Travels and travails

A recent work trip to Tanzania offered me the opportunity to explore a small town in the far north. What I had not anticipated was the exploration that would take place inside the hotel we were booked into.

When venturing into more rural areas, one should always be prepared for something more laid-back than you might find in the hustle and bustle of bigger cities. So one looks at the website pictures with more than a pinch of salt and make sure that you pack a bit more extensively that you probably could.What I actually should've packed for was mobility - seeing as I had to change rooms four times in my 10-day stay.

We arrived to cool drinks and warm welcomes - a promising start to a rapidly deteriorating stay. My colleague and I were assigned rooms in the new wing; so new that the building dust was still drifting around, and you could fall asleep to the sounds of your neighbors (due to paper-thin walls) or the not-so-gentle rumblings of jackhammers (apparently some late night emergency repairs). But you could blanket all this out with the very loud and very bass-driven live music that is a proud feature on weekends and public holidays. Not such great news for those of us here for business, rather than pleasure. And then there was the refreshing cold showers... due to the absence of hot water.


Believe me, when tired, filthy and frazzled engineers return after a day in the field, what they want is a warm shower, food and the welcome of quiet sleep. This was not going to feature if we stayed in those rooms.

Enter stage, room number two. It was in the old wing (yay!), but it faced the entertainment area (not so yay). Also, having learned to assume nothing, I opened the hot water tap and waited... and waited.... and waited.....and called for assistance.

Room number three: still in the old wing, still facing the noisy area but it had hot water! This I could work with... and then we realized that there was a long weekend ahead, meaning four wonderful days filled with live entertainment and late night music. So, once again, the trek to reception with an "ai senor" expression at the ready.

Room number four: Old wing, facing away from the live entertainment! The gentle chirrup of birds in the background as I heaved a sigh of relief. Which rapidly turned into a groan of disappointment after I opened a tap laughingly marked 'hot'. It took the visit of a plumber and two more requests before I finally enjoyed a warm shower. The reasons? Oh, they forgot to switch something on... coupled with the fact that hot water is not to the far left (or right) of the mixing tap, but kinda sorta maybe in the middle-ish...

Clean towels, apparently, are also a commodity that the staff have great pains parting with. Your used towels, even though you hang it up for re-use, gets whisked away promptly every morning. Replacing them, however, does not appear to feature in their list of 'things to do when servicing a room'.



The setting itself is lovely, the people are friendly and very welcoming, and you will never leave a meal with lingering pangs of hunger. They could, however, gain a world of benefit from a bit more hands-on management. And If I didn't have a project taking up most of my time, I might just have haunted their passages with clipboard in hand!