A HOTELIER'S ODD EXPERIENCE

Are you a hotelier? If not, I’ll share to you a bit of my odd experience in the industry which other hoteliers, I’m sure similarly experience:

  GHOSTS?

1.       In the lobby toilet: While seating on the bowl I heard the other door open. Few seconds the water was running. No footsteps, so I looked at the shiny floor expecting to see a shadow but no shadow of the other person as well. There were seven cubicle type of toilets in women’s restroom.  The type of door was open at least two inches from the floor. Finding it weird that I didn’t hear footsteps, nor see a shadow of the other person whom I thought just came out from the other toilet booth. I peeked at the open part of the door. I saw no one but the water was running. I didn’t finish my business I just ran out of the women’s restroom.   

2.       Typically, a senior manager is always accommodated in the hotel especially if the owners relied heavily its business to the people they installed to run the property.  I am no exemption to that. For the past 3 years I have been living in the properties I worked with. In three rooms I stayed with in various properties, I had this experience:

Room 1: 2AM someone knocked at the door. I thought it was front office having problem with the guests, so I opened the door. No one was there.  It did not happen only once or twice but several times, so I moved to another room.

Room 2:  While sleeping cold breeze touched my legs, I woke up and remembered the AC was on but why was a cold breeze hit my skin? First time it happened, I let it go.  But it did not happen only once, so the third time I moved to another room.

Room 3: I always put my phone next to my pillow as there were times the graveyard shift staff will call for assistance or immediate decisions in handling guest complaints.  Every morning I woke up, my phone was either under the bed or next to the TV.  It did not happen only once or twice, so by the 5^th time I moved to another room.

HOTEL GUESTS GOING NUTS

1.       An English guest almost midnight came back to the hotel drunk went into the elevator. Everyone thought he went into his room. Security after 5 minutes went to the reception to inform that a man get naked in the elevator throw his clothes and lie down to sleep. The reception and security went to the elevator and assist the guy to put his clothes back but he refused and even doesn’t want to get out of the elevator shouting to leave him alone and let him sleep. They let him sleep and at 3 am he went to his room.

2.       A Korean man came back to the hotel drunk went into his room. Two hours after he came down to the lobby naked but covered with shit all over his body.   Everyone was running away from him but the security was obliged to pull him out of the lobby and brought him to the bathroom. He was brought back to his room but when the security and reception opened the door, the room stinks.  Shits were everywhere from bed to wall, to windows. The Korean tour leader came and explained he scooped his shit and threw it everywhere in the room. He went nuts because his wife left him and took their kids with her.  The guy ended up paying 1,000USD for deep cleaning and replacement of the wall paper in the room.

3.     

          New swimming pool wait staff was a monk who came straight from the monastery on his first day of work. Two Russian guests went to the swimming pool mid-afternoon, get naked with no clothing left.  They went swimming and called the wait staff to order drinks. The new wait staff who just came out from Buddhist monastery ran to the restaurant for help. He refused to go near the naked Russians, so he didn’t take the order.  One of the naked man came out from the pool angrily demand drinks menu.  The former monk accompanied by restaurant staff refused to look at the naked man infront of them. The next day he sent a message to the F&B manager, he doesn’t want to work anymore.

These are few of the odd experiences I had in working and living in the hotel.  If you travel often, I guess you have your own odd experience too. What's yours?   It would be nice and fun if you can share it with me! Try at this email address gmorientalsaigon@gmail.com.  Hope to hear from you!    

A Dance To Forget

“Dance with me and pretend there’s we”, Mr. Clouds pleaded while Charlie Puth’s "Then There’s You" song reverberated throughout the room.  I was dancing in his arms and my heart jumped with joy. I wanted to shout, “ohhh heaven can take me now, it’s a dream come true”!  

Tina’s voice was calling me from afar though, “Ms. the rain stopped, let’s go”. I have been dying to be in his arms all night long, so with a frustrating voice I was telling Tina to go away and don’t disturb us.  But Tina was persistent, her voice was getting louder.  She was tapping my shoulder,“Ms. oi, it’s 10pm already, I am too sleepy, let’s go before it rains again”.

 It was then that I opened my eyes and remembered we were in Sandy Bay Beach restaurant waiting for the rain to stop.  Tired from running, I drowsed off while lying on the restaurant’s couch after a heavy bite of the pizza we ordered.  On Tina's hand was her phone playing Charlie Puth’s “Then There’s You” song. Tina was standing next to me as she was waking me up. 

Tina and me at Sandy Bay Beach
Restaurant after an hour of walk and run. 

OMG and I thought I was dancing with Mr. Clouds for real pleading me to think there’s “we”! It was all just a dream! Freaking dream! I need to wake up and head off straight to bed.

That’s it! Mr. Clouds has been running a full marathon in my head. He must have been very tired now, so I let him rest from my craziness. 

Alright! Watch out for my next travel stories and unusual experiences in hotels soon.

