*How the other 5% lives*

Going to side track to a personal post today.

I'm back from my trip to K.L., was orginally going to return home yesterday morning by coach but I had extended it by a day and returned by a shuttle from KLIA.

Which brings me to the title of my post today. Due to a very fortituous circumstance i.e. my aunt working for the Hilton, she gets a staff discount for rooms and Food & Beverages when she stays at another Hilton. As a result, this had to have been my most opulent trip ever to another country. I wasn't staying at any suite mind you but what seemed to me to be one of their 'normal' rooms but the scale of the rooms and the amenities present was (for me) jaw dropping.

The room was at least 2-2.5 times larger than a usual hotel room. The bathroom took up slightly less than half of that space with a full bathtub and waterfall shower. Not to mention the ubercool LCD screen inbuilt into the mirror that allows you to watch what is showing on the 42 inch plasma screen tv outside. This does not include the various nick knacks that are included like an iron and ironing board, books and games for the little kiddies etc.

So yes, between eating at the Hilton (decent value for money which is admittedly damning with faint praise, though the pastry chef is really excellent) and staying there, it was an absolute blast.

At any rate I don't have any particular abiding interest in the hotelling industry, especially when I found out that they don't employ in-house counsels. What is worth noting is that at least the local Hilton seems to be picking up very well with very high occupancy rates even during what might be considered off-peak season. Assuming that this is the state for the other hotels in Singapore, it looks like they are well and truely out of the doldrums that they had been in since the AEC (and the various major whammies that occured there after).

And oh, one more thing, for anyone actually interested in the real estate aspect of things, it's worth noting that the major hotel groups have stopped owning the land on which the hotel in on. Now, doesn't that say something about their perception of the future of real estate...=P

Peace!