Day 24
When the sun shone in and we were rested we re-evaluated our situation. Looking around the room we noticed the long bloody snot streak on the mold covered wall and the pile of ants that had accumulated during the night. Why they gave us the room, we weren’t sure. We saw the ants in a pile when we arrived and she swept them away, but they continued to accumulate as they were projected dead and frozen out of the air-conditioner. On top of that the owner tried to change our price several times after we agreed on a price with air conditioning, in writing. Suddenly she tried to add on 50,000 for checking in early and another 50,000 for the air conditioning. We paid 200,000 and went two doors down to Lam Son.
Next door we were lucky to find a modest place run by a husband and wife team. When we arrived they changed the sheets and immediately brought us a container of hot-water. Opening the large wooden doors and shutters we were happy to have a sunny, airy room. We spent the afternoon reading and writing in front of the large open doors that lead to our porch, where we are also able to cook.
At night we closed the shutters, as there is no glass in the windows and found that the wood was much better than single pained glass at blocking the noise from the highway below. Looking forward to our first climb in 3 months we were satisfied that we had found a place where we could live for the coming weeks.