Xenodocheionology

Since Day 1 of this challenge I've been racking my brain, as well as my dictionary, for 'X' words.

I thought of 'xylophone' and I was going to dig around for an old picture of Lauren playing the xylophone which her granddad bought for her.

The obvious 'x-ray' came to mind, but there's not much I can write about that which is of any relevance to me or Kuantan.

Then there were fleeting thoughts of cheating slightly by using a word of which 'x' is not the first letter, as in 'excited' or 'axis'. But I'm not into worming my way around things.

A fellow blogger suggested 'X marks the spot' and I just visited a blog who used this as their title, and I did think for a while along those lines.

But deep down I still yearned for a great 'x' word to make my A-Z challenge complete. (I have 'y' and 'z' sorted!) That's when I googled "words beginning with 'x'" and happened upon this website:

www.phrontistery.info/x.html

Hence my word for today: xenodocheionology. And it means 'love of hotels'. Which is very pertinent for my life in Kuantan.

We have stayed in a number of hotels during the last 5 years.

I love to pay a bit extra for some additional quality.

It's not so much that I love having servants run around for me, but I do love the rare circumstance it provides to sit back and relax.

I love the plushy ambience, the cosy music playing placidly in the background.

I do love complimentary buffet breakfasts.

I love the night gowns in the room closet.

I love the feeling of 'getting away' from the speed of normal life.

I have a severe case of xenodocheionology.

The Zenith Hotel in Kuantan

Swiss Garden Resort and Spa in Balok, near Kuantan

Swissotel Merchant Court, Singapore

What do you like about hotels?

Remembering Singapore Part One

My father and I journeyed to Singapore back in September 2008. A number of good things happened during these few days. I firmed up my relationship with my dad, we experienced a stay in a luxury hotel, and Roger Federer won the U.S. Open!

We took up accommodation at the Swissotel Merchant Court nearby Clarke Quay in downtown Singapore. The vast majority of things Swiss are always of the highest quality - chocolate, the Alps and Roger Federer immediately come to mind - and Swissotel was no further behind.

We arrived in the heat of the afternoon but the hotel looked most stunning by night, as in the above picture. We enjoyed an exploratory saunter around the hotel corridors, swimming pool and grounds, and just enjoyed relaxing for once in a while. Most hotels in Singapore, like anything else in this city-state, were luxurious, but Swissotel was affordable and exquisite. The room was basic but comfortable and homely, with a Samsung flatscreen on one wall and 'leopard-skin' carpets as my dad called them, although it was more like a tiger-skin design, but anyway. That became the source of much laughter after we returned with videos!

The view from the swimming pool area was stunning as it panned across Clarke Quay and all the shops and stalls dotted along the streets as well as the very fetching alien spacecraft type roofs in the background covering more shops and restaurants. We later went for a stroll through the nightlife and got caught in a deluge! Luckily, as I mentioned, there was plenty of cover!

This is my favourite picture from our Singapore holiday! In our closet, as we feverishly explored our room like all customers do, we came across these stylish night gowns and had a right laugh wearing them and here, pretending to be some Japanese hosts welcoming clients to their hotel! They were in fact extremely light and comfortable and I still regret not bringing them back home with us.

Yes, we really did enjoy these night gowns! And then there was the beautiful red Swissotel umbrella, which followed us around on all of our treks through Singapore and unwittingly appeared in a number of our photos. Should have packed that in our cases too!

We made a few videos of the hotel, which was great and provided some very humourous moments, clips which will be treasured for many years to come.

Stay tuned for Part Two tomorrow.