When A New 3-Star Hotel Beats A 5-Star Hotel

                        Image via Wikipedia

I'll be staying at the Moon Hotel in Singapore, a newly-opened 3-star hotel.  You can't beat new. I've stayed in a lot of tired old properties that have had a lot of lipstick and rouge applied to them, but the old electrical outlets sticking out of the walls, and the coats of paint, and the uneven creaky floors etc. give them away.

Here's my beef against 4 and 5 stars: when you get up to four- and five- stars, they start charging you for stuff like wi-fi that is free in the lower stars. I hate that!  Why should I pay $100+ for a place and then another $10-20 for internet when the cheapie places give it to me for free?

The Moon Hotel is new -- did I mention that? It offers free wi-fi, and a continental breakfast in the morning. Plus free coffee throughout the day.  That's hospitable. At a five-star, you pay for everything.

Here's a review from an enthusiastic Google-translated Danish guest: "Design and Servive .. for business travelers! We are particularly great for business travelers - not many hotels that have such fine bathing facilities. The staff is very young and fresh ... they understand to really give a good service. The hotel and the service bærger much influenced by design - that gives "peace" of mind."

It's located in Little India. After work I want to take the MRT to Little India, eat, then be able to simply walk to my hotel and crash for 12 hours.

The rooms are small but -- how small can they be?!

Stay tuned...

Update: The answer: too small for comfort. This room is about the size of two king size beds. The first king size bed area has the bed, and the second has the toilet/shower and hallway/closet/sink. No window! It's more like a small  dorm room.  The bed is on a raised platform. You sit on the platform by the bed and there's a built-in desk -- no chair, you sit on the bed or the raised platform that extends out.

 It's a brand new property -- some pictures on the walls would help make it appear a bit more homey.

Kowloon Hotel, Kowloon

I'm staying at the Kowloon Hotel in Kowloon, across the harbour from Hong Kong. Got it on Priceline. There's a 24 hour McDonalds across the road for middle of the night food, morning coffee, and wi-fi (not free as I had hoped). I plan on going to the Temple Street night market, big-if I can stay awake. The one requisite thing to do when in Hong Kong is to take the famous Star Ferry.

So, at a minimum I plan to take it over to Hong Kong and back again.

Then, a short 4 hour hop down to Singapore on Cathay Pacific.

Related articles

• Top 10 things to do in Hong Kong (thestar.com)

The Ball Has Bounced... To Hong Kong

Image by betta design via Flickr

I'm off to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific -- will it be yeah or nay on Cathay with their economy slider clamshell seats?  Check back to find out.

I've got a one-day rest stop in Hong Kong and then on down to Singapore and the new Moon Hotel in Little India.

While I'm off-line, keep up on all the latest with Wintery Knight.

Snookered By Cathay Pacific

Image by E-Mans av8pix.com via Flickr

I haven't even boarded my Cathay Pacific flight for Hong Kong and already things are going off the rails (if you'll excuse the bad metaphor).

Here's what I booked, weeks ago:

Cathay Pacific Airways
Flight 827 (on Boeing 777-300)
Requested Seats: 30G
Total Travel Time: 15 hrs 25 mins

Silly me. I thought when Cathay Pacific invited me to select my seat and accepted my seat request of 30G (aisle bulkhead with extra legroom), that I had booked seat 30G.

Apparently not. When I went online this evening to print my boarding pass, 30G belonged to someone else, and there were only about 5 seats left; 3 middles and 2 windows. I took a window.

So, 15 1/2 hours of being stuck in a window seat, in what I think is going to be one of the new non-reclining seats, on a full flight.

Not a great start.

Maybe things will improve when I get to the airport in the morning.

Update: I was told seat selection is a request, and nothing more.  I guess that makes it one step below a Seinfeld RAC reservation.  I've requested an aisle seat at the airport.  Let's hope a bunch of aisle seat economies get their business class upgrades.

Quote of the Day: "The new [seat] design is completely insane"

                 Image via Wikipedia

I'm flying Toronto - Singapore via Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific next week. Economy. I heard Cathay Pacific has some new economy seats that slide rather than recline.  Went to AirlineEquality.Com to check things out.

Doesn't look good.  Sample reviews :

Being 6'6" makes any seat difficult but to Cathay's credit, they gave me an exit row. Without this act of kindness, I would have been crippled because the new shell design (non-reclining) is completely insane. Have the cushions slide forward and describing this as the same as reclining is absurd. Your knees end up in your face - try it at home! One can only hope that these things get scrapped and a legitimate engineer designs the new ones. Cathay Pacific dropped the ball on this one and I cannot understand how it hasn't affected their rating.

* * * 

New economy seat. Absolute torture. I'm 6'4" Doesn't recline, only slouches, so you slump down and your neck is bent at a torturous angle. No support, no legroom, luckily I was in an aisle seat and could stick one leg out in the aisle. Very disappointing as the Cathay inflight service is very good. Never again.  

Maybe this explains why Cathay Pacific had the best  prices -- people want to avoid anything resembling Tortureair.

On the positive side, a 5' 1" reviewer reported she had plenty of leg room...

I'm taking a travel pillow and booking aisle so I can get up and stretch (for sleeping segments, I prefer window). Any other advice on long-haul survival strategies would be appreciated.

Then, back in about eight days and I'll let you know how I make out.