“Live out of a suitcase”

Suites, beachfront deluxe room, garden view premium room or standard room has now become my regular bedroom.  

The busier the resort is the more I stayed in suites or the expensive categories of rooms.

 I am a hotelier and I am in-house when I am onsite, what can I do?  The regular category of rooms can get filled in fast, so I have to move to whatever guest room is available. 

Oftentimes though, I don’t have a choice but to sleep in one bedroom suites.  Fancy, isn’t it?  Oh well you’ll be jealous, it’s free. J But don’t get excited because it comes with responsibilities of my job, handling hotel and resort operations.  It sounded fancy but really I don’t feel it that way unless perhaps I am on holiday and just staying in nice rooms on leisure.  But it’s not.

The consequence is that I have to live out of a suitcase. I never unpacked because I know I will be changing rooms anytime the occupancy forecast turns high.

I have one small luggage for my clothes and one small luggage for shoes and other stuff. I just take out the clothes I will wear for the day and let the housekeeping iron it.  

The rest of the stuff stays in my luggage. So there goes that part of me who live out of a suitcase.

A walk to Yen Tu Mountain

Summer for Halong Bay destination is quite crazy with domestic travelers.
Running a resort is like being in prison at this time of year.
Straight two weeks I haven’t seen my apartment in Hanoi.
At 7am I was already on the floor and it went on until late night.
So, when I get the chance to breath away from work,  I visited Yen Tu Pagoda with Lapaz Resort Filipino singers.

Yen Tu is an hour drive from Halong Bay. 

Inspired by King Tran Nhan Tong, who reigned from 1279 to 1293, the temple is located on top of the mountain which has an altitude of 1,068 meters.  

From the parking area we were taken off by 8-seater golf car that we paid a dollar per person and delivered to the foot of the mountain.       

The climb to the first stop, Giai Oan Pagoda was easy.  Nhan Tong accordingly held ritual for wandering souls of the maids and imperial concubines who drowned in Ho Khe stream in Giai Oan Pagoda. 

On our way up to the next stop, we saw canes on display for sale. I told my companions we will go with the trend, buy canes because it might be needed.  

Indeed, I was correct the cane saved our knees from falling down on the rocks. 

It was a challenging climb when we get nearer. The piled rocks were getting stiff. We were soaked even though it never rained. It wasn’t hot either because we were walking in the jungle. The cable car didn’t work, so there's no support system, we have to walk all the way up.  

At the Pagoda before reaching the summit the monks were giving lectures and followers can even stay overnight to pray with them.

I was told during Vietnamese New Year or the so called Tet Season in Vietnam thousands of followers were hanging around the Pagoda with the monks.

Visiting the place took the stress out of me. Maybe because of the challenging long climb or perhaps the interesting history of the temples built in Yen Tu that captured my attention and interest the entire climb. 

If you do climb Yen Tu, the most popular feature of the mountain is the rocky outcrop called An Ky Sinh or known as Heaven’s Gate. It is built at the summit with two meters tall. Go for it, it's worth the climb.