Oh so where do I start!!!!💆🏾♀️
We stayed in Beijing at the Ramada hotel. It was about an hour by train outside of Beijing. The hotel was older but a normal comfort level. It had floor to ceiling windows and then it had a lounge chair and foot stool as well as above chair and desk large tv, and a fridge. It had a bathroom with a tub and a shower, and marble fixtures. So I do not care what people say, it is still a step up in terms of materials from what I have at home. We liked the breakfast and it was varied. There were people (hotel staff) making omlettes and noodles as well a regular Chinese foods.
Not far from the hotel was a street of local food. Most people did not venture that way but we did. It even had a tradtional alley where people were selling meat, fresh made bread, pastry snacks and fruits and veggies. The place we decided to eat had the pictures on the walls so it was really point and click for us. We did want to know the ingredients inside so we played on our phones translating details. We have come a long way since I first travelled to China. Now we can somewhat understand each other in certain situations.
Hotel 2 was in Suzhou. We flew from the airport in Beijing and went south to Suzhou at some late hour. We arrived and then jumped on a bus for about an hour to drive and arrived at a Holiday Inn Express . It was a smaller room but modern in a hipster kind of way so like a college kid who thinks his decoration is cool. The room again had floor to ceiling windows. There were bedroom slippers (I wondered how many of those get thrown away every day. ) So it was pretty late and we all showed and just jumped into the kind sized bed. I must however note the following things. There were tons of accessories in the bathroom-combs, ear cleaners, brushes, sanitary bags and the normal soap, shampoo, and conditioner. I grabbed everything from the room. Oh, the bathroom wall was made of glass bricks, so partially visible to the bedroom but no worries, you could not see through them. It was all asthetics. I just wondered what happened if there was a leak. Also a cool thing was that the bathroom door also doubled as the shower door. Either you were peeing and had privacy that way or you were in the shower and someone else could be at the sink. The room was all brick and unfinished concrete. It was cold but modern (in a different way than the room.)
The breakfast here was negligible. There was cereal, some bread, some meat and some fruit. There were maybe dumplings and sausage but that was it. We ate up but were not amused.
The next hotel we stayed at was in Wuxi at the Days Hotel Baile Wuxi. It was a regular hotel room with a decent sized bed and a little bit more trimmings on the bed linens. The bathroom was small but all the space was used well. The closets had glass. I think I remember almost leaving my and my kids jacket in the closet. I came back to the room while waiting for my ride.
Next was the Liang’an International Hotel. So this hotel had a mall downstairs. I did not get to walk around as my kid was asleep and I volunteered to stay inside while my husband went out for food. We had a great view as it was like the 20th floor. However there were cigarette buts in the carpet and the bathroom was like a dancing pulpit and it was floor to ceiling glass. There was a curtain that could be opened for privacy. Yay. The bathroom was tight with the door opening in such a way that no one else could be in that area. Also there was some unused space and the space in general was ill placed. The food here was on the 27th folor and there was tons of variety.
The food cafeteria wrapped around the top of the building. You could get a seat along the window. Unfortunately it was too early and foggy for us that morning to see anything. There were lots of pastries and waffles and the like, so we ate our bellies full.
The next hotel we stayed at was the Lian’gan International Hotel. It was a small hotel and the breaskfast room was downstairs. We ate in a cafe of sorts and there were lounge chairs. There was a small but decent selection. I think we grabbed a tad much so we threw out some stuff. We ate quickly as we were to be on our way soon to drive for most of the day.
The last hotel was the Venus International Hotel Shanghai Wild Animal Park. So this one was a smaller room and barely any room for our bags. I made use of the cabinets for my book bag. Our room was right across from another room. No joke–open the curtain and you could see the other people in their bed. Yeah that flipping close. So we closed the curtains. The bathroom was no frills but had a shower, toilet and sink. It was okay and though tight, did not have an ick feeling. We were to be there two nights. In the morning we were getting ready and guess what–the fuse blew so it got dark immediately and I opened the curtains, and got the cell phone lights on. I was like, really, really. So we called down to the front desk and using a translation program tried to communicate that our electricity was gone and that we needed someone to come and fix it now. That took a while so we went to breakfast and in the mean time, my husband dealt with them and eventually they gave another room. He had to move everything. Luckily we are not used to spreading out. We never unpack and we only take out what we need and store the rest.
The breakfast here was non existent almost beyond negligible. There was only some bread, some dumplings and fried bread and I cannot even remember–maybe cereal. That night for dinner we brought home pizza. So the following morning we ate cold pizzza. That was infinitely better than the stuff they were serving for breakfast downstairs.
hotel adventures
food shortages
fun times
When can we do it again!!!
