Honeymoon suite

After a comfortable (!) overnight train ride we arrived tired but jubilant in Sapa, in the northwest corner of Vietnam close to the Chinese border. Mountains, terraced agriculture, and clouds, clouds, clouds.

We arrived at the last of three hotels we'd inspected and found wanting, and trudged dutifully up the stairs to look at the room before committing. The room looked like most others -- faded glamour, dainty lace canopy/mosquito net above the bed, vaguely grimy undusted corners -- but what clinched our $6 was the soft-porn tiling in the bathroom. After the incredulity had subsided, two questions sprang to mind:

• Why did the hotel designers decide to include this? They even had to rework the rest of the tiling in the bathroom extensively to do so.
• You can't one-off these things: who's buying these things in sufficient quantities to justify their mass-production?

I could understand a poster, even a naughty lithograph, but having pornographic ceramic tiles doesn't quite smack of strong long-term-planning abilities.

I thought the man looked rather skanky with his long greasy Fabio hair and half-shaven chest, but Nazma was quick to point out that she's not the classiest dame either. A match made in heaven, fornicating in our shower.