The Mandarin Orchard

I must admit that I have a soft spot for old hotels. In Malaysia, we do not have many of those, and if there were, they were all still relatively new. That was why I was always keen on E&O, Smokehouse and similar colonial-like establishment.

In KL, there were not that many of those. So, I tended to gravitate toward hotels established since the 70s. Shangri-La in KL, Hilton PJ to name a few. The service tended to be more established although I was detecting a decline in the service at the PJ hotel mentioned.

The rather understated main lobby, located on the fifth floorAdorning the ceiling of the lobby was this rather unique detailWhen I was in Singapore recently, I stayed at Mandarin Orchard. Not exactly a new hotel, but certainly they offered modern amenities. The hotel was originally opened in 1971, and since then, they have added new wings. I stayed at one of the newer wing during my overnight stay and the service was excellent. Food was nice as well.

Only before I left that I realised that there was a boutique mall at the ground floor of the hotel, which included outlet from Tumi, Bell and Ross as well as a Leica. I asked for a grip for my Q, but they didn’t have it in stock ….

The hotel was located near a few of the major shopping outlets in Orchard Road, and an Apple outlet was only 5 minutes away. Managed to get a nice case for Anita’s phone during that trip. There was a couple of MRT stations right around the corner and a McDonald’s outlet behind my block. Certainly was a great location.

The Leica store at the hotel lobbyOne of the exit from my hotel. Straight from the lift from my floor.All the guests also had access to a mobile phone for them to take around from the room. It allowed me to make free phone calls to Malaysia in fact to 15 countries. A neat system and it had a free internet SIM at LTE speed. All free, unlimited internet. Shame that you couldn’t use it to tether!