Coffee, Tea or … ?
An online chat with L, who’s currently attending a 6 Sigma worldwide conference in Lisle, IL, USA, led me to the following observations about coffee and tea making facilities offered by different hotels around the world.
Asian hotels provide electric kettles and a selection of instant coffee (usually 3-in-1) and teabags.
English and American hotels provide either electric kettles or coffee makers. For the latter, you get a selection of “real” coffee (L said her hotel offered one pouch of regular and one pouch of decaf) and teabags, too.
Chinese hotels also provide electric kettles, but no coffee, while the teabags are Chinese.
During my recent trip, I was so homesick for Malaysian coffee, I pounced on a box of Nescafe 3-in-1 on display at one of the shops in Wolong town. How advanced of them to have available such a foreign product, I thought to myself. Not only that, the coffee was packaged in sticks, which is quite new packaging (I think), instead of the standard flat packets. The box of Nescafe cost me 20 Yuan (approximately RM9/-).
 |
Wolong is a one-street town. Actually, I’m not sure if it qualifies as a town, or is really just a village. The shop where I bought the Nescafe is in the double-storey block of shops on the right side of the street, while the shop (actually, more of a stall) where I got the bottled water is on the left side of the street.
 |
The hotel in Chengdu also provided a water jug in the room.
Unfortunately, the drinking water supply in all three Chinese hotels came from the bathroom tap, and after the first taste, I went to the shops to buy bottled water. In Wolong, I couldn’t get bottled water larger than the 500ml size; the shopkeeper’s explanation was that they cater mainly to tourists who don’t want to carry such big bottles of water. Fair enough. It was 2 Yuan (approximately 90 sen) per 500ml bottle of water. I bought a dozen in Wolong and carried the balance with me to finish in Chengdu. (Aside – 12 x 500ml, or 6 litres, for about a week is really below average water intake. I need to do something about this … )
And you know you’re in a Chinese hotel because of the slippers.
 |
This pair is special. Or rather, the hotel is special, because of the name – Bai Yun – which is also the name of the panda mama in San Diego Zoo. Bai Yun, which means white cloud, is the name of the mountain range near Guangzhou.
Oh, all this coffee talk came about because L said there was no electric kettle in her hotel room, only a coffee maker. Like all well-brought-up Malaysians, she needed to boil her drinking water. I ended up showing her how to use the coffee maker as a kettle. She ended up having a nice cuppa later on.
