I’m having a moment… and not in a good way. My hotel room was I suspect “finished” the day I checked in. Sawdust, bits of plaster, and splatters of paint dot the room. Grouting is missing from the tiles and all manner of decoration remains undone. That’s all fine except the door handle came off in my hand, trapping me inside. The phone didn’t work so there was no way to call reception.
After that all got sorted, a heavy rainstorm in the night flooded my corner second story room. I tried mopping it up with towels but I was like the Little Dutch Boy at the dam. It was a losing battle. The phone was out once again so I decided at 5 am to just blow it off and go for a run.
That was a decent decision and I stopped to snap a few photos of the surrounding monuments and Buddhas and the road construction – a note on that later.
Returning to the hotel I stopped at the reception and made the mistake of trying to politely wait my turn as some folks sought to check out. But a series of belligerent, pushy French couples shoved me aside and kept jumping the queue. After twenty minutes I finally spoke to someone who said they’d send maintenance.
I waited 30 minutes for somebody to turn up and then another ten minutes for them to get a mop. Even then, only some of the water was out but I just gave up. It is what it is, I thought. The maintenance guy told me he’d clean it up while I was out sightseeing. Fine… but as I closed the door to grab a post run shower, the door handle once again came off in my hand.
Sigh.
During breakfast, I was struck by the mass balloon liftoff, a daily Bagan tourist excursion by various vendors. I imagine it’s a spectacular view of the landscape but I’m too chicken to hop aboard a floating basket … and too cheap to pay the USD$380 fee for 45 minutes. Of course it hardly mattered; I apparently would have needed to book a seat at least six months in advance.
Not a bad view over my bean curd noodle dish…
During breakfast I mentioned to a fellow runner the Murphy’s Law day I was having and recounted the story. A hotel manager overheard and proffered a room change which I originally Pooh Pooh’d… only to think better if it. I would need to pack up my humidity drenched running clothes; they needed to clean the new room so i was told to come to the reception in about an hour.
I killed some time snapping photos in the daylight of some of the monuments I passed by in my predawn run.
The walkways were flooded around the hotel so I cut through a grassy walkway with stone steps… only to walk through a series of spider webs this feeling as if I was covered in creepy crawlers thereafter. It’s a day. A real day.
Returning with my overstuffed bag as I had lightened my backpack for the morning sightseeing tour, I was given a new key for room 315. It was as far away from the reception as possible. Once I got there, the key didn’t work. When I asked the housekeeping staff if there was a phone to call reception I don’t think they understood me as they gave me directions to the reception. I walked back once more and spoke to the desk. They made me a new key and dispatched a desk staff member with a master key to make sure I got in.
I passed several rooms that confirmed my suspicions that this hotel is far from done…
But eventually I got into a new room. When I count up the issues it was five maintenance issues and two rooms and I’m just having a karmically bad day.
But what’s the old saying? Bad dress rehearsal, great opening night? Here’s hoping this bodes well for the marathon tomorrow.