Birth Of A Hotel: What’s New?

by McLean Robbins on


Our “Birth of a Hotel” feature property has many new exciting developments in store this holiday season, including the unveiling of a model guest room and the naming of the hotel’s restaurant, The Grill Room. The property is, for all intensive purposes, trucking along nicely towards opening, suffering no major setbacks as a result of weather or construction delays. That said, Capella Washington D.C., Georgetown has confirmed exclusively to “Birth of a Hotel” reporter McLean Robbins that the hotel will not open in time for the 57th presidential inauguration as planned.

“The four days of great revenue would be nice, but we only have one chance to do it right,” says Alex Obertop, the hotel’s general manager seen in the video above.

He confirmed that after meeting with Capella CEO Horst Schulze and Castleton Holdings, LLC, the hotel’s ownership group, that the property would delay its opening to ensure that the property is fully functional and 100% ready to service their guests according to the Capella mission and vision.

Given that this inaugural takes place not only on a holiday weekend but for a president’s second term, it isn’t nearly the disappointment it could have been.

As of press time, the hotel is scheduled to open on or around Valentine’s Day, just a few weeks after its originally predicted opening date.

Stay tuned for many other exciting developments in coming weeks, including a deep dive into hotel design trends as well as a bigger picture look at service and training.

Budget Hong Kong: Renting A Room At The Notorious Chungking Mansions

by Jessica Marati on

There are two types of travelers: those who would go out of their way to avoid a place like Hong Kong‘s notorious Chungking Mansions – and those who would elect to stay there.

I’d probably put myself somewhere in the middle.

Nestled between luxury emporiums on one of Hong Kong’s most expensive thoroughfares, the Chungking Mansions is a chaotic complex of shops, food stalls, restaurants, wholesalers, budget guesthouses and low-income apartments. The 17-story compound is home to around 5,000 permanent residents, most hailing from South Asia and Africa. That’s not to mention the estimated 10,000 people that pass through its halls each day, trading in currencies, refurbished electronics, counterfeit bags and other slightly less legal commodities. TIME Magazine called the Chungking Mansions the “Best Example of Globalization in Action” because of its extensive network of informal trade, while The Economist compared it to Spaceport Cantina in the original “Star Wars” film. Travel articles alternately refer to it as a “heart of darkness,” a “den of iniquity” or, simply, a “hellhole.”

Naturally, I was hesitant to check out the Chungking Mansions for myself. But I was also intrigued. With single rooms running from HK$150 (US$19.35) to HK$500 (US$64.50), Chungking Mansions is one of the cheapest budget accommodation options in town, stairwell drug deals notwithstanding. Anthropologist Gordon Matthews estimates that more than 129 different nationalities pass through each year.

%Gallery-174068%What I found was … anticlimactic. After a number of high-profile deaths and disappearances in the 1990s, the owners of the Chungking Mansions installed an extensive CCTV system and employed round-the-clock security guards to monitor the complex. There are regular police patrols, and I witnessed no fewer than five crackdowns during my visit.

Because of the heavy monitoring, Chungking is actually a quite safe place to stay, compared with other Asian backpacker ghettoes. It is also conveniently located in the heart of Tsim Sha Tsui, a lively district in the Kowloon side of Hong Kong. Luxury hotels like The Peninsula and The Sheraton are steps away, along with malls, restaurants, museums, MTR subway stops and the scenic Tsim Sha Tsui promenade. If you don’t mind the cramped quarters and chaotic surroundings, it’s not a bad budget option. Some even claim it’s a quintessential Hong Kong experience.

Not all Chungking Mansion guesthouses are created equal, though. Quality varies wildly, and photos on booking sites like Hostelbookers and Agoda are often heavily edited. The best way to score a good value room is simply to show up and make the rounds of Chungking’s 80-plus options, most of which are clustered in blocks A and B. The Ashoka Hostel, consisting of nearly 100 rooms across three floors, is a popular option; their head reception desk is located on the 13th floor of Block A. The price per night depends on the month (or even the day) so don’t be afraid to negotiate, particularly if you’re traveling during off-season.

The reward? A chance to experience not only a different side of Hong Kong, but also the world. One guesthouse owner showed me his logbook of guests, hailing from Ghana, Bangladesh, Holland, Malaysia, the Philippines, Germany, Japan and even America. “People from everywhere come to stay here,” he boasted. Globalization in action.

[Photo Credit: Jessica Marati]

“Budget Hong Kong” chronicles one writer’s efforts to authentically experience one of the world’s most expensive cities, while traveling on a shoestring. Read the whole series here.

New Agers Trash Mayan Pyramid At ‘End Of The World’ Party

by Sean McLachlan on


Revelers at an Apocalypse party at the ancient Mayan site of Tikal in Guatemala have damaged one of the pyramids, AFP reports.

Temple II, built at Tikal’s height around 700 A.D., was damaged when a crowd of partygoers ignored signs saying it was off-limits and climbed up it anyway. An official at the site didn’t reveal how extensive the damage was but did say it was permanent.

About 7,000 tourists visited Tikal on Friday to mark the end of a cycle in the Mayan calendar, which many wide-eyed dupes believed would bring the end of the world, or at least some New-Agey world transformation that would imbue their crystals with deep spiritual significance.

If they had asked the Maya themselves they would have learned that the world wasn’t actually ending, but why do that? Traditional cultures and UNESCO World Heritage Sites are only there as props for jaded First Worlders shopping for a cheap semblance of spirituality the same way they’ll buy Save The Whale T-shirts made in Filipino sweat shops.

