You get what you pay for...

Everyone has heard that one. And yes, most of the time it is true. Although I can't say that applies to the food here. To pay more for food usually just means you are not eating the local cuisine. I have had better meals for $1 than some I've paid $3. It usually doesn't go past that, not with my budget. But there is no reason to pay more unless you want to eat pizza or falafel every day. And remind me. Where am I?

Not to say that I haven't eaten anything but rice & vegetables. Oh Contraire. Well, I suppose Indian is still mostly rice & vegetables, but not exactly local cuisine. I can't get enough of the stuff. Nine of the past eleven days. Indian = delicious. I am diverting from the point of this blog.

You get what you pay for. That's right. That was what I was going to blab on about. Last night I stayed at a funky, mostly dilapidated guest house. I was excited to get room #13 on the 3rd floor. A large room with a big bed, tiled floor and my own private bathroom. It was $5. Which is not a bargain for Laos, but for the capital city during peak season, I would say yes, it is. Even if the tiled floor was mostly dirty and there were footprints on the white walls, I was stoked to inherit the room for the evening.

This morning, after bumping my head on the door frame leaving the bathroom for at least the second time, I was reconsidering my thoughts from the previous day. I always hit my head whether I am on the bus or walking on the sidewalk so that was not unusual. I think I have multiple bumps on my head at any given time. Hitting my head was just one of many things that happened to make me possibly reconsider my next night's accommodation.

My bed was hard as a rock. I think my pillows were stuffed with wadded toilet paper. Fortunately it only felt that way. My comforter was a big towel with a sheet sewn around it. This was not the problem. I am just describing details. The problem, as with every place I've stayed, is the lack of insulation. I could hear everyone coming up the spiral staircase outside. I could hear everyone using the shared toilets outside my room. When they flushed, my toilet would gurgle, spit and burp. And it echoed. The loose tiles in the hall sounded like mortar shells in the night. And I knew there were mosquitoes flying overhead.

So I embedded my ear plugs until the yellow matter nearly touched gray matter. I should have brought more q-tips. If I had known how often I was going to use my ear plugs, I would have brought more of them as well. I must say I did sleep ok. There were no roosters after all. But even with the plugs, which tend to just amplify the louder noises, I still knew when somebody was using the facilities on the other side of my wall. Oh yeah! Don't be jealous.

Maybe tomorrow night I'll splurge for a $6 room. Tonight I'm sleeping on the bus. Perhaps I'll be so exhausted that it doesn't matter where I sleep. In any case, I'm going upscale. Not every night, but I do need to treat myself every now and again. And I want to get something for my money, that something ideally being a comfortable night's rest. One day I can only hope.