Behind the gate were several elevated straw huts. There was no clear lobby or reception area, from what we could see. We're thinking, what do we do now? There's no pool, no restaurants on the grounds and no reception area. No one was there to welcome us or direct us to our room, or in this case, "hut". Lugging our luggage through the gate we noticed a housekeeper, she had on a turquoise dress with a white apron. She told us she would be with us in a second.
A few minutes later Hyacinth (as she told us her name was) led us to an "available" room. There was no official check in. This was it. Here was our room. The hut was elevated on stilts, we walked up the stairs dragging our bags behind us. The hut was literally a hut; made out of straw and bamboo. I remember us laying on the bed and counting the number of lizards we could find on the thatched roof of our new humble abode. There was no AC and a mosquito net over the bed.
As we surveyed the "suite" (using the term loosely), I noticed something odd about the bathroom. Something was missing. "Hyacinth, where's the shower?", I had asked. This is when she pointed OUTSIDE to an outdoor shower located several steps away (about 20 or 30!). At this point was when everything stopped being "okay" and "not a problem". Here we were, in another country at this less-than-satisfactory motel. What would 2 female young adult students do at a time like this? We called our moms. Hyacinth led us to an office the size of a family dressing room in Target. It was a messy room with books and papers all over the place BUT it had AC and a working phone. We both took turns calling our moms collect (neither of us had cell phones back then). I'm not sure what we expected our moms to do but at least they knew we had gotten there safely. Next, my roommate called the student service agency to complain, they were no help.
Hyacinth told us of another room that did have a shower. We went to check it out and that room was very HOT and dark. No breeze no where. We decided to stay where we were originally placed.
We felt trapped. We decided to go for a walk to weigh our options. Another friend of ours was arriving in a few hours, it would be 3 of us sleeping in one bed, fully clothed and afraid of the creatures lurking in the darkness of our room. We constantly loss power, several times a day sometimes for long periods of time. We were depressed in paradise.
To be continued!