Ahhhh.....

Post by: Beth

Okay, so as referenced before, I'm here to tell you about the bathtub. ;) Just playing.. sort of.

No, really, one of the things I love most about traveling is staying in different hotels. One would think after all this moving around and living out of bags, that I would simply want to stay home and not have to pack for a while, but I love the process of reading hotel reviews, looking at hotel locations, and helping pick out the best hotel for our travel situation for that particular trip.

We planned Beijing pretty quickly, and there are lots of logistical details that had to be taken care of, since we'd technically be entering another country. We needed a Visa to enter China, which can be a daunting process in a large city where your native language is no longer THE native language. Raja worked out a bunch of details and filled in tons of paperwork, and while he was at work, I ran around all over the place distributing the paperwork where it needed to go, standing in lines, collecting necessary pieces of information, and generally making a fool of myself by not being able to read or understand Chinese, yet insisting that I wanted to spend 5 days IN China and I needed to make that possible within 4 days.

Since that left me with no time to help with the virtual selection of hotel accommodations, I missed out on the entire process, and it was all left solely to Raja. When we left for Beijing 4 days later, I didn't know our flight number, had no idea about our hotel's location, was clueless as to how long we'd be in the air, but I DID know that we had secured the proper visas and documents to pass through China's immigration center without worry.

Sure enough, my papers and information got us through the airport authority's staunch line of questioning and many fever-checking temperature readings, and Raja's part came into play once we stepped onto solid ground. We navigated safely to the hotel, and upon entering our room, I promptly decided that I was letting Raja do ALL of the accommodation selection from now on. The cause for my excitement? Please feast your eyes.... on the bathtub....




Biggest. Bathtub. EVER. WITH a TV suspended above it! I could fit three of me in there! All this AND bath salts! Can you see why Raja told me not to even TRY to fake sick so I could stay in this thing all day? I jumped in hastily, with clothes, without water, and grinned like the Cheshire cat. If you know me well, you know there's rarely a day that passes where I'm NOT in the bathtub reading for at least an hour, usually more. (Except for India where bathtubs didn't exist for us.. Thank goodness that's over.) I was BEYOND excited, and I tentatively ventured just staying at home that night and relaxing, since we'd had "such a long travel day." (I was shut down.) I know some of you don't care about bathtubs the way I do, and I'm sorry for you that Raja isn't here to micromanage and ensure that 40% of this post isn't devoted to this wonderful bathtub, but ... I could not help posting pictures!

For your sake, I will graciously move on to some other photos of our room and the hotel, though. In all seriousness, this was a WONDERFUL stay, and if you ever travel to Beijing, we can pass on some recommendations. Service was wonderful, lots of attention to detail, and the whole thing is just so pretty. Ada & I fawned over the lobby each and every morning after breakfast, like the excited little girls that we are. Sorry for a post that may be meaningless to some of you, but as I said, hotels really are one of the highlights of traveling for me, so it becomes another way to share our experience. :)

bedroom area:

sitting room/dining area in the suite:

shower... again.. enormous!:

bathroom:

bedroom (from a different angle):

lobby of the hotel:

Aren't these candles just so big and pretty?:

In true Asian style, we have birdcages in the lobby!:

breakfast area, where Raja ate an un-Godly amount of food each morning:

So we can safely say that the bathtub was my favorite part, and the breakfast area was Raja's. Traveling and living all over obviously hasn't changed us one bit! :)