Introduction
Seattle to San Jose
San Jose
San Jose to Narita
Narita to Hong Kong
Hong Kong Part 1
Hong Kong Part 2
Hong Kong Part 3
Hong Kong to Narita
Narita to Seattle
Conclusion
After collecting my bag and heading out to the Hotel Shuttle stand, I had to call the hotel and ask to be picked up. I do like this as it means that you don’t have to wait hours for a shuttle to arrive since you may have just missed one. However it isn’t as good as you really can’t time it well, since you don’t know how long they will be so you always wait till you have your bag to make the call. So I made the call and they dispatched a shuttle to come get me.
I was staying at the Fairfield Inn & Suites San Jose Airport since they had a Famtastic rate I could use for just $44 for the night. With free breakfast and wifi, the price was right for me! Plus my fellow Traveller Jason was staying just a few blocks away at the Courtyard (their rate was 3 times what I paid). The shuttle wasn’t really a shuttle but more a soccer mom mobile as a Honda Odyssey arrived to pick me up.
A few minutes later I was disgored at the hotel lobby and it looked pretty good. I was checked in quickly, given directions (which i had forgotten within seconds of them being explained and had to say them all over again. It was fine for me really, as I was double checking a few things that I wanted to know anyway.
I was given a room on the second floor (it was only a two story building) and although I didn’t have any views, I didn’t care. I wasn’t here for much time at all. I got directions to the local gas station/conveince store to grab some water and then headed off to the room. The room was good, the hotel had been recently refurbished and I was looking forward to a bed, some sleep and some much needed rest. So I went and grabbed some water, unpacked my stuff and got it laid out for the morning and hit the sack.
Saturday 1st June 2013
I went for my usual morning run through the area around the hotel. I will give this area big props as the weather was amazing, the sun was out, the sky was blue and it wasn’t to hot yet. The hotel is close to the Guadalupe Trail which runs a for a number of miles in the area and stretches the length of the airport. If there is one thing I do love is a run by an airport. At one point I felt like I was racing a Virgin A320 (it won of course). Run completed in pretty good time and I was off to get myself ready for the day.
Jason was joining me for breakfast in the morning and since he wouldn’t be there till later I sat down by the pool with some coffee and my morning water after a brief exploration of the hotel area. The gym looked good and there was a nice garden area by the pool. Since the hotel was freshly refurbished, if this city was a frequent stop for me I would stay here more often. Free Wifi extended easily to the pool area and as I caught up on work and life sitting in the morning sunshine. What could be better.
Jason arrived and we hit up the breakfast buffet. It wasn’t overly extravagant but it had the essentials and for me that was oatmeal and coffee. Their wasn’t much in the way of fruit and I didn’t see any bananas around, but I figured, why not ask. I was told by the staff they did have some but she had not put them out as they were way over ripe… PERFECT! She thought I was wierd asking for one, but when you eat oatmeal you do want a banana that is ripe because it mixes in easier.
Breakfast was consumed in the breakfast room where it was laid out really well, the seats even had power points at some of them for those power hungry tech connected people (like me). After breakfast, catching up on how each others flights went and how the travels have been going, we packed up soon enough after checking out. We were both heading away from the hotel, towards the airport. Farewell to the Fairfield Inn, it wasn’t long but it was damn good!
