Our friends

Nothing exciting happened yesterday. I was stuck in the hotel with no employees. I am still doing some finishing touches such as hanging shower curtains and checking that everything is up to a clean standard. Following is a little walk around I did. I plan to change more things in the rooms, but will wait until I can turn a profit. You can download and view the Hotel here.

Everything was shut down during the day, but then a curious thing happened. The streets came alive with street vendors that I had never seen before, and most of them involved drinking. Let me tell you about Bia Hoi, translated as fresh beer. Bia hoi is available throughout  much of Vietnam, and can be found in small bars and on street corners. The beer is brewed daily and each bar gets a fresh batch delivered every day in plastic jugs or large barrels. It is a lager that is about 3 percent alcohol. It costs very little so it is very popular with the locals. It also has a clean crisp taste that leaves no aftertaste.. Bia hoi production is not monitored by any health agency, therefore the government has tried putting a stop to the sidewalk vendors selling it everywhere. In Saigon it is getting harder to find, but here in NhaTrang, and all the way to Hanoi, a person can find it readily. Last night one of these Bia hoi stands set up across the street from the hotel. I guess the police are not working also, so people are trying to make an extra buck. They served the beer with grilled dried squid. Not a pleasant smell.

The traffic picked up around 6 pm and the party was back on. I am getting tired just watching all the activity. I headed out for a drive, then returned to pick up Mai and visit some friends. Beautiful friends at that!!!  I’m the man, I’m the man……..

I am trying to imbed this video of medriving. If you cannot see it, you can watch by clicking on the high lighted words.

Just read this quote and found it funny. I will share with you

Q: Someone has told me that menopause is mentioned in the bible… Is that true? Where can it be found ? A: Yes. Matthew 14:92: “And Mary rode Joseph’s ass all the way to Egypt .”

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.

Oh My God!! The Vietnamese have discovered LED’s. It is a good thing. The people here are forever trying to save money on their power bills by installing very energy efficient bulbs or even just living with very low lighting. LED’s have started an amazing transformation where they can decorate things with light at a low cost, and now they have. I was in an electrical store marveling at the rolls of led wire being sold to people. I did not know such a thing existed, but let me tell you about the display they are creating. Lunar New Year is coming up shortly. For the Asians this is a big thing. Years ago it was displayed by flags being flown from every household and chains of firecrackers adding to the constant noise all around. Now the firecrackers are no longer allowed, and light displays and special events, many of them singing are all the rage. Now the city is being lit up by a cascade of light shows, all lit by LED’s. It is only day one of the celebrations, so who knows what other light shows will show up soon. I have the camera…. I will take photo’s.

All these lights and the coming of New Year has turned this city into a party. A person cannot travel anywhere after dark without coping with heavy traffic. Also, all the young men and women are dressed for the occasion……  Damn my eyes hurt!!! I truly wish that all of you could be here to experience this…. It is a slow climax building to some kind of finale in the next two weeks. It is not as before…. I do not know how it will end…. Just another part of the adventure.

One final thought…. Do you pee in the shower?….Admit it… I know…. I have heard that many do.. me?? I can proudly admit that yes in fact I do…. Ha!! My urinal is right below my shower head…. Ahhhh luxury…. Bwa Ha Ha

Witnessing beautiful light shows, driving in warm tropical breezes, seeing beautiful young people around me, and peeing in the shower……. How can it be better?  Now I am off to Saigon for a bit of business and pleasure. It should prove interesting as I had totally forgot about new year when I made arrangements.

A Few random photo’s to compliment my blabbering

I ordered a computer yesterday for the hotel. Pretty primitive by my standards…. But still way beyond what most places have here. They will deliver it tomorrow and starting on Monday, I will hopefully have a reliable and constant internet connection. It is a little difficult to always have to jump on the motorbike and cruise along the ocean to a romantic café with beautiful waitresses and…………aack!! What am I saying? OK, let’s just say I will have more time on the computer…. I accomplished a big thing today.

 Yesterday I commented how Vietnamese think different from us. In an earlier blog I have commented how they feel things are impossible. Well….. I wanted the granite floors of the hotel polished so they would be shiny again. WHAT?? Impossible I am told. I told them no problem, just get a floor sander such as they use to do hardwood and use fine water based sandpaper under it. WHAT??? No such thing I was told. For one month I have been trying to get the idea to them that a granite tile can be brought back to a shiny condition. Impossible it remained. In frustration, I finally went to a hardware store and found a sanding and a polishing wheel for a hand grinder. I did this because my wife and niece were spending hours scraping paint drops from the floor. I returned and showed the construction people that a person uses the heavier grit wheel first to remove the paint and stains, then use the higher grit wheel to polish the tile. Their eyes lit up in amazement. This was the impossible being done. I had restored a granite tile into almost new shiny condition. There are now 3 men duck walking across the floor with 4 inch grinders polishing the floor that was impossible to do. I win!! He he he…. It is NOT IMPOSSIBLE.!!

I am heading to Saigon for a solo trip to meet a friend, and to do some business. I have decided that in order to make a little profit at the hotel until I can establish a client base, I will need to find another means of attracting customers. I now have almost everything I need to have a very nice coffee shop/ bar. I have decided that I will purchase a projection TV and offer large screen entertainment, something that is very rare here. There are also other things we require that cannot be found here. Four days alone in Saigon should truly test my abilities to cope and interact. Only one problem about this whole trip…. Tet Feb 14 this year is the lunar New Year. It is a very big thing here as our Jan 1 is to us. People from Hanoi and Saigon leave to go home to their families. The whole country will be in Chaos for a week, and it is the same time that I travel to Saigon to do some business. I was able to get a flight to Saigon in a higher class than economy, however, there is no return flights available…. OK…. How about the train? Booked solid. Hmmmmm. I was thinking of hiring a private car when I remembered that the tourist companies in their ever ingenious ways of trying to make a buck…. had created sleeping busses. (I think I have just discovered tomorrow’s topic). I was able to secure a ticket back home this way. Because it is New Year, the price was automatically doubled…. I grudgingly paid the 18 dollars.

A couple of thing worth mentioning…… HEY SPAMMERS!! I have total control of who I permit to comment on my blog. GO AWAY!! You will not get any free advertising from me. Only people who have genuine comments will be allowed….good or bad. Secondly, I read yesterdays post and saw it did not make sense. Sometimes on this small net book, my thumb hits the touch pad the same time I am typing. This can cause a section to be deleted and over written. That is what happened yesterday. I will edit and repost the blog……. For me it is morning, so for you it is night………. Goodnight

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!!