All that Glitters is not Gold

Arriving in Longmusi, we needed to find a hotel. Our guide book spoke of one that had central heating, hot showers and spoke English. We located the hotel and it looked very fancy on the exterior and the lobby was quite nice too. My gut told me we should go somewhere else though but I was too tired to think about doing anything but the easy solution which was just to get a room here. With our heavy packs we searched a few floors looking for someone to give us a room. Finally a girl appeared from outside and told us (not in English) that we could get a common room for 15Y each. She reconfirmed the hot water and central heating situation. The not overly friendly staff showed us to our room. I inspected the room while Emily inspected the toilet situation. My conclusion was that the room smelled of mildew, the bedding didn't strike me as clean but as I didn't feel like trudging around town, I could probably handle it for one night. Emily came back and signaled me that the bathroom was not that foxy but she concluded like me that we could handle it for one night. I was grumpy. They reluctantly gave us a key and we decided to head out on the town.

Two blocks from our hotel we saw a small shoe store advertising 24 hour hot water and heating. I was lured in my beautiful houseplants I could see. We inquired with the nice man who showed us the room. The room was through a courtyard on the second floor. The room was clean, with nice warm woodwork, a window taking up half the wall sporting a gorgeous view, AND we had billowing comforters. Not only did we have a billowing comforter, but we also each had a doubly lined fleece blanket AND a heating pad. As if all this was not good enough, we had candles which we have quickly learned produce a lot of heat in a small room. The bathroom was clean. We quickly decided that for 20Y each we were ready to move. Anyone in Longmusi, the name is XiuFeng Guest House and the number is 0941-6671020. They are located a couple stores from Leishas on the opposite site of the street.

We went back to our smelly room, quickly packed up, pulling out our phrase book so we could figure out our to get our substantial key deposit back. While I tried to get our deposit back, the guy made faces, sticking his tongue out at each of us. I would like to have made a face back but decided I should just remain calm if I wanted my key deposit. While we were trying to get the deposit, Emily discovered that in the rush to leave our crummy room, she had left her purse in the already locked room. Luckily finally the other woman showed up and let Emily back into the room to retrieve her purse, gave me my deposit and we were out of there.

Upon arrival at our new digs, they gave us a large thermos of water for tea and asked us when we wanted our hot shower. The owner ran the water until it became hot, gave us detergent for doing laundry AND let us hang our clothes on their clothes line. The shower was piping hot with water pressure. We could not be happy. I don't want to leave. The owners are so nice to us and all this for only $3 US dollars a night.