At the moment it is New Years Eve. Only fifteen minutes until the fireworks start. I am sure it will be spectacular. The fireworks will be launched from the center of the beach over the ocean. I only hope that I will be able to see them from here. I am right on the beach, but there is a small bend that might impede the view. I would love to walk the short distance over to get a good view but I am forced to deal with a reality that exists here. I have mentioned before that the whole country shuts down at New Year. I should have suspected that it would affect me in some way, but live and learn. I am now short staffed…… no let me re-phrase that….. I have no staff!! They have all gone home for the holiday. Mai and I are now sleeping here to keep the place open. Believe me when I say that this will never happen again. I am learning, slowly. Soooo…. Let me tell you about a big mistake I made.

Being newly engaged in the hotel business, I was asked by a family in Saigon if they could rent my entire building for one of the days during the New Year. Happy with the prospect of having a full house, I agreed as long as a deposit was sent. They did send the deposit and everything was cool……. Until…. A person came to us and wanted to book the hotel for two days prior and one week after including the date I was full…. Sorry I tell them. They can have every night except Feb 17. Not good enough and they move on looking for another hotel. This has happened many times now and I could have been at maximum capacity for two weeks, but because I am full for one night….. none of them have stayed. Damn!!!!! Live and learn. I have no doubt that I will have a lot of customers in the days to come, but I am hoping that as the first hotel here offering full services with booze and other things, that I can profit a bit on the extras. My prices are low, but of course the more people consuming… the more profit. I do not care if I make any money for me, but I would be happy if the employees working for me got a bit of a bonus. It is a bit of a dilemma still. I am now sitting on the sidewalk in front of my place watching many younger people leaving the hotel next door. It is New Year, and many are consummating their love on an hourly basis, not the working gals. They are making some money, and alas, I could be too. For now, I will continue to stick to my guns ant try to be an overnight hotel. One problem I am avoiding by not going hourly, is a situation that happened nest door. A woman showed up with a large knife angry as hell that the spouse was cheating and was there to kill somebody.

It is amazing how quickly the human body adapts. A person looks at the weather reports from around the world and think “glad I’m not there” or other things of a similar nature. I was once the same. Well… let me tell you something about that. Firstly….. depending on the elevation, the heat of the day can be quite different than what you feel at home. There is also humidity and air flow factors that are involved. I have found that a persons body quickly adjusts to the local climate and things that some extreme are no longer so. For example: I have my bedroom climate controlled. In Canada, I have the temperature set at 23 c for my comfort. Many people have it set below. Here in NhaTrang I have the temperature set at 27 c. Very comfortable. On occasion I need a sheet or blanket, even at that temperature. Humidity is also a bit of a misunderstanding here. If a person looks at the humidity levels, you may think that it will be a muggy day, but it is not so. Ocean breezes and a sky full of sunshine changes things quickly. I have only been here a few months but I can tell you that regular days of +30 and ocean humidity is pleasant. You will adapt, and quickly. I think going home will be a very cold even for me… even in June. It is starting to get hard to imagine what anything below 24 is like.

It has been pointed out to me that I have been doing too much drinking and partying since I have been here. Perhaps they are right. It is New Year and the party is on, however, there seems to always be some reason that I have to join someone for a drink, or I am a host entertaining. I did spend the last couple of days dry, but it is New Year… and tonight not so. I promise to those concerned that I will dry up in the nest few days….. and get back to my fitness mode.

This is cool!!!! I have written tomorrow’s blog tonight. Maybe I get the day off?….. We will see…. It is New Years eve, the city is rocking, And I have had one too many.

An odd afterthought: I am sitting here at almost 1:00 am and people are headed home from the fireworks display. A large number of them are carrying a long length of sugar cane, untrimmed, just cut from the ground. A question that needs an answer.

It is morning and I have the answer Taking home something sweet is good luck.

Meet my friends Beverly and Richard. Beverly is a fun lady I met last year while traveling, and as luck would have it, we have met again. She is from Vancouver, retired, and loves spending time in NhaTrang. Who can blame her. The man next to her is Richard from Washington State. He is a man as fast as me with the one line comebacks… maybe even faster…. But nhyaaa.. that can not be possible!! The photo’s were taken at the Ha Van Hotel where they were celebrating their Employees, a great bunch of people. A funny thing happened yesterday, I was sitting in the lobby working on the computer and Mai was in the kitchen working when a well dressed man on a motorcycle pulled up, he reluctantly parked his bike in the parking area. To

Brad in his new high fashion duds

 Mai’s surprise, a woman came roaring into the kitchen on her motorbike through the kitchen door. It seems they were a cheating couple trying not to be seen going into the same hotel. We politely informed them that we no longer rented by the hour, and they left. This got me to thinking. Maybe I should still offer a room, but at the overnight prices. Why turn away somebody with money. As long as the room is registered to one person, there should be no trouble with police, and they will be gone by the night. Hmmmmmm Besides, there are probably a lot of legitimate lovers that have no

New external paint job

place to go because of multiple families living in the same household. Maybe I should rethink my policy of no short timers…… We will see. I was out taking a couple of shots from in front of the hotel to put on the website I am developing. I think I hit the time perfectly. The shots looked very good and here they are to share with you. Things are coming along nicely. There is confusion, language barriers, and good old Vietnamese impossible thoughts, but I am slowly breaking through those barriers. How about a little bit on water sports? Back in the days, there was no such thing.

