A Tip on Tall, Skinny, Cheap Hotels

Please Note: If your hotel looks like this (a tall, skinny number with rooms stacked five flights up around one central spiral staircase), the sound WILL echo up from the lobby and into your small barred window with no glass.

Furthermore, there will also be in the lobby, at all hours of the night, one or both of the following: 1) Australian tourists loudly discussing their plans for tomorrow, or, 2) The entire extended family of the Vietnamese owner, most of which is under 5 years old and likes to scream (then be screamed at) and watch really loud movies on the lobby computer. One little family member will inevitably have a tiny trike that he will pedal furiously up and down the lobby whilst shrieking "Eahahahhlialala!".

Note Number Two: Add "earplugs" to list of essential budget travel gear.

(Happy Ending: At midnight I could take no more and went down to this particular lobby to ask, as politely as possible, "Do these sweet children EVER go to sleep?" "Uh huh, uh huh, uh huh," the owner nodded eagerly, and within two minutes the little angels were locked back in the sound-proofed home base.

Why didn't I (politely) complain earlier?? I have learned my lesson in assertiveness! On another note, however, why would a hotel owner EVER think it was all right to have such a ruckus in a public area during prime dreaming time?!)

Despite all this, the hotel cost the same per night as one latte at Starbucks, so it really is all good in the end. :)