I'm Alan Partridge

That view was, as you may have guessed, straight from my studio window. Jurassic park!

Looking for somewhere to stay semi-permanently was really difficult, especially when you can only go by a stranger's description. This was doubly more so as Hong Kong, as I've fast come to realise, is much the same as Bangkok where everyone wants to rip you off and each deal is negotiable. Scanning websites, apartments in the city were so depressingly bad; at best one of those apartments you stay in for a clubbing holiday in Kavos (been there, done that) and at worst, the hostel on Khao San Road (been there, blogged that).

Even worse was the idea of arriving in Hong Kong at 11PM, having to find the agent/key/place, which would be unfurnished and probably wouldn't even have a bed. The prices were sky-high (over £500 a month) on top of bills, internet, buying furniture/appliances etc and it got to the point on Monday 3rd September where I was considering not even going. Why would I want to live in a horrible dump, without air-con!, when I had a great place in Japan?

But then, I found something a couple of hundred searches and pages of Google later. Why not stay in a Serviced Hotel?!

So that's what I've done. The idea sounds both cool and impractical. There were a lot of pros and cons to consider. For example, it was great that the place would be furnished and I wouldn't have to worry about bills in an alien country but, to counter that, the room would always be impersonal and there would always be guests checking in and out in the lobby. However, the biggest pro was the idea that I could turn up late night and check-in to an air-conned, clean and fully furnished room. For being such a small portion of the overall time in HK, that was the selling point. Back of the net!

The hotel is beautiful, and there will be plenty of blog entries showing my room, and the facilities. The pool is great, and the 24 hour gym is awesome, considering I only have to go downstairs to use it. I don't want to write the name on here because the hotel is only a few months old - I think I'm the first one in this room! - so there aren't many websites, and mine will be quite high on Google. However, you can see the regular hotel website here and the studio apartments site here (you can also see the virtual room tour).

Some positives: there is a beach two minutes walk away, the gym and pool are great, there is a fully cooked buffet-style breakfast on the weekends if I choose to, the room is huge, no bills, free internet

Some negatives: you need to take the hotel shuttlebus to the train station. Additionally, my hotel is out in New Territories so it's an hour to and from work. Besides that, the hotel has been built in a quiet-ish area, so there are no shops around

So, location is not great during the week, but on the weekend it's a great getaway, with much cleaner air than on HK Island.

Kiss my face!