Thirsty Thursdays – having a beer in one of the world’s top 5 hotels – Upper House Hotel, Admiralty Hong Kong! A reunion with Lucan Toh!
As a cheapskate, budget traveller, backpacker etc. staying in hotels is not something I normally do or am used to. So tonight for my thirsty Thursday I thought I would change the scene a bit and talk about the night I was drinking bottles of beer for 80 Hong Kong Dollars each!! Yes, it’s not something I’m used to like I say, but it’s a decent Thirsty Thursday, given that the venue in question is now in the World’s Top 5 Hotels!!
The epic view over Hong Kong from the Upper House Hotel in Admiralty – Thirsty Thursdays heads to a World Top 5 Hotel!!
To the Upper House Hotel in Admiralty, Hong Kong!! It was October 2011, but the origin of this story dates back to August 1991, 20 years earlier and somewhat of a reunion for this travelling Northern Irishman. I had organised a school reunion you see, on a quick two day trip back to Bangor, Northern Ireland. One man from my Secondary School class posted on Facebook that he couldn’t make the reunion because he would be “in Hong Kong”, well I flew back from Belfast to Hong Kong, did a shift at work and then headed to meet my friend. Just a casual drink and reunion I thought. Enter my old schoolmate Lucan Toh and his high flying lifestyle!!
The Swanky Cafe Gray at Upper House Hotel – who is to say a backpacker can’t do posh!! Upper House Hotel in Hong Kong!
Rather than catching a Happy Hour down the local pub, I met Lucan in the bar in Hong Kong’s swanky Upper House Hotel in Admiralty, on Hong Kong Island. He was staying in this hotel, which has recently been voted in the world’s Top 5 Hotels and is Hong Kong’s number one hotel on Trip Advisor!! The bar was called Cafe Gray.
The travelling Northern Irishman Jonny Blair at the Upper House Hotel in Hong Kong
Well this was exquisite and I was a traveller with my luggage arriving at the posh reception, which had an escalator in it! I was used to staying in hostels NOT hotels, I had no idea that hotels even had escalators!! I had to leave my luggage on the bottom floor at reception, as I was only visiting the bar. Dressed in a shirt and tie for my day job as an English teacher, I probably looked like an odd convergence of a wannabe businessman who backpacked his way to Antarctica!! I guess this travel blog itself is the business side of my travels anyway!
Enjoying the amazing view from Upper House Hotel in Admiralty – an alternative location from my Thirsty Thursdays series.
The beer flowed and I caught up with Lucan who met up with a few of his mates and my girlfriend came and loved the view too! My old school mate Lucan Toh is also a man of the world, now lives in Dubai and runs Toh PR!! It was great to meet him and catch up with him again, whilst also enjoying a few beers in one of the world’s best hotels! The Upper House Hotel is great, oh the free PR I’m giving them! Any chance of a free beer? Go on…I’m enjoying my lifestyle of travel let me tell you!
Where – Upper House Hotel, Admiralty, HONG KONG
Their Website – Upper House Hotel
Where Is It Top 5? – On this site it is number 5 in the world!!
Price of a beer – 80 Hong Kong Dollars (ouch!)
With thanks to – Lucan Toh
2 Videos I took at Upper House Hotel –
This is one of my ongoing Thirsty Thursdays features on Don’t Stop Living – a lifestyle of travel!
