After a bit sniffing, I found the literal smoking gun -- a smoking UK to universal socket adapter.
Those universal adapters are crap + dangerous because of how they're designed. The nickname deathdapter is well deserved.
The previous one probably suffered from a high current load, maybe someone plugged the kettle in it.
I was talking to housekeeping last time I was in HK and she said some people bring their own electric grills with them so they can cook in the rooms
That happens in the UK too, my partner worked for a number of hotels up to 5 star in London and it's quite common to have maintenance reset breakers because people trip them with grills, it's also common to throw kettles away because people 'cook' in them, on one occasion she told me of a visitor who was storing fresh food in the bath with ice from the bar.
A bit off topic, but back when I was trundling around the State doing annual routine tests on AM Broadcast transmitting sites, we had to do them "after programme shutdown".
It got a bit wearying, so the electric kettle was kept busy making coffee as we worked through the night.
Finally, there were only the antenna tests to do, at the "mast hut", which would take another couple of hours.
Remembering that there was a power point at the hut, we took all our coffee making stuff with us.
There was no real path, (overgrown), but finding our way to the hut in the dark was easy, with the outside light on the Tx building, & the mast lights to guide us.
On reaching it, the first thing was,"Let's put the kettle on!".
Did so, & we were greeted by instant darkness!
Interior & exterior lights of both huts, ---- gone!
Yes, the mast lights were still on, but they just showed us where we were, the Tx hut was invisible.
I had to find my way back in the pitch dark with the only torch (flashlight) & replace the fuse.(Yes! A fuse!).
I banged my knee nicely on one of the "star pickets" they had stuck in the ground to indicate access points for testing the earth mat.
After missing the Tx hut the first time, I finally got there & had to search around in the engine room for the (poorly marked fuse), but eventually all was well.
Why the internal/external lights of both huts, as well as the power socket on the wall of the mast hut were on the same (underrated) circuit is beyond me!
It was, however, a salutary lesson on how high the power draw of a simple domestic appliance can be.
Australian hotels & motels usually supply an electric kettle, so in those places, the socket is well able to handle a reasonable load.
This could well lead people from this country to expect the same performance in another country, using a cruddy adaptor.