Let me start: So basically I was in really cheap, crappy hotel which had a pool but the walls around it had some really bad mold. The first room I got smelt like cigarette smoke and the sheets had stains all over it. The second room was MUCH better thank god.
I was making my way over-land from Vietnam to China and there was only one train a day from this town and the border crossing took too long.
So here I am stuck in this tiny border town and I go to the only “hotel” in town.
The “bathroom” did not have a toilet, just a 3 inch sewer opening where a toilet should have been. I had to aim as best I could. The bed was obviously rough, I did not trust the sheets at all that looked dirty. Luckily I brought my own little sarong I could put down. Too hot for any blankets luckily.
Later that evening the hotel keepers son kept bringing girls to the room to try to sell, and his parents were cussing him out over it at the top of their lungs while he was trying to present them.
The “hotel” was not approved for foreigners and the hotel keeper was adamant I get out of there early in the morning before the police came by.
That was quite the welcome to China, and the next two very long days in “hard seat” class on a meter gauge rail line winding through China, while beautiful, about broke my spirit.