Beach in front of hotel 1

 Swimming was the only thing you used the ocean for. Nowadays there is almost any kind of activity that one can imagine. If swimming is your thing, the best location is on the beach where we are located. It is somewhat more sheltered so the waves are gentler and the water is cleaner. The

Beach in front of hotel2

southern beach is still good for swimming, however, there is a lot of activity. A person can rent Sea craft, go parasailing, windsurfing, and of course scuba diving. I have not gone diving yet, but have been offered to go for free in exchange for computer repair services. I may take them up on it one day. There are supposed to be a few decent choral reefs here but sadly many of

Beach in front of hotel3

 them were destroyed after the 1070’s.You see, the Vietnamese being ever the quick learners found that fishing was much more efficient using concussion grenades instead of nets. The fishery was destroyed as was a lot of choral reefs. To this day the fish do not get a chance to grow and fishing although

Beach in front of hotel4

available, is limited to tiny 4 inch fish. The water here rivals any other place on the globe. It is warm, multicolored, and gentle. However, sometimes the main beach may wash up a thing or two a person could do without seeing. The main river that flows through the countryside is also the main disposal place for many towns upstream. Unfortunately sometimes refuse washes up on the main beach area. To their credit, the Vietnamese have cleaning crews out cleaning the beach area and the government is trying to clean up the upstream problems. Our beach used to have a similar issue, but the polluters upstream were shut down and now the water quality is good. The majority of what washes up on the northern beach is simple, harmless, seaweed. Lastly, I stopped at a pub I frequent to use the wifi and do some computer work. He and only one waitress working and he was swamped with customers. I have no idea how hit books will fare, as he was drunk as a skunk and had no clue how much my tab was. I was honest and paid the correct amount hoping that my customers would do the same.

Last night we spent New Years Eve at a hotel called the Ha Van. It is owned by friends of ours. There is a great rooftop restaurant and bar he has finished renovating, and it is the perfect spot to spend a relaxing evening. They set up an all you can eat BBQ with some great food. We spent most of the evening enjoying the hospitality of Nicolas, and his wife Yen. We also had the pleasure of conversing with his mother Isabelle, a fire pit of a woman. The staff were cheerful and the atmosphere great. I highly recommend the Ha Van hotel to anybody who wishes a good, clean, and affordable place in NhaTrang. It is in the heart of the tourist area and within walking distance of anything you would wish to do. I will take ideas and examples from them to help model my hotel. I have stayed there myself. Yesterday, I entered a light fixture store looking for a motion detector. The shopkeeper and his family were sitting on the floor eating lunch. As I entered, A mother was jokingly telling her daughter what to say to me in English. They had no idea I could understand them. The girl asked me “what do you want to buy” . I said nothing but continued to look at the light fixtures on display. The mother made some comment I did not quite catch, and the Father said maybe I was shopping for girls. I looked again at the family sitting and eating. There were 4 girls, one boy, and a mother and father. To their utter amazement, I replied in Vietnamese that I was not shopping for a girl but I was wanted to buy a light I did not know how to say in Viet. After explaining to him I was married and even though his wife’s sister was very beautiful, but I only wanted one wife, I was told they did not sell what I was looking for. They even gave me the Vietnamese name, but I forgot already. Anyway….. on with the past The staff at the hotel have done nothing! The receptionist just sits on her laptop all day chatting with people on Yahoo messenger. The cleaning lady? Well, I guess she changes the sheets, and maybe some very basic cleanup. There are tire tracks in the lobby…. CLEAN THEM! The storage rooms are chaos, The bathrooms are all rusted and stained, the paint was just slopped on everywhere so it looked like birds had pooped on everything. The paint on the staircase is worn out. All of the faucets, mirrors, and grouting in the bathrooms are damaged, rusted, or moldy. The pillow cases and sheets have holes. Climbing up to the fifth floor is a hazard. Electrical cords are everywhere, being used to dry wet laundry. I have seen enough…. I talk with Mrs. Owee and we agree that unless there are some compromises made, we just could not take over the place. I sat in the lobby one day to do my blog and watched the goings on. Sure enough, a few good looking gals left by themselves maybe only to return another day. Motorcycles would drive into the lobby and bang into the new paint leaving a new rub mark on the wall. We arranged a meeting with the building owner and said point blank what our concerns were and that she would have to spend money to fix the building. We would look after the painting and decorating, but there was no way we would pay for all the mirrors, faucets, or repair of moldy bathrooms. We re-inspected the rooms and saw the beds were OK. The furniture was dated, but easily repaired. All of the bathroom doors have to be replaced, but that is not our responsibility. We will have replaced, but she will be billed. After this second inspection I came to the realization of how cheap labor is here and revised my opinion of how bad the place was. With enough cheap labor, I can repaint, recaulk, retile, and patch up everything at a reasonable cost. Replacing furniture though, may cost a few bucks, but at least we will retain ownership of those items. The deal is back on. We have discovered another problem with the building that must be addressed, a damaged sewer line that causes a bit of a stink. If this one final obstacle is overcome, renovations will start on Jan 3rd. We will let the current people continue to operate it as a short term hotel, but will not allow any of the renovated rooms be used for that purpose. Once the hotel is finished, it is our hope that it will be acceptable to a westerner’s eye. I will not rent a room that I would not want to stay myself. I will also end the short term business. I do not need to be hassled and shook down by the police to look the other way. If any of my customers are interested in that kind of action, I will give them the heads up and advice, but there will be limits as to what will be allowed in my place. No by the hour rooms….No more parking in the lobby. The premises will be clean, no cockroaches. (lizards allowed) This was the past and the plan. I will follow up with two other blogs as time goes on. One about the Hotel itself, where it is, and what it is and what it is near, the other will be The present. A snapshot of the finished and running Hotel. I may add a thing or two along the way.

Happy New Year Everybody!!

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!! I 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..:

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 was 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 the 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 understood 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 to 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…