The receptionist speaks very poor English. Through a combination of single words and impromptu sign language he requests to see our booking voucher. I have the voucher saved on my laptop. While I'm waiting for the laptop to start up, the receptionist finds my name on his computer. He points happily at the screen and then at me. I nod and give him the thumbs up. He repeats his request to see the voucher, even though he has just confirmed my reservation and he can also see that I'm loading up my laptop.
"Thanks for showing me the passport, now may I also ask for its digital copy?" I finally show him the screenshot of the reservation and he tells us we can go up to our room. Since we've arrived a few hours before official check-in time I'm positively surprised. Wanting to communicate my delight and break the ice I say: "Great, so we can check in already?". The receptionist arranges his face into a mask of total confusion. He squints his eyes and looks at me blankly, before saying: "Chiii...cken?".
Struggling to keep a smile on my face I say: “We. Can. Get. Our. Room. Now?”. He stops to think for a second. Then, with a patronising expression he points to a young woman employee and says “follow her please”. Wow, he thinks I’m an idiot, purely because his working assumption right now is that I’ve been asking for chicken at a hotel reception. This hotel stay is going to be…interesting.
in Ninh Binh, Ninh Binh province, Vietnam
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