They’ll also blithely ignore the real historical and cultural significance of such sites in preference for silly theories about secret civilizations, aliens or Atlantis. This sort of New Age archaeology is rooted in racism. As some locals complained, the party wasn’t really about the Maya at all.

Dave, an old friend of mine, calls the New Age movement “Newage,” because it rhymes with “sewage.” I propose a worldwide movement to adopt Dave’s term for these callow crystal-clutching consumers. Protect ancient Mayan sites by flushing the Newage movement!

[Photo courtesy Mike Vondran]

Exploring The Marvels Of Croatia’s Modric Cave

by Lois Friedland on

Twist your head to the right, your body to the left and wiggle through the crack, urged the guide leading us through Modric Cave in Croatia. Pretending I was a pretzel worked. After dragging my lagging left leg through a fissure between caverns, I re-lit my carbide miner’s lamp and stood stunned by the beauty of crystals sparkling on the curvaceous stalactites. My husband, who was a spelunker in his earlier days, couldn’t stop grinning and told me that he’d never seen a cave so pristine.

We were partially through a two-hour excursion into the cave, which is located less than 20 miles from the ancient city of Zadar and about a three-hour drive north of Dubrovnik. The adventure had started with a 10-minute walk over rocky ground to the entrance, within view of a calm, azure Adriatic Sea. Our guide, Marijan, unlocked the iron gate barring the entrance to the cave, so that our group of five could enter. Looking at the opening, the size of a book-return slot at a library, we eyed each other wondering how we could slip through it. Grab the rock wall, slide your feet through the crack while resting your back on the grate, wiggle through, then twist around and drop to the ground, Marijan directed. Following his directions (mentally thanking the helmet on my head when it smacked the grate), I wound up in a space barely big enough to hold the group.

During the time we spent exploring Modric Cave, we gingerly climbed over rocks or contorted our bodies to wiggle through small cracks in walls to marvel at the formations in the larger caverns. Our lamps revealed nature’s beauty created over millions of years. The cave is still “living” – growing with drops of water depositing tiny bits of calcium carbonate on the formations – and we were admonished not to touch them. Colored stalactites hung from the ceiling, with drops of water at the bottom you knew would one day add a millimeter to the glistening column. Stalagmites had dew-laden tops from the ground water seeping through the ceiling high above. Entering cavern after cavern in this 829-meter-long cave, we were awed as Marijan pointed out flows, columns and speleo shapes ranging from cuttlefish and jellyfish to a formation that looked like a turtle.

Quick flashes of light from cameras showed the three Germans we were spelunking with posing by fat pillars. Marijan, lean and weathered from years of leading people through caves and on treks in nearby Paklenica National Park, took our camera and photographed us. Then we sat down, turned off our lights and held our breath, savoring the absolute darkness and silence.

When we had re-emerged into bright sunlight, Marijan re-locked the iron gate covering the entrance and said that no more than 1,000 visitors are allowed in with a guide annually. In reality less than 300 people will visit this year, he added.

For us, this immersion into an underworld of pristine beauty was the highlight of our trip. Croatia may be a “hot” destination, but it still holds many unexplored marvels like Modric for the intrepid traveler.


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Advance arrangements are needed to visit Modric Cave. Go to www.zara-adventure.hr for details. Modric Cave is listed as a technically undemanding excursion, but do expect to walk over very rough surfaces and to twist your body into some seriously contorted positions. This is not a cave NFL linebackers can enter, nor anyone with claustrophobia or a fear of the dark. Marijan, who says he is the only guide allowed to take small groups into Modric Cave, supplies overalls and helmets. Light hiking shoes, long pants, a long-sleeve shirt and a camera are all you’ll need to bring. The adventure costs 22 Euro per person. Experienced cavers can also arrange to visit caves that require rappelling and more advanced caving skills.

[Photo Credits: Lois Friedland]

Queen Elizabeth Immortalized In Antarctica Setting Off An International Incident

by Kraig Becker on

As Queen Elizabeth‘s diamond jubilee year comes to an end, she has received yet another honor celebrating her 60th year on the throne. However, this latest nod to the Queen’s longevity has managed to anger another country, setting off a minor international incident in the process.

Recently, the British Foreign Office announced that it was renaming a section of Antarctica in honor of her majesty. The pie-shaped piece of land, which will now be known as “Queen Elizabeth Land,” starts along the coast at the Ronne Ice Shelf and comes to a point directly at the South Pole. The area of land is approximately twice the size of the United Kingdom itself and is bounded on one side by Ellsworth Land and Dronning Maud Land on the other.

Obviously the renaming of this large section of frozen ground at the bottom world was meant to pay tribute to the popular Queen, but there is just one problem. The land may not belong to the U.K. at all, which means they don’t have the right to name it anything. It turns out that both Chile and Argentina have claimed ownership of this particular region in the Antarctic, and the Argentine government has already issued a formal note of protest to the British ambassador. That note used strong language to condemn the action, saying the move was an act of “anachronistic imperialist ambitions that hark back to ancient practices.”

The statement went on to accuse the British of failing to act in accordance to the Antarctic Treaty, which was signed in 1959 to avoid the colonization or militarization of the frozen continent. Since that time, Antarctica has largely remained open to research and exploration, although occasional disputes have arisen over specific plots of lands. Those disputes have become more pronounced in recent years as nations seek to claim potential oil or mineral reserves locked under the ice.

What will become of this dispute between the U.K. and Argentina remains to be seen, but it is unlikely to turn into a major conflict such as the 1982 Falklands War. More than likely what will happen is that Queen Elizabeth Land will exist on British maps alone, while the rest of the world will continue to leave the section unnamed.

[Photo Credit: NASA]