HALONG BAY FROM THE SKY

Scenic view of the bay

I am just privileged to work in this destination offering me a chance to see Halong Bay from the sky. Cloud surfing I was on board Hai Au Aviation.

"FLYING" is not my cup of tea

Sleep deprived? Oh well, I am now, so I might as well hit the keyboards and write down my thoughts.  It’s past midnight and I am still wide awake.  Why? Because I hate flying and I am going to fly again in few hours.  I can’t help it I am addicted to my job, so I am obliged to fly.

Taking care of hotel’s performance was not in my career’s dream lists but I landed in this job. I find it challenging, so I am loving it now. However, the hotels I am overseeing are located from north to south, so I have to fly every now and then.  

I have few pilot friends that educated me on how the aircraft performs while flying but my brain still uneasy about it.  If only Mr. Clouds is around it might help. I used to imagine him on the yoke actually. I was crazy over him, so just chatting with him before I get on the plane gave me enough courage to set aside my fear. 

And guess what? To think, all he did was to scare me until I felt like throwing up already.  When I told him that I felt like throwing up with his jokes on planes, he would just say “oh really?”  But beckon me to get a shot of whisky before boarding which I find sweet.

Anyway, he is always been in my blog recently, so I think I will share his background why I call him Mr. Clouds.  Aren’t you curious?  He is a pilot J, hence I call him Mr. Clouds.  He is sweet but emotionally unavailable, so there’s “no we”. Life however moves on.  Who knows I can find someone like him in my journey? Maybe when I get on the plane in few hours the person who will sit next to me might have Mr. Clouds personality? Ohhhh that would be one in a lifetime chance for me to fall in love, other than my job of course!

Oh well,  sorry folks, I just got reminded of him. You can’t blame me if I talked about him, we shared nothing but happy moments and he was always there for me. So, maybe I will just think he will be there with me on the yoke in few hours? 

In the Clouds over Coconut Coffee Smoothie

Ever thought of being in the clouds over the combination of coconut, coffee and an awesome friend?

It was a hot day and I was walking in the streets of Saigon.  I thought I needed cold drinks, so I get inside to the first random decent coffee shop I saw.  

Coconut Coffee Smoothie with Mr. Clouds
in Hanoi's expat area Tay Ho.  

I said decent because there are thousands of café in Saigon but only few that I can hang around comfortably.  And by saying comfortably, it means spacious, not a lot of people smoking, neat and clean.

I was browsing the menu and my eyes grow big, smiling as I uttered under my breath “ohhh I know where I am, Cong Caphe”!!

I knew where I was, not because I read the name of the establishment in the cover of the menu but because I saw Coconut Coffee Smoothie in the list.

I can’t of course forget Coconut Coffee Smoothie! Nice and refreshing drink plus it brings me happy memories. Oh well, it reminded me of my last encounter with Mr. Clouds actually.

Here’s our story of Coconut Coffee Smoothie.  Few times, Mr. Clouds asked me whether I tried the Coconut Coffee Smoothie of Cong Caphe.  

It's in Saigon, so there's no Vietnamese Flag
on my Coconut Coffee Smoothie.  

I haven’t, so I didn’t really pay attention when I answered "no".  I don’t actually fancy digging up information or providing information to Mr. Clouds.

Re: example why would I talk more about Coconut Coffee Smoothie when I don’t know if I can visit the same establishment he tried it with? It’s the same with other personal information.  I avoid asking even though Mr. Clouds mentioned something that I could ask. 

 For me, it’s going nowhere as there’s “no we”, so why ask? I don’t want to destroy the moment of happiness I was experiencing, so the less I know the better.  That’s my philosophy.   

But I was wrong with Coconut Coffee Smoothie though. WE had five glasses of them before we parted and to think, I thought I couldn’t try it with him!  He brought me to Cong Caphe for our last hours together.  Of course, to introduce the Coconut Coffee Smoothie he bragged about few times and geographic convenience when we were choosing common ground to say our last goodbyes. 

    

Cong Caphe in Saigon's busy streets Bui Vien 

After he left, I never skipped visiting Cong Caphe for Coconut Coffee Smoothie every time I am in Hanoi. It’s heaven for me now.  Heaven, not because it was introduced by Mr. Clouds but the combination of Coffee and Coconut are refreshing. 

Iced coffee in Vietnam is quite strong but if you are like me, who can have palpitation with strong coffee, then Coconut Coffee Smoothie is just perfect.

I was told only Cong Caphe offers Coconut Coffee Smoothie, that’s why I said I knew where I was when I saw it in the menu.  I would never get to know of Coconut Coffee Smoothie had it not been for my last three hours with Mr. Clouds at Cong Caphe.  

The last three hours were heaven despite that it was a sweet goodbye without knowing if our paths will cross again.  Why I said heaven? Why not? I was with Mr. Clouds who was a plus factor while drinking my Coconut Coffee Smoothie. :-)