Here’s a downside to budget travel:
My lovely room
I’m in Ayutthaya, a fairly large town (or small city) and I’m at Tony’s Place. Tony’s Place is a well known and low budget guest house that is only three dollars a night. Three dollars is a great deal, but there is a downside; It’s 10 at night, I’m getting up very early to catch a bus, and between the intense and sticky heat and the ballads outside my window, I’m getting nowhere close to sleep.
Right at this moment, the loud, rickety fan is only passing more hot air over me while I lay partially wet from the sweat I can never seem to get rid of here. Heat rises, so I like to think that’s why my mattress is on the floor, but I also have the suspicion it’s the reason I’m paying three instead of the listed four dollars per night.
Despite the clunky and repetitive squeaking coming from the rusty fan, I actually wish it were louder because across the street is the “Jazz Cafe.” The cafe started the evening with some surprisingly good, technical jazz standards. Things have changed dramatically since then.
Remember those awful 80’s and 90’s slow pop love songs? Think about how absolutely dreadful your head feels when you hear them, and then imagine an off-pitch Thai man singing them. I think most people have seen some sort of comedy skit with the premise being an Asian man poorly singing English tunes. This really is as bad as a comedy routine, and right about now each song seems to be getting worse. I would actually prefer a repeat of this man’s Streisand tune 30 minutes ago to the roller coaster ride that is his Sting cover right now. This, by the way, is an open air jazz cafe, so I’m not just speculating or exaggerating on his singing abilities, I can hear this tragic event quite clearly.
Did I mention the other window is above the kitchen which is starting to close? Of course I didn’t. Anyone who has worked in a restaurant or kitchen knows that at the end of the night staff are tired and no one is slow dancing their way through the cleaning tasks. With all the banging and clanging I’m trying to imagine it as an added percussion section, although they could really use some lessons in timing.