 6 he escorted us to the complementary guest lounge for drinks and appetizers but not before he escorted us down the street to an ATM. I just asked where an ATM was and he insisted on taking us personally.
After appetizers we decided to attend the VIP reception (an invitation that was in our room from the hotel's GM). We started to get up to leave for that when Bui showed up out of no where to escort us. That was unexpected. At the reception we spoke with the GM for about an hour. He use to run the Park Hyatt in Beavercreek so we had a lot to chat about. After that we were escorted to our table at dinner. They have three restaurants here,, we chose the local flavor,,, Spicy Garden. I had the duck and foie gras combo,,, very good. The wine,,,, Napa Cab,,, we got a great deal on a good bottle,,, only 2.5 million dollars.
After that we were beat so we actually found our own way back to the room and called it a night. Check out the photos below --- and stay tuned for more to come.....
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