Decided to come and check out the Abaca Resort which is down the
street from the ShangriLa. The HK Cebu flight is a very easy stress
free flight. 9 am flight gets in at 11 am. A very short walk to
immigration and 10 min later you are at the resort. The return flight
leaves at 8 pm so you basically get two full days away from the hustle
in HK
Abaca is a small boutique hotel with 9 rooms only, I prefer this place
for a short weekend vs the shang down the street. The shang attracts
huge groups and the last time I was there I felt more like I was in
Mongkok vs on holiday although the Shang does have excellent seafood!
(it was noisy even while i was in my room!)
Whereas at Abaca at times I felt like being the only guest in the
place! Plus the service was good
My room #2 on the ground floor faced the pool and the ocean facing
cabanas. (it's steps down to the water though no beach) Very spacious
rooms. Spacious Nice bathroom (with no windows) Comfy indoor and
outdoor daybed /lounge area with Jim Thompson cushions Docking
station for ipod, dvd player, wifi access & etc.
They have one restaurant manned by an American chef from HK called
Jadon Hyatt. Food was excellent with a good choice of wines. Had a
very good salad, absolutely kickass delicious garlic steamer clams,
decent beef short ribs. Followed by a generous portion of cheese
plate for dessert Also tried their chickpea hummus, and abaca burger
quality of the food evidenced by fact lots of locals and other non
hotel guests come by!
On the downside, a few Hiccups- though not fatal, took points away
from an almost perfect experience.
• At room2, The sliding doors that looked out to the pool couldn't be
locked ( even after they had four guys to come by to fix it). It
started raining and one of the girls started fetching the pillows and
etc on the outdoor lounge chairs. She literally just opened the
sliding door and walked into my room not realizing that the room was
occupied!! Once she saw me she just stuck the mattress pillow and etc
in my outdoor shower area ( outdoor but covered). Except that as I
could see out from the room to the outdoor shower (just a glass
partition) it was kind of annoying to see "stuff" there.
Anyway back to sliding doors that would not lock. I got an "upgrade"
to the 3rd /top floor to a more expensive room #6 (that felt way
smaller. No outdoor shower, just a balcony with lounge chair, no
ability to just walk the 8 steps into the pool, did have nicer
bathroom with windows and higher ceiling, but i did prefer room 2)
Anyway, room 6 sliding door also did NOT lock, after two more attempts
to fix it betw 3 workers, after they left i realized the glass doors
still didn't lock up (though the wire screen doors did). By then it
was late n I gave up on the whole exercise.
• The girl at the spa miscounted her time ( i had 2 massages totaling
2.5 hr) but she finished after 2. (i do think it was an honest mistake
on her part coz after i was robed up n ready to go i told her and she
was very apologetic and we did continue for 30 min more)
• In room 6 there were water temperature issues with both the shower
and the tub.
But, All in all, a promising place with room for improvement
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