If there's a W, there's a Way
Anything is possible. All it takes is an opportunity.One of the great wonders of travel is that a journey from home can actually take up deep into ourselves as we find what completes us. Like falling in love, we never really know what we are looking for till we find it.
In our quest for life-changing sojourns, we search for places that provide us with refreshing ways of seeing — if just for a few days — the world from a different perspective. After all, adventure is not outside us, it is within.
After a month-long trip of trade conventions in Istanbul, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, my plane landed in Hong Kong and I was supposed to take a connecting flight to Manila. I was quite homesick, traveling alone without my siblings. Lo and behold, I got a call from my gregarious sister Jaqui to meet up with them at the chic Elements Mall in Kowloon. Excitedly, I hurried towards their direction and simply followed, not knowing where we would go. As we approached the posh lobby of the W Hotel, our Miladay creative consultant Mike Mina lovingly handed me the key to my suite. Only then did I realize that they had secretly made arrangements for us to stay in this magical place I had been dreaming of.
I always desire to visit new places, to explore destinations that are bold enough to trumpet their uniqueness. When I stumble on such precious finds, my life is enriched beyond measure.
On Aug. 8, 2008 at 8:08 p.m. (or the auspicious date 8/8/8), the most phenomenal, remarkable W hotel opened in Hong Kong and the former Crown Colony was never the same again. Many times I exclaimed that if I were to be a hotel, I would want to be the W. Ever since I visited the W Maldives and the four properties of the W in New York City, I have been fascinated by this brand philosophy of being able to have anything you want (as long as it is legal). “W” stands for whatever, whenever, what else.
At the W Maldives, wedding proposals take place with the help of the W staff, aptly called “talents,” who make arrangements for rose petal showers from helicopter rides while on the pristine beach the young man proposes to his bride-to-be and all this is captured on film by the talents. At the W Chicago, one German guest needed his presentation to be translated into English a few hours before his very important meeting with a client. A W talent efficiently did the translation. A guest in W Los Angeles lost his luggage, his wallet, cell phone and plane ticket. While he comfortably waited in his hotel room, the talents made all the arrangements with the credit card company and airline reservations office and even sent several sets of clothes and cell phones to the guest for him to choose from. For a bachelor’s party for a guest at W Times Square, the W talent made all the arrangements including the jet service for all the other guests, in-flight entertainment, transportation and reservation at one of the hottest restaurants in the Big Apple.
Gracious PR manager Suky Lo shared that the W Hotels (a member of the Starwood Hotel and Resorts that includes St Regis, Sheraton, Westin and Le Meridien) are an innovative luxury lifestyle brand with 33 properties in the most vibrant destinations around the world. Inspiring, iconic, innovative and influential, W Hotels provide the ultimate in insider access to a world of “wow.” The W hotel is an attitude that pervades and rules. W is exhilarating, fun, witty and adventurous. Its exclusive 24-hour concierge is dedicated to bring you whatever you want, whenever you want it. Think of it as your personal genie in a bottle — no request is too big or too small.
The spunky, hip and happy hotel lights up the night like a blazing firework, a radiant light illuminating all in its path. From Kowloon, looking out at the once more upscale Hong Kong skyline — the pulse reverberates in your heart and you know fierce competition has just set in the pipeline. This is the new phase of the West Kowloon landscape, the modern look, reinvented face of the familiar paths and alleys we explored in our childhood. This is the progressive reclamation site where posh apartments and offices are rising at stratospheric levels. With the emergence of the W Hong Kong, this new kid on the block, conveniently adjacent to the most upscale Elements Mall located on the waterfront boulevard with stunning views of the bay and city skylines and a gastronomical exploration of al fresco restaurants, one is convinced that if man can dream it, he can certainly achieve it.
The Starwood hotels really live up to their reputation of having the dreamiest bed in the global hotel industry. My brother Mark fell in love with the ultra-luxurious bed; he wanted to take it home. It is truly poetry in motion as the sheer diaphanous curtains controlled by remote reveals the most panoramic view of the Hong Kong Harbour.
After our dinner of foie gras salads, wagyu burgers and the most divine desserts at the Kitchen, in house restaurant, we went up to the rooftop, walked through the illuminated dramatic blue pathways through the sliding door as we listened to the beat of W’s hip, audio-streamed music. Boogy Tan, Mark’s former classmate at the Ateneo de Manila who resides in Hong Kong, exclaimed that he just had to have copies of this music. Do you know that whatever music is playing in the W Hong Kong at 11 a.m. is also playing in New York, Seattle, Mexico, San Diego all — in synchronized time? Only the volume can be controlled, not the W wanderlust vibes. The W sliding door opens dramatically to reveal the pool and the rooftop Jacuzzi where a comfortable set up of trees, fashionable sofas and comfy pillows forms the mise en scène of a dazzling party place on top of the world.
My brother Mark and sister Michelle worked out among the clouds at Sweat Fitness Centre on the 73rd floor while Yvonne and I retreated to the first Bliss spa to open in Asia. We were welcomed by gracious spa director Kent Richards. This is a wonderful, water-themed world of calming white and blue over two floors. Check out the treatment suite for two BIPs (that’s Bliss Important Persons), with floor-to-ceiling windows, a circular bath and contrasting light decorations after dark, or relax in the silver mosaic Jacuzzis with amazing views. Cool, sleek and playful, Bliss’s nine dazzling spa treatment rooms, with two for couples, and absorbing lounges for men and women await. Touch the clouds from Bliss’s magnificent rooftop pool, Wet — the highest swimming area in Hong Kong. Digital lockers, glass-tiled steam showers and sensuous saunas and steam rooms will delight. Jaqui visited the candy-colored beauty retail boutique or the movie-while-you-manicure (and pedicure) lounges and relaxation rooms and enjoyed her choice treatments as well.
I was whisked off to a very cozy, cosmopolitan living room with a comfy sofa and delightful legendary brownie buffet. It’s an enticing collection of mini brownies and blondies accompanied by crackers, cheese, olives, sliced cucumbers and several kinds of tea.
I was requested to choose the aromatherapy essential oils like lavender, mint, eucalyptus, verbena. I combined verbena and mint. My feet was submerged in warm milk, then my therapist donned the petal soft magnolia scrub and began to massage my tired feet and calves, my shoulders softened, my body relaxed as I succumbed to the blissful arms of slumber. It is no wonder that the Bliss Spa recently received accolades from AsiaSpa magazine as the Best Urban Spa of the Year besting other nominees like Altira Spa, Macau; Damai Spa, Grand Hyatt, Singapore; I.sawan Residential Club and Spa, Grand Hyatt, Bangkok, Thailand; and Waters Edge, Park Hyatt Shanghai, China.
The philosophy that dictates “Whatever, Whenever, What else” is a revolutionary concept in the hospitality industry that certainly inspires. If you are there to work, you will find yourself infused with a sense of play; if you are there to play, you will find that your work life is renewed and stimulated. Either way, W is a win-win equation. To remain still means to move backward, this is the dictum that they live by. It is certainly addicting, and as you embrace this lifestyle, it becomes your very own.
Visit the W Hong Kong where one will truly say, “Here, everything is possible, they will always find a way.”
For more information about W Hotel Hong Kong please call (852)3717-2222, fax (852)3717-2888, or e-mail w.hk@whotels.com.
Cebu Pacific flies to Hong Kong four times daily, Please call (632) 702-0888
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E-mail the author at miladay.star@gmail.com.
