The Hotel

 

The hotel Radisson had a large Christmas tree in the lobby with colored light flashing impatiently like everything else.  Next to the tree was a 3 foot by 3 foot gingerbread house that looked incongruous, because it didn't seem to be in a hurry or even moving.

Within a mere second of making our way to the hotel desk, there were 7 small orange juice glasses on a tray ready to be consumed.  (The 7th was for our guide.)

I am not sure why, but I unwrapped a mint, also from the counter, popped it in my mouth and then proceeded to swallow the orange drink.  Maybe it wasn't tasty, but it definitely wasn't tasty with a mint.

The rooms were dark.  We didn't know how to turn on the lights.  The bellboy told us we put our single key card in the wall switch to activate the lights.  No waste is very big here.  When you leave the hotel room of course you must take the key, therefore, the electricity will go out.  Overhead lights, wall plugs, everything.

Even at 2 in the morning the toilets seemed to cease flushing.  Water also is not to be wasted.  You can fool the toilets by filling glasses with water from the sink and dumping it into the toilet.

Back to the hotel room, with the lights out the room looked patient enough.   However, the flip of a switch made the room hurry back in time- maybe the 80s.  My first impression was that the carpet was camel colored and there were green and red tortilla chips on it.  Yeah, after traveling for so many hours, nothing makes sense.  Well, the small entry hall didn't seem to belong either.  There were colorful glass 1/2 inch tiles which looked like they had been stolen from the Miami airport.  My first real visual was that the bed was bigger than I expected, but there was only one of them. 
In the adjoining room, there was only one bed too.  2 rooms and 2 beds.  6 people and 3 in a bed.

All our in-country travel was arranged by other people who knew the size of our family.  It seemed like there might have been a mistake, but we were too tired to care.  We pulled the red oversized chair that was poorly slipcovered into the adjoining room.  A challenge...since the doorframes were Asian-sized and the chair was not.

With the two red chairs joined front to front, we had a little crib for our baby, sweet Jane.  I am sure if I knew anything about Feng Shui, we broke all the rules.  Regardless, we slept as if we were hovering on air, perfectly balanced with the ugly surroundings.