Hot Room, Cold Shower- Shanghai Ascot Hotel

Earlier this week as I sat shivering beneath the arctic blast of water called a shower, I wondered why such a place as the Shanghai Ascot could command 130 Euros for a night’s stay. Sure the hotel has a great view of Shanghai and is in an excellent location but something should be said about providing those little bothersome nuances such as hot water. Upon phoning the front desk I was told that I, surprisingly enough should have hot water. While being in total agreement with that point I then asked if this dream would come true. “The engineer should be there within an hour.” the receptionist said. Pondering the oddities of China as I wiped the sweat from my brow and gawked at the room temperature which seemed to be in the 80’s I then considered my next move. Lacking 60 minutes to spare, I thrust my into the frigid torrent and made due. Before coming to China I would have considered something like this unbearable, I am now acculturated into all things China. I console myself that each new ‘idiosyncrasy’ cannot be as bad nor as surprising as the last, I march on. After all, at least the Shanghai Ascot had water. Last year in the Holiday Inn in Guangzhou we lacked that nicety- water. Last year when I awoke to an arid faucet, I called the receptionist inquiring about the lack of water in my room. Several minutes later a maid showed up with a bucket of hot water and a rag. “Here” she said smiling. I was then told that I could use said bucket and an old rag to wash…. Yes it is true that I once was not even given a bucket but a bowel with which to wash myself, that had been in the jungles of Nicaragua where for U$ 5.00 I paid for a cot as I awaited my tour to one of her huge inland lakes. I guess I just never figured that I would run into the same problems in a ‘metropolitan’ city such as Shanghai or Guangzhou.