The fun started to fade when our water taxi pulled up to the not immediately appealing hotel. We were greeted by the hotel's doorman, who appeared to have been working there for about seventy years (a problem with the staff generally at this hotel). He was nice enough until he told me to pay for the taxi. I told him I was on some package which included the taxi fare, and he showed me a list of guests, and only the guests that he had put a red tick next to were on this package according to him. Still very politely, I told him that his colleague at the airport had us on the list for that package, and then I showed him a fax from the hotel confirming that the doorman at the hotel will pay the taxi fare. He then went insane, started screaming something like "I'm a poor working man, you're a big hotshot staying at expensive hotel, you make the poor man pay your taxi fare. OK, I pay out of my own pocket, you just go in and have a good time rich guy" and this went on in this manner very loudly for a few minutes, as a dozen other guests stared at us. The taxi driver chipped in to confirm that the hotel guy at the airport confirmed the hotel would pay the fare, and he got abused by the doorman in turn. (The fare was about $60 and I couldn't care less about it, I just hated this guy so much that I wouldn't back down, plus I had a pretty good set of evidence backing me up.





So we went into the somewhat frumpy reception area, and were very warmly greeted by the manager. I mentioned the issue about the stupid taxi fare, and he confirmed yet again that of course the hotel should pay and he'd straighten out the doorman. The straightening out was in some ways even more mortifying, since when we finished checking in, the doorman was there, and proceeded to beg for our forgiveness, practically in tears, and started to go down on his knees! I don't think I've ever been more embarassed than standing in the busy hotel lobby while a seventy year old man was about to kneel to me. I begged him to stop and confirmed to everyone that mistakes happen, no problem at all, please don't give it another thought, etc. (But actually I still think he's a total jerk.)