A grand time at a grand place

What do you give a grand old lady who’s seen and done it all ("Been there, been that," to use a misquote by a former beauty queen) for a special and memorable gift? Read on, and you may want to do the same for your mom or lola.

Our Ima turned 84 last month, and as early as December last year, we, her 12 children, were thinking of what we could give her. Though Ima appreciates anything that is given to her, we always want to give her something special for her birthday. Like all the other mothers in the world, she deserves to be pampered. We thought of her many interests. For one, she loves to travel, especially to cold places. I think this is simply because she likes to wear her coats and woollies.

"Why not advance her birthday gift and fly her to Hong Kong in February?" Odo Lazatin quickly suggested. Odo is our cousin who is based in London whom she fondly calls her 13th child. "Billet her only at the Peninsula and charge it to me," offered her "adopted son."

"Yeah, that can do. Hong Kong is the nearest cold place in February," Mary Ann added fast, because she wanted to tag along to celebrate our own eighth wedding anniversary.

The thought of staying at The Pen excited my Darleng. When we got married, her Chinese colleagues booked us at the Hong Kong Pen for a night and a dinner at its French restaurant Gaddis. Her friends called it a "one-night stand."

"And you must stand all night," they teased.

"Or at the very least, be able to still stand after an all night," their naughty card read.

My romantic Darleng will jump at an opportunity to relive that memorable night. And dutiful hubby me, as always, tried to please her.

But I had one problem. The Peninsula is just way above my league. Unlike our cousin Odo, I do not earn in sterling pounds. But our lucky stars must have been shining on me, and I managed to squeeze ourselves into the same hotel with my mom, my brother Pol, and my sister Carmen – of course, in a separate room.

As we landed at the airport, Mary Ann called the Peninsula if there was any arranged transfer for the five of us to the hotel. She was disappointed to discover that this did not come free with the room.

There are three ways to reach the Pen. If you are one of the rich and famous, you can be whisked off in a jiffy from the modern Hong Kong airport to the Pen’s helipad. And that ride will just cost you US$1,000.

If you think that is too much, your next option is a Peninsula black limousine driven by a uniformed chauffeur for $100.

My wife thought that was too much still, and so we took the third option – the red cab, which cost us only $30.

Mary Ann suggested the bus, but that would have been too much of an inconvenience for my mom. Besides, it would be so unglamorous to arrive on foot at the elegant Pen dragging our suitcases. (The bus stop is in front of the Holiday Inn.) Guess how Tom Cruise arrived when he stayed at the Pen?

Not arriving in a limousine did not matter to the Peninsula’s doormen and page boys, who all warmly received us. We were then whisked off to our rooms, one deluxe room and one suite. We gasped in unison as we checked out the amenities of our rooms.

The deluxe room looks like a maid’s room next to the suite. There is nothing wrong really with the deluxe room – it is very well-appointed and luxuriously furnished, but the suite is incredibly awesome. In fact, you can liken the deluxe room to the limousine service and the suite to the helicopter ride.

The one-bedroom, 95-square-meter suite has a receiving room and wall-to-wall glass wall overlooking the harbor. The telescope zooms in on the ferry as if it were sailing past our window sill. At night, the dancing lights from Hong Kong side provide a nice romantic ambience to our room.

Ima sat on the bed and felt its softness as she admired every detail of the room. Maybe if she had the energy, she would have bounced up and down the bed. Odo would be pleased if he could see her.

Now, mom had her coats neatly hanging in the closet. Our next task was to plan her activities. The trip, after all, was for her. The Peninsula probably gets many guests like her, as the Peninsula Academy offers courses like tai chi, feng shui, Chinese brush writing, tea tasting, herbal medicine, and Chinese cooking classes.

I was most certain that Ima, a grand dame of Pampango cuisine (excuse my bias, I am, after all, her son) would be happy to attend the Cantonese cooking class. Even in her eighties, she does not tire of buying cook books and learning new recipes and taking up cooking lessons.

The chance of learning from Chinese experts excited her. So, we three, for the first time together, learned how to make delicious and traditional har gow (Chinese shrimp dumpling) and vegetable dumpling from scratch, without the MSG. The hotel chefs teach to both hotel and non-hotel guests and to cooking experts (that’s me and my mom) and cooking dummies (that’s my wife). Their cooking class is held right in their kitchen.

After class, we were joined by Pol and Carmen for a wonderful Chinese lunch at Spring Moon of excellent assorted dim sum with oolong tea. We even got to try the dim sum we made. Peninsula’s Spring Moon, by the way, makes about 6,000 excellent dumplings a day – all by hand, the traditional way.

Aside from the dim sum, Spring Moon’s signature specialty cinnamon-flavored roast pigeon is the best I’ve tried, I swear. It’s like having a mini Peking duck! The shark’s fin with crab meat was supreme, and so was the dish of two kinds of baked cod. Next time you are in Hong Kong, try the Spring Moon and experience a different kind of service of Chinese food. It is on the pricey side, but not so much if compared to other Chinese restaurants frequented by Filipino tourists.

For three days, my mom excitedly donned on a different coat every time we had our family breakfast at the Veranda. We dined in our room and in other restaurants. We lazily spent afternoons just talking and bonding as we compared our bargain hunts. One evening, we opened the complimentary bottle of champagne and enjoyed it with roast goose. (Talk about east-meets-west cuisine). We sat in the lobby for as long as she wanted and only went up when she wanted to. To say our mother had a wonderful time is an understatement. On our last day, as we were going down the lift, she said, almost in a whisper, "I thanked the Lord last night for such a wonderful memorable experience. Am so blessed to have 13 children, loving and pampering me like this."

And yet, I feel we are far more blessed to have her for our mom.

If you too want to treat and pamper your mom or grandmom, let her experience the Hong Kong Peninsula. It is the Pen’s impeccable service and staff’s attention to detail that separate it from other luxurious hotels.