After 12 hours door to door on a jam packed bus (those are big bags of rice in the aisle),
I arrived to my guesthouse in Luang Prabang, hungry, ready to pee and grateful I had a room reserved because the streets were swarming with Chinese tourists on holiday for Chinese New Year. The look on the Guesthouse owners face said it all, I no longer had a room. "I had your room, but people came, and my friend gave it away. Not me." (Basically they could get more money for my room).
After a slightly heated conversation that was going no where, I left to find a new room. Unfortunately, I was greeted by Full signs wherever I went. I returned to the guesthouse that gave away my room and said, "if you gave away my room, you need to help me find a new one. Everywhere is booked. You have to have friends you can call." He walked around to a few friends guesthouses and returned not being able to meet my eye. He got back on the phone and called a few places. "It was my friend who gave away the room" he said again. This togethered to, your shit out of luck.
So, I left before I reached the point of punching the guy straight in the face. I continued my search. After over 25+ rejections and 2 hours later, I started crying in the lobby of a guesthouse. A Chinese girl, staying at this guedhouse, saw me crying in the lobby and offered to share her bed with me. She invites a complete stranger, without bringing up money and without any skepticism, to share a TWIN bed with her for the evening. Her name was YoYo and I was overwhelmed with the amazing kindness of this stranger.
I left my bag with YoYo to go get food. I walked down an alley where a man was standing in front of a gate. After 2+ hours of seeing Full signs, I'm not sure what possessed me to ask this man if he had a room available, but I did. He replied that he had a cancellation and he had one room left. It was twice the price of my original reservation, but at the end of the day, I figured $20 was worth the expense and saved YoYo from my sheet stealing habit.
YoYo and I still got a drink together, and I will be forever grateful for her kindness.
UNIQUE TRAVEL TID-BIT of the Day:
There may be FULL hotels in Laos, but there's no such thing as a FULL bus. Don't ever let someone tell you otherwise.
Next Stop: Last day in Laos :(
After a slightly heated conversation that was going no where, I left to find a new room. Unfortunately, I was greeted by Full signs wherever I went. I returned to the guesthouse that gave away my room and said, "if you gave away my room, you need to help me find a new one. Everywhere is booked. You have to have friends you can call." He walked around to a few friends guesthouses and returned not being able to meet my eye. He got back on the phone and called a few places. "It was my friend who gave away the room" he said again. This togethered to, your shit out of luck.
So, I left before I reached the point of punching the guy straight in the face. I continued my search. After over 25+ rejections and 2 hours later, I started crying in the lobby of a guesthouse. A Chinese girl, staying at this guedhouse, saw me crying in the lobby and offered to share her bed with me. She invites a complete stranger, without bringing up money and without any skepticism, to share a TWIN bed with her for the evening. Her name was YoYo and I was overwhelmed with the amazing kindness of this stranger.
I left my bag with YoYo to go get food. I walked down an alley where a man was standing in front of a gate. After 2+ hours of seeing Full signs, I'm not sure what possessed me to ask this man if he had a room available, but I did. He replied that he had a cancellation and he had one room left. It was twice the price of my original reservation, but at the end of the day, I figured $20 was worth the expense and saved YoYo from my sheet stealing habit.
YoYo and I still got a drink together, and I will be forever grateful for her kindness.
UNIQUE TRAVEL TID-BIT of the Day:
There may be FULL hotels in Laos, but there's no such thing as a FULL bus. Don't ever let someone tell you otherwise.
Next Stop: Last day in Laos :(
No comments:
Post a Comment