So, I've been thinking how fortunate we have been to have free wi-fi in our rooms and very comfortable accommodation. Before I came away I had no idea what to expect, so have been very pleasantly surprised along this trip. That was until we reached Que Son. You'll see from the location of this blog that I'm not in Que Son, I'm in Danang. Here's the story, it's a bit long, but bear with me....

We left Phuoc Son at about 4pm yesterday and drove for 2 hours to Que Son (Nong Son ADP area). The road to here was bumpy with some huge holes but our bus driver navigated them well and we arrived at about 6pm. I had interviewed parents of CWD and also teachers in the morning and visited the home of Dang, a 6 year old girl with an intellectual disability, in the afternoon. The interviews went very well and one of my favourite moments was sitting on the chairs in the school playground under the tree when two cows and a calf just come into the school yard and start munching on grass. What was hilarious was that no one blinked an eye! It was just normal behaviour!!!! Anyway, I digress.
So, we'd all been working during the day and couldn't wait to get to our hotel to have a shower. Tomorrow was our only day off and we couldn't wait just to lounge around in our rooms, check emails, watch TV, bum around, do nothing! We were so excited for this day after working long days for the past week.
The bus pulled up and we all pile out and stand around waiting while Phuong (our facilitator and coordinator of the evaluation from WV Vietnam) spoke with the hotel owner. It sounded like something was wrong, so we asked whether there was a problem. We found out that some of us were staying in the "new" hotel, while the rest were staying across the road. I prayed quietly to myself that I was staying in the "new" hotel as the one across the road just looked like a room above a shop and my mind wandered to images of filthy rooms filled with cockroaches!'
As if he'd read my mind, Phuong told Thurza, Julie and I that we were staying in the 'new' hotel. So we head over and then realise that the hotel owners don't speak any English, so the other girls Toan and Ly come and take the final room in the "new" hotel. The doors open to our room and Thurza, Julie and I looked at each other and without speaking, you could just sense our disappointment. The room was very basic and was about 3m x 5m in size. The bathroom was a squat toilet with a shower above it. No toilet paper (lucky I had BYOd from home!!), no window. It reminded me of a prison cell, but the only positive was that there was air con and a fan! So, we figure that we can survive, we can keep cool and go out if we need to.
So, we hit the road trying to find a local shop that sells cold beer (rather than beer with ice). Within about 3 minutes of our journey, a woman named Oanh starts talking to us. She's an English teacher and wanted to practice her English, so she offered to help us find some cold beer to drink. After a few stops, we find somewhere and sit down.

Oanh says to us "when you come here, do you feel sad?"...... what a strange question... but pretty soon, yes we were going to be a bit sad!! After a few coldies each, we then meet up with the rest of our group and head out to dinner. It was absolutely scrumptous food! I have developed a taste for spicy food here.... every meal is served with a little side dish of fish sauce, chilli, garlic and ginger and the central region is well known for it's spicy food. Prior to this trip, I couldn't stand anything that was spicy hot, but know I'm quite enjoying it.

We head back to the hotel after dinner and bid each other goodnight. The rooms are all next to each other. The flouro light in my room wasn't working, so I get out my small torch. I thought maybe I'd see what was on TV, but when I plugged in the power cord, the switch gave a bit of a spark, so thought best of that idea.
I set up my laptop to try to watch Ice Age 4 for the tenth time on this trip (every other time I've tried to watch it I've ended up falling asleep, so I'm about 20 minutes in). With the laptop on, I check if there's any wi-fi and see that there is none (another disappointment). That's OK, I can deal with that. All of a sudden the room goes black... and I hear Julie laughing in the room next to me and I find myself just saying "great" out loud with a sense of defeat. The air con's off, the fans off and the room starts to heat up rapidly. With no window to open, I open the door and realise that it's even hotter outside of my room, but the cool from the air con in my room will only last so long (strangely enough I was thinking about how when the power goes out at home, you should refrain from opening the fridge door because the longer you keep it shut the longer it will retain the cool). So, I shut the door, but after about 2 mins, the cool has almost completely gone so I head outside to see if anyone else has ventured out. We all have. Julie's in her pyjamas with head torch, I haven't even changed clothes let alone unpacked my bag (other than the laptop). Thurza had been to get a bottle of water.
A quick hallway conversation and we agree that tomorrow we need to find somewhere else to stay. We discuss the options - we could go to Danang or Hoi An and stay there and commute to the community area every day. I should mention that the hotel we were staying in is already 20km from the community area as the accommodation in the area is so bad, that this was the best hotel in the town!
We speak to Toan and she agrees, let's see if we can get other accommodation. She rings Phuong and he says he will organise something else. He tells us that his accommodation is very dirty and horrible. If we were only here for one night, we could have survived but not for 3 nights when we are working and need to be switched on and refreshed. I was just glad it wasn't just me that wanted to go!
I should add that there was a seminar happening in the lobby of the hotel to sell insurance and while the paying guests had no power, the generator was making sure that the powerpoint presentation kept playing! The hotel owner even came up and asked if we could turn off the hot water to give more power to the generator and once the seminar is over we'll get power back! OMG
We all agree that we will stay tonight and leave at 6am in the morning. But, it was only about 10 minutes later that Phuong calls and asks us if we want to leave tonight. I get a strong sense that he wants to get out of this town more than we do!
So as to not be disrespectful to the hotel owner, Toan makes up a story that one of us foreigners has a bad case of diarrhea and we need to go to Danang for emergency treatment. We've nominated Thurza to play sick as we leave the hotel, just to be sure we look convincing. Instead, the hotel owner comes up to the room we were all crowded in and asking about how Thurza is feeling. Julie's trying hard to contain her laughter at Thurza's acting and setting me off at the same time. Once he left, we had a great laugh about it. Thurza plays a good patient, I must admit and it was made all the more funny by Thurza having to close her eyes do she doesn't burst out laughing!
So within 30 minutes of that first hallway discussion we were all packed and on the bus heading towards Danang - just under 2 hour drive away. By this time it's about 9pm. We checked into the hotel at 11pm we were in when we first arrived. Pure luxury compared to Que Son.
Staying so far away is going to make the days so much longer. It's a two hour drive each way from Danang to the community area and we'll need to leave each day by about 6am and get back at about 6pm before dinner and bed. But, I would rather sit on a bus for four hours a day than stay in that hotel!
So tomorrow is our day off and I plan to stay in my room all day, check some emails, watch TV, relax. This trip is going very quickly and in a few days time I'll be on a plane heading back to Melbourne. It's been an eye opening experience to our work in the field as well as what's involved in ensuring that both government and donor funds are used wisely. I've been very blessed to be part of it.