HOTELS

I stayed at the Melia Panorama Hotel for the first six days. I had planned to stay only one or two days, and move to a less expensive hotel. But after my first day walking around Nagoya, I realized that I really needed an oasis, a place where English was understood, where the air con would really work well, where the water and food was safe to drink, where the environment was clean, where the air was breathable, where there was security, and where there was peace and quiet.

The Melia is a pretty nice, modern, western style hotel, rated at 4 stars for whatever that is worth, my cost was US$43 a night, that included a very large and varied breakfast buffet. The front desk clerks spoke pretty good English. A reservation had been made for me by Jensen, the unofficial local guide for foreigners who sort of works out of Lucy’s Oarhouse Pub. I simply mentioned his name at the front desk. The clerk acted like she knew the name well and I got the room with no trouble, even though I was quite early, about 10am.

My room at the Melia was on the fifth of seventeen floors. It had a very huge bed, easily sleeping four adults, twice as big as a double bed. (Thoughts of wild orgies immediately filled my mind.) There was an in room safe, desk, sitting chair with table, wardrobe, TV, remote control for all lights in the room and the TV, plush towels in the bathroom, mini bar, bottle opener, clothesline, fully western bathroom with a nice shower/bath, good water pressure, hot water, etc. There was a leather bound directory listing the hotels services and room service menu. Quite nice.

After 6 days in the Melia, I finally got enough courage to try another hotel. I had seen the Hotel 2000 a few blocks away, and it was very pretty from the outside. I went inside and asked to see the rooms. The desk clerk acted as though it was a normal request, even though I felt weird asking for the tour. A bell boy showed me the three levels of rooms, all pretty much the same except for size. I opted for the least expensive room quoted at R148,000 (plus 21% tax), or about US$21 a night. Less than half the Melia price, which by the way did NOT have the tax added on, the quoted price of US$43 was all inclusive. The clerk said that the room would have twin beds, there were no more small rooms with double beds. So I got the next size up, the medium size room for R168,000, plus the 21%.

The bell boy showed me to my room again on the fifth floor. The room key had to be inserted in a slot on the wall before the electricity would work. A nice way to save electricity, but it meant the room would always be warm when I came back from my excursions. Upon entering for the first time, the room was quite warm, with the unpleasant stench of stale food. I told the bell boy I really needed a COLD air con. He said it was cold. I told him I would want a different room if the air con was not cold. He set my bags down and went to the bathroom. He removed the complimentary toothbrush from its box, then folded up the box, and stuffed it in the power slot instead of my key. I understood, I now had power 24 hours a day, and the air con would always be on. Good.

The room finally cooled down to a barely acceptable temperature for me (I like it really cold) in about an hour. Luckily the air con fan was pointed directly at the bed, so sleeping was comfortable. With the air con on constantly the rancid odor disappeared and never returned. Maybe I just got used to it, at any rate, I never noticed it again.