Saturday, November 21, 2009
The Hilton Times Square
New York, New York

After landing at JFK, I easily passed through immigration and customs and waited a short time for my bag to arrive. No issues... it made it all the way from Beijing. I was actually somewhat surprised.

I made my way out to the cab stand and quickly found a cab. The cab stand was very disorganized and the lady running the line clearly didn't have it down like they do in, say, Vegas, or even Singapore.

My cab driver took me on the short 20 minute trip from JFK airport to The Hilton Times Square. I chose this property becauase it's one of about 6 in the area with a corporate rate for my company, and it's only 1.5 blocks to the office. It's located between 7th and 8th Avenues, between 41st and 42nd Streets.

My cab driver pulled up on the 41st street entrance and dropped me off. I made my way to the center of the building where the bellman politely told me I needed to take the elevator up to the Lobby. Turns out the lobby is about 22 floors up.

I quickly ascended and made my way to the desk. As I presented my ID and credit card, the woman at the desk asked me for my ID and credit card. Duh! I'm standing there holding it out for you. All you have to do is take it!

She took them, quickly found me a room on the 31st floor and pointed me in the direction of the elevators. Yada, yada, yada, I was in my room.

This was a well-appointed room at the end of the hall. Room 3122. It was quite large! It had a king-sized bed, a desk, a large 37" HD TV and the windows were a great view looking south and east. Through my window, I actually had a direct line of sight to the Statue of Liberty. Ah... it was good to be home in the USA.

I unpacked and took a shower. Not a bad shower, but nothing great. The one in The Regent in Beijing was much better, but after more than 24 hours of travel, any shower felt good. I dressed and made my way downstairs to explore NYC a bit, get some cough medicine (I had developed a little bug on my way out of China ) and to grab a little food.

I won't bore you with the details of the food, but when I finally decided to turn in for the night, the bed is one of the most comfortable I've ever been in. I've thought about the fact that I was fairly tired and any bed in a quiet, dark room may have been good. But this really was a great bed. Great, soft-yet-firm pillows and the bed's mattress was also extremely soft. The curtains made the room very dark and all was good! I slept like a baby!

Internet was $14.00 per day in this room and the access was reliable and fast. The room was quiet. I ordered room service 2x during my stay and both times the speed was great. Less than a half hour, even when ordering breakfast at a peak time!

In closing, the location and amenities made this a nice hotel to park at for 3 nights. The price was right too!

Now...the home stretch: JFK -> SFO.