An email from Kyoto

Hi everyone,
It's Lin reporting from Kyoto at the New Miyako Hotel - not the place we (Aunt Rose, Roseo, Chup & Lin) were supposed to stay originally.

From Singapore, we had booked to stay at Toji-An guest house. However, the living conditions were simply too horrendous for Chup and Aunt. So in the end, 3 of us moved out of the guest house into a hotel which is about 7 minutes walk away. As a rough comparison, the guest house charges S$30/pax/night. The Hotel on the other hand charges about S$150/pax/night (It's about S$300 for a double room/night).

We were scheduled to stay in Toji-An for 2 nights, on new year's eve and on 1 Jan. Aunt was extremely traumatized with the living conditions in the guest house. The room we had was sooooooooooo tiny she hardly could move. And the worst is, the guest house does not even have the most basic amenity - a shower place! Yup, you can already imagine Aunt's shocked look when she heard that. So to shower, one has to walk to a public bath (apparently very nice and clean because they charge around S$6/person/bath). That's not all, the public bath would be closed on 1 Jan 2007 which means we won't be able to shower on the 2nd night.

So that was all Chup n Aunt could tolerate. They were willing to forego all the payment made to Toji-An for a decent alternative accommodation - with proper bathing facility. So that was how we ended up at New Miyako. They were totally booked on new year's eve. Hence we still had to put up a night of Toji-An and move to the Hotel on the 2nd night... And guess what, the hotel has internet connection, so with our laptop, we can get unlimited internet access tonight. That's why I can afford to write this long email.

_______________ Wait a minute ______________

I heard a knock on the hotel door...........

Oh my GOD!!!! It was Roseo on the door!!!!
The guest house has actually gave out all our 4 beds there to other guests eventhough we have fully paid for it!! The 'manager' is now denying that we paid for 2 nights and refused to give refund. It's crazy. The whole guest house is run like an illegal slum! A fire hazard and a danger to the neighbouring houses. (More photos of guest house will follow when I return to Singapore...) And the 'manager' looks like a triad leader! Roseo was so mad she threatened to call the police. But due to communication difficulty, both Roseo and 'manager' could not understand each other fully. 'Manager' even said she can go ahead and report to the police.

So we will see how it goes tomorrow...

...the one who's too sleepy to continue anymore