Our tour guide had already booked the villa accommodation in Lake Inle. When one of the ladies checked in, she saw several small spiders on the bed and was unhappy. Some people suffer from insect phobias - even small cockroaches cause their hearts to beat much faster and great anxiety overwhelmed them.
Towards sunset, our tour guide asked me whether I would like to visit a hotel called Myanmar Treasure Resort, Lake Inle. I said yes. It was a long boat ride with waves spilling water at the front of the boat. Dark grey clouds mushroomed on my left enveloping most of the sun. Pink orange hues against greying skies. It was one of those sunsets seldom seen in Singapore. One famous travel guide mentioned about the spectacular sunsets at Lake Inle and we were viewing on such sunset.
At the Myanmar Treasure Resorts, the magical spell of the sunset cast its spell. Cool evening. Slight breeze. Quiet. No mosquitoes. No guests on that evening.
"Can you get the hotel manager to give a 50% discount?" I asked my tour guide. After all, there was no guests at all.
"It is not possible," the guide said. "October is the start of the peak season."
"Why not try?" I knew the guide did not want me to incur more expenses as there was accommodation booked - the place where small spiders had crawled on the bed.
I would have asked the manager myself. But I understand that the guide earned her livelihood from commissions given by the hotel for getting the guests to stay in the hotel. If I did it, she might not get a commission as she did not introduce the guests. This was the right thing to do but many Asians have no qualms about cutting out the agents.
The tour guide succeeded. There was a shout of surprise when one of the ladies saw the bathroom. Such bathrooms are rarely seen by the average Singaporeans. There were no spiders on the bed. We had an excellent dinner at this hotel. The manager gave us a complimentary chocolate cake. I did not ask for it.
This episode showed that one has to be proactive and acquire a positive mental attitude in life. Ask and you may be embarrassed for being a cheap-skate trying to stay in a 5-star hotel. If you don't ask, you don't get rejected. If you ask, you may be given what you want.
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