The best lessons in my life are those I derived from traveling. Ultimately, traveling allows us to explore God’s finest treasures as we experience the genius of man whose vision created the magnificent edifices where we relax, unwind and meditate.
My dad and mom often enthused that traveling provides us with the greatest inspiration. Dad singled out Conrad Hilton as an exemplary man whose humanistic management style was unprecedented. Dad often shared how he admired Hilton for being a visionary, a philanthropist whose humanistic management style involved leveling the playing field, thus promoting staff from within the organization. Dignity of labor was given a very high priority; therefore the concierge could one day be the general manager if he pursued his job with excellence and dedication.
Long before the infamous Paris Hilton became a mainstream fixture of pop culture, her great-grandfather Conrad built a hotel empire on a foundation of perseverance and faith. After starting out in the lodging business by taking over the small, 40-room Mobley Hotel in the sleepy town of Cisco, Texas in 1919, Hilton built the first hotel bearing his own name in Dallas six years later. He credited his Catholic religion as the single most powerful influence on how he built one of the world’s largest and most respected hotel chains.
Conrad Hilton summarized his guiding philosophy which revolved around prayer. He espoused kindness to men and advocated that that there is a natural law that obliges all mankind to help relieve the suffering, the distressed and the destitute. The humble man born on Christmas Day in Texas believed that hospitality is a lifestyle, not just a service dictated by a well-paying job. He exemplified the belief that any gracious act of kindness would make a difference in the world. I was fascinated to discover that the Hilton group even has a website (www.behospitable.com) wherein acts of loving kindness around the globe are mapped out.
Kendra Walker, vice president of brand communications at Hilton Hotel Corp., says, “Conrad Hilton envisioned a world where acts of hospitality built bridges between people and even nations. And there is no better place than the hotel business to become a beacon to encourage greater hospitality between people.”
There were many Conrad hotels to choose from but among the destinations we frequented I confess the closest to our hearts is the Conrad Hotel in the former Crown Colony. Today, each visit to Hong Kong with my siblings, nieces and nephews is fun-filled, educational and sentimental.
Notwithstanding the frenzy it always basks in, Hong Kong remains many things to many people. Many a person with wanderlust will say that no matter how much he has visited its every nook and cranny, he will never be successful in capturing Hong Kong in words or in images. One can only have a taste of this forever-bustling city — once fancifully described as “the imperial orphan of motherland China” returning just a decade ago to the fold “as a beautiful and wealthy bride.”
To our family, it is not just our greatest home away from home, but an extension of our home. It is our abode as well as our “school,” where we learned that we must work hard and learn through experience, exploration and immersion. Each room at the Conrad has a copy of Mr. Hilton’s book, Be My Guest, which we read as our bedtime story. The Conrad Hotel is our private sanctuary. With our late parents, we celebrated countless New Years in its presidential suite overlooking the majestic Victoria Harbour. Our board meetings in its executive lounge seemed endless as we turned it into our private office for the duration of our visits. Our mom, a professional pianist, could never resist playing Beethoven, Bach and Chopin ensembles on the hotel’s grand piano as her precocious grandchildren listened in awe. Unforgettable were the many walks in the nearby park led by Dad with all of us in tow as he pushed along the stroller of his grandchild Vincent while sharing with us valuable lessons in life. My winsome nieces, then toddlers Alex and Sam, thought the hotel’s red stretch limousine was their private car which they wanted to take home. Our family friends from Conrad — Dario Regazoni and Glenda Maloto — were there to witness such historic events of our clan. Glenda once worked for our Miladay Group of Companies as head of business development and today she is Conrad Hotel’s director of finance for the Asia-Pacific region. The hotel witnessed a succession of family events spent together from New Year to Valentine’s Day, Easter, our birthdays, summer escapades, back-to-school sojourns, semestral breaks and more. If only the walls, floors and cornices could record the countless conversations and intimacies that took place there, we could write a voluminous book of these precious memories.
When Mom and Dad passed away in 1997, we could not step inside the Conrad without breaking into tears; thus we deliberately stayed away from it. It was only when my sister Yvonne and I took a cruise aboard the Holland America in 2002 that we set foot inside the Conrad again. We encouraged the rest of our siblings to follow suit, first at the Conrad Bali in 2004 and finally at the Conrad in Hong Kong that same year. Since then, the orphans have been coming back to the “motherland.” We rediscovered and savored the luxury and comfort of the Conrad once again.
The hotel towers 61 floors above Hong Kong’s most prestigious and exclusive shopping and entertainment complex, the Pacific Place, located within the central business district. Featuring 467 luxuriously appointed rooms and 46 suites, the award-winning property offers business and leisure travelers the optimum in comfort, facilities and service. Scenic views of Hong Kong Harbour and picturesque Victoria Peak are simply breathtaking. The hotel also features five exclusive executive floors and a private executive lounge replete with fabulous amenities. The architecture is classic contemporary with charming Asian touches, exquisite wood paneling, polished granite and comfortable furniture. Large-size rooms, which start from the 40th floor up, boast windows that extend the width of the room. Romantic tones of gold and brown with Chinese armoires and objets d’art are a sight to behold. International cuisine from each of the hotel’s four award-winning signature restaurants will no doubt tempt connoisseurs at Nicholini’s Brasserie on the Eighth, Golden Leaf or The Garden Café. For the perfect tête-à-tête, there’s the cozy Lobby Lounge and the sophisticated Pacific Bar. The hotel also features a fully-equipped health and fitness facility. Guests have direct lift access to Pacific Place and are within a five-minute walk to the MTR (Mass Transit Railway) and a 15-minute stroll to the relocated Star Ferry terminal.
Over a recent exquisite lunch with our dear friend Glenda Maloto, we strolled down memory lane with anecdotes of our joyful history at the Conrad HK. We savored fine cuisine of steamed fresh shrimp dumplings with bird’s nest and gold leaf, steamed crystal dumplings with scallops and asparagus, steamed flour rolls with lobster and bamboo pith, steamed fresh crab claw with minced ginger and rice wine, and braised pea shoot sprouts with garlic.
The Conrad HK, like fine wine, inevitably gets better with age. Renowned for its spaciousness and understated elegance, each room and suite provides unsurpassed facilities, including various “homey touches” to ensure each guest has a “home away from home” experience. Our favorite touches include a rubber duckie in the bathtub, a Conrad teddy bear at the evening turndown, and even an in-room percolated coffee machine.
I still remember Dad’s nuggets of wisdom about Conrad Hilton. By 1949, when he fulfilled a dream and made national headlines by purchasing the famed Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York City, Hilton’s financial problems were far in his wake. He was famously quoted as saying, “Success seems to be connected with action. Successful men keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.” His death in 1979 didn’t end his charitable giving. He called for a large portion of his considerable fortune to be set aside for humanitarian efforts, and in it he wrote, “Love one another, for that is the whole law so our fellowmen who deserve to be loved and encouraged — never to be abandoned to wander alone in poverty and darkness. The practice of charity will bind us — will bind all men in one great brotherhood.”
The Conrad remains our top choice when in Hong Kong. As we continue to explore, experience and rediscover the many grand amenities the Conrad has to offer, we relish the thought that it all started with one man’s vision, a man whose commitment to hospitality and charity is unrivaled.
As we usher in the Year of the Rat, we reflect on this opportune time for new beginnings of hard work, activity and renewal.
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For more information, call Lucy Lau, director of sales and marketing, at +85225213838, e-mail info@conrad hotels.com, or visit its website at www.conradhotels.com.
E-mail the author at miladay.star@gmail.com
