About the day and the Master plan

The day started a bit strange. The air conditioner which I installed in the bedroom quit around 6:30 am. I thought nothing of it because I have it programmed to auto shut down. I did my coffee shop thing and went for a bowl of Pho, came home and jumped in the shower. Brrrrrrrr…. The on demand water heater was not working… Alas.. the power was out for the whole neighborhood. I threw my trusty net book into my bag and headed out for my café to do my internet work for the day. I ordered my coffee fired up the puter, and Egad!! No internet. Power was off here too. I downed my drink and headed off to the tourist area thinking I would have more luck there…. Nothing! I was starting to have flashbacks of what it was like to stay with my loving sister with her dial up. I ended up finding a small pocket in the commercial part of the city that had power. I was able to do a rush job of yesterday’s blog. I was also able to talk with some friends. One of them wanted an update on my retirement plans here. I have been thinking about it. My personal friends and co-workers, know my intentions, however, there are many more people following this blog than I had expected that have no idea. After some consideration, I have decided to share a before and after picture of what is going on.

The final events of the day were both  tragic and hilarious….A fellow in rush hour traffic sideswiped another as I was watching. His bike collapsed and he slid for 10 meters or so under his bike face down. When he got up I could see clearly that his cheekbone was crushed. He righted his bike and drove back in the direction he had come, bike wobbling from the damage.

  My wife freaked out again,,, The lizard had moved into our clothing. This time, I was able to catch it. I carried it by it’s tail and gave the camera to my wife to take a picture of the great white trapper. Everything was ok until I decided to ham it up and pretend to eat it by holding it over my mouth. Well damn!!! I forgot about lizards being able to lose it’s tail, and this one decided it was time. I have a squirming part of tail in one hand and a lizard scrambling to escape on my face!! couch lizardI got a hold of it again and it lost the remainder of it’s tail. Now I have 2 squirming tails in my hand and no lizard. I did end up chasing the poor tailless lizard outside, tossed the tails over the fence, and strutted back into the house the conquering hero.

 Now the plan..: hotel

I arranged for a leave of absence from work to pursue the legalities of living and retiring here. We have made an agreement with a person to lease and operate a small 11 room hotel. (The green one behind the palm trees in the home page photo) We stayed there a number of years ago and even though it was a simple basic place, we were excited at the prospect at having a fun retirement project. Being hotel owners was a cool thought. The building owner is a wonderful woman and a life long friend of my wife’s, so, a lot of our deals are verbal. So far so good. The owner of the building has a dream of the hotel being more than it is now, and hopes we can make that happen, perhaps she hopes we will purchase it from her and she can retire wealthy……..we will see…. We arrived in NhaTrang and went to the hotel with some basic expectations in mind. What we found lobbywas unexpected…. But this is Vietnam… The past: We met in the lobby of the hotel. There are motorcycles parked in the lobby that had caused rub marks all along the walls. There are oil stains on the tile floor where cars have been allowed to park inside the same lobby. The front desk has a broken sign, and the cash drawer/safe had been pried open. The sofa is almost not fit to sit on. I am not discouraged yet. I knew there would be a lot of work to be done to turn it into a hotel acceptable to western standards. I marvel at how lazy thecouch cleaning personnel are there. Everything is filthy. I wonder to myself how it can be in business. We entered the kitchen and were disgusted at the state of things. Cockroaches, rotting cupboards, a decrepit bathroom… not a pretty site. I was getting pretty depressed about the whole thing. The low point came when I was sitting in the lobby using the internet. A customer came down to settle his bill. My Vietnamese is not good but I kitchenunderstood enough of what transpired. He was arguing about how much time he spent in the room, and the receptionist was telling him that he had to pay for even part of the hour to the next hour….. WHAT???? I watched the next few people to leave, and by damn…. This is a short term hotel. A short term hotel in Vietnam is a place where people can take their lovers for an intimate time. It is not always a bad thing. Think of it. Everybody here lives with all of their family members. If a young couple want tostairs consummate their love, there is no where to do it. Short term hotels are the answer for them….. Unfortunately for me, the short time business in my place were not these types. I have a hooker HOTEL!!! I now want to back out of this arrangement and get the hell away from any doings with this place…. Even if I lose the 2 grand.

I am at the limit of the amount of words I want in a page so stay tuned…….. To be continued…

, , , , , , ,

Post navigation

6 thoughts on “About the day and the Master plan

  1. Thanks for the comments.. The sex industry here will not go away, and for the sake of my hotel business, I need to learn about it. I personally have nothing against these girls or the customers. The problem is that is is illegal and If I ( a foreigner ) am operating this kind of place, I will not be in business long. Evedence of corruption and shakedowns are much less visible here now, but, I am sure it is still there and running a place like that will have it’s perils.

    I have now monetized the blog. I have a lot of hits and am getting quite a following. I spend an hour or two a day trying to inform and entertain, so, if I can make a few bucks on the side, It will make it pay a bit for my time.

    Dave…. The answer is a William Shatner role TJ

  2. Where did the Google ads suddenly come from? There are four at the top and four at the bottom of today’s entry. One is from http://www.VietnamCupid.com so now you have us wondering about this hotel of yours, wink wink…
    On a more serious note – is the building structurally sound and are basics like the plumbing and wiring OK? A floor by floor cleanup and a policy change on room rentals might go a long way if the building itself is solid.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *