You
see, it was like this... after the SARS crisis in 2003 Meixin moved
on to another hotel (doing the same sort of work - six days a week,
12 hours a day). Her replacement in terms of looking after me on
the Seventh Floor of the Tibetan Medicinal Bathing Hotel... was
Zheng Na. She was an incredibly sweet lady who spoke excellent English
and went out of her way to be helpful."Just a moment"
she would call over her shoulder as she scurried off to organise
whatever I had asked for.
Now, the experienced
traveller knows that hotels charge the Earth for laundry so you
should look for a laundry nearby. There WAS one close and the first
year I went there the lady on the counter was most helpful and cheerful.
This year there was a young lady who was mostly asleep, resented
being woken up and REALLY resented having to deal with a foreign
devil who couldn't speak Mandarin. So I thought 'why not buy some
detergent and do it myself in the bath?'
Meanwhile, being
a modern hotel this one gave its customers a key to their rooms
which consisted of a card with a chip. You slipped it into a slot
in the door, the door beeps and unlocks. For some reason my key
stopped working twice. The maintenance men could find nothing wrong
with the lock and concluded I was doing something weird with the
key (such as walking around with it in my pocket). So it was decided
that whenever I wanted to get into my room I should ask the duty
person on my floor (usually Zheng Na) to let me in. No key.
On the street
side of each room in the hotel is a peculiar, triangular-shaped
"false" room which I think was something to do with the
airconditioning.It certainly reduced street noise... and was a perfect
spot to dry the clothes that I was currently soaking in the bath.
All I needed was some string for a clothesline. So I asked Zheng
Na.
She had no idea
what I was talking about so I coaxed her into my bathroom to observe
my shirts and undies soaking therein. She clearly regarded this
as bizarre behaviour and was visibly shaken. However she recovered
in an instant and declared she would obtain a clothes basket from
the staff laundry on the floor below, then spin-dry my clothes in
the staff washing machine. .
The accidental
flaw in this plan was that when we left my room to take my clothes
to the dryer downstairs, we left Zheng Na's complete set of keys
for the entire floor locked in my room. And of course I didn't have
a key and now, neither did anyone else.
To cut to the
chase, it was decided that one of the hotel workmen was to be lowered
down the outside of the hotel on a rope from the top (10th) floor
to the outside window of my room on the 7th. All this in the hope
that my window on the street was unlocked and that the door between
my room and the "false" room was too.
Eventually this
intrepid adventurer appeared in the doorway of my room with a cut
on his head, having almost fallen to his doom, and a huge ring of
keys in his hand.
This is why
I love the Chinese - they are all courageous, hard-working... and
completely crazy! But I often wonder what happened to Zheng Na.
It was only one short visit but I have many fond memories of her.
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