Shangri-La?.....Shangri-La-La-La!

So we've been put up at the Shangri-La Makati here in fabulous Manila! Even though our flight was 2 1/2 hours early they were still waiting for us just outside baggage claim. The guy with the sign said something into a walkie-talkie and by the time we got to the curb a town car had pulled up. We get in the back seat and there are 2 chilled bottles of Evian waiting there for us, I took this as a very good sign. So we get to the hotel, get checked in and I take about a 3 hour power nap in probably the most comfortable bed I've ever had. So I get up with enough time to go down and check out this free breakfast buffet they give us. Now let me say, I've eaten some incredible buffets, in some incredible places and this is by far one of the best. Dozens of different pastries, an omlette station, a sushi station, a juicing station with like 7 or 8 fresh juices.....the works. Even though it's free they still gave me a bill that I had to sign and it was for $1400+ pesos which comes out to a little over $30. After breakfast I went and checked out the gym which is open 24 hours a day. It's nicer than any gym I've ever seen. It has all the latest equipment and lots of them and every cardio machine has a 13 inch HDTV mounted to it....ridiculous.

Now I try to plan for things and be prepared...it's the boy scout in me and nobody would deny that I'm a big guy....both horizontally and vertically. I've stayed in a lot of hotels and sometimes the shower is hit or miss. A crappy nozzle or too low or whatever. So I had the bright idea to take my nice shower massage from home, throw it in a plastic bag and bring it with me. I mean, I'm here for 6 weeks, I might as well make my stay as comfortable as possible. So after the gym, I went to the concierge and peppered him with questions and one was getting maintenance up there to swap it out. He said no problem and I went straight from there back to the room and the maintenance guy was already waiting for me. I think my stay here might just be ok. The rest of the day will just be spent lazily milling around. My class starts tomorrow and I'm looking forward to meeting all the trainees. The two pictures here are of the room....the first is standing by the window and the other is the view outside the window. I've never been a reliable picture taker but I'll try.