Friday, October 06, 2006

Another week in HCM City-the legend of the Ky Hoa Hotel

One day after work, I walked back to my hotel and the staff at the front counter told me that because they were going to replace the carpets on the 3rd floor, where I have been staying for the pass two weeks, they would like to ask me to move to the 4th floor and they would send someone to help with my luggage. I agreed and told the staff that I didn’t need help with my luggage, just give me a moment to pack and we’ll be set. The moment I stepped in my room and closed the door someone came knocking. I opened the door two staff people came in and started helping me to pack. Obviously my message wasn’t delivered correctly as always, so I watched one man taking care of my underwear and socks while the other stuffed all my toiletries into a bag then disappeared. Before I’d finished packing, they came back and grabbed anything that wasn’t packed by hand and took me to my new room.

Later that night, I discovered the programming of the cable TV on 4th floor were different from the 3rd or from rooms on the left side of corridor to the right side. Anyway, I watched the discovery channel; a program called “A haunting” was on. It’s about a family living in a haunted house and when the program was about to show the most scary paranormal phenomenon my room went black! Well, I am not that chicken but this scared the hell out of me. Soon I realized it was not a paranormal phenomenon happening in my room but the power failure in the entire hotel. A few minutes later the power was restored but it went off again minutes later. I was happy that I was not in one of the freaky elevators of the hotel when it happened.

Speaking of the elevators, to my surprise, they had the elevator installed! I wasn’t expecting to see that elevator installed before my departure since I barely saw any construction going during my stay. Well, I am happy they did it because now I won’t have to take the elevator that doesn’t always stop at an exact position every time you open its gate. Sometimes the gap could be 10cm different in height. Now they are tearing down the other old elevator and installing a new one. Who knows I might be able to see it before I leave.

I use the laundry service in the hotel. Usually staff would have laundry delivered around 17:00 the next day. I always get naked while I am in the room to save my butt from burning off in the high temperature, so it takes a moment for me to get dressed before opening the door when the bell rings for my delivery. Every time I called out “A moment please”, but the bell ringing just wouldn’t stop, they press it almost every 10 seconds, and one time the staff even opened the door with the master key! I don’t know if it’s because they didn’t hear me or they didn’t know what I was talking about but now every time I hear the bell ring, I get nervous. I even put the “Do Not Disturb” sign on the doorknob at 17:00 around once and when I was just feeling relaxed the bell ran! I’ve never known a staff so determined on delivering laundry to their customers as in the Ky Hoa hotel. I am still thinking of a way to have my laundry delivered at an appropriate time.

Since I have been staying in the Ky Hoa hotel for more than 2 weeks, I have tried almost everything on the menu for breakfast. Now, I don’t even have to open my mouth to have staff in the restaurant deliver the only good drink in the restaurant, Lemon Juice, to my table. But there is a mysterious page I haven’t ordered from yet because it’s written in Vietnamese only. That’s news for next week; the legend of the Ky Hoa hotel goes on.

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