Any Travel Horror Stories You'd Care To Share?

[Realgirls4me]

I have a couple friend of mine once tell me of a room experience they had once while staying at some Asian country that I still chuckle about when I think of it.

It seems they, a newly wed couple, wanted to watch their travel expenses as much as possible so they could visit more places in that region at the time. They decided to pick on their lodging as the place to cut back on, opting for the second and third tier places of rest instead. Anyway, it seems that a place they stayed at had just undergone a paint job of their room. The painter(s) evidently chose a paint roller with a pattern on it and simply painted over the old paint thus creating a two tone effect. Everything, from the ceiling to all of the furniture was painted this way. Anyhow, at one point my friend's husband decided to move a chair away from the wall for some reason only to find that the painter had not bothered to move the chair when he had applied his patterned roller to the chair. Yep, on the wall was a perfect outline of where the chair would be resting against, as was the case with any of the other furniture positioned near the walls of the room. The painter(s) apparently painted everything they could, but could not be troubled with something as common sensible as pulling stuff away from the walls so the walls could receive a coat of the new paint. Granted, it wasn't the Marriot, nor they they expect it to resemble it in any way, but geez, wtf??? ...Moral of the story: You generally get what you pay for in life. In this case it was an Asian version of the bumbling, inept handymen Ralph and Alf Monroe of the old Green Acres sitcom doing the painting.

Why did I bring this anecdote up? Well, I was the mystery guest who showed up and accompanied Felicia and Hara to the Cobra Club Thursday night. Being that I live about two hours away and that I drive a vehicle with a V8, I attempted to save a little money on the lodging front to offset the high price of gas, which is around $4.20 a gallon right now around southern California. In my determination to find a cheap clean place and in turn also punish the gas gods, I temporarily forgot about the One generally gets what they pay for adage not knowing or realizing just what is permitted under the law as a legal place of stay. ...This place should simply be condemned, and calling it a "dump" does a grave disservice to dumps.

Okay, beside the price, here are what should have been red flags to yours truly:

* Not one car in the parking lot when I arrived -- not one!

* The place accepts cash only.

* As I am being led to my room, I'm told that he, the manager, must open the room for me. I am not allowed a key in other words. Let me explain: After paying for a room, I don't have a key to MY room. He did not give me a key! I kid you not!

Here, in all its glory and splendor, is the room I got for $45.00 a night on La Brea blvd right past Washington, and a few miles away south from Hollywood. That's Hollywood California in this the United States, folks (I hope you aren't eating):

The first picture is of the entrance. Notice the lovely tile (keep your eyes off the grout -- please!) obviously set in by a partially blind Reese's Monkey during an earthquake. What can't be seen is how uneven it is -- the tiles vary in thickness. Fwiw, folks born with one leg an inch shorter than the other might actually tolerate this type of floor. The shoes are mine. After I took this picture, I placed them on the TV "armoire" for fear of them catching something or being host to whatever crawls around there at night.

The middle picture is going from the room to the restroom. Notice the continuity -- in the grout. What can't be seen is the half inch difference in height between the main room and the restroom.

The third picture is one more shot of the lovely tile work that adorns this room. And no, that isn't some clever avant-gard pattern on that end table. Those are cigarette burns, folks, in this, a no smoking room. They don't really expect one to actually use that bowl or plastic cups, do they?



... Does ABC ever do make-over shows for motels? Just a thought.

[Realgirls4me]

Here is something that has puzzled me even to this moment. What exactly is it or was it? It's like a little room immediately to the right just as one walks in, but it serves no purpose. It's just there. ...Notice where I am hanging my clothes -- there are no hooks or clothes hanging poles in this place -- not even nails for one to hang their clothes.

Yes, I was afraid to open those drawers ... I REALLY was.

[Realgirls4me]

Here is another mystery -- another tiny room. A room in a room. Maybe I just entered a work in progress? Ya think?

Yes, that is the shower door leaning against the wall. I did not have a shower door, but that's another story.

[Realgirls4me]

Here is the ... oh, nevermind. This was repeated three times in that room. It had to be a work in progress. It had to!

[Realgirls4me]

Here is that lovely end table again. What can be worse than this? Try two of them. Its sister table was on the other side of the bed sans any cups or bowls.

One can only wonder what type of major legit business deals were consummated on that table. ...Yeah, right.

[Realgirls4me]

Okay, what is going on here? Is the curtain, and I use the term as loose as possible, there for privacy, or to cover up for the uncompleted paint job? Mysteries just never cease, huh?

... I didn't take a picture of the curtain over the air conditioning. That one was incredible. You really had to see that one. And, no, the electrical outlet, which I tried to use to charge my camera battery, right below the curtain in the picture did not work -- Surprise !!!

[Realgirls4me]

Yes, the TV worked, and it even included a free porn channel -- no remote(Surprise!).
The reason I took this picture was to show you not only the height of the mirror, but the fact that about half of it is covered. It would be completely covered if the TV stand was in its proper place. WTF?!

[Realgirls4me]

I figured out the mirror angle from behind the TV -- It's for the TV stand ... every armoire deserves its own mirror too, right? Why else would it be there?




Here's the basin in the restroom. Notice how nice and tight it's been set in with Dap and grout. ... Na-a-a-a-ah, I never expected a cockroach to immerse from any of those half inch spaces as I was shaving. It never occurred to me. Never.



Never!

[Realgirls4me]

Should I show the picture of the front of the place that I took as I drove by it this morning heading home?

[Bigguy]

So I'm guessing that you forgot to tell the manager that you would be writing up a review on hotels.com, right?