Old Lady Inn

When I arrived in Kuching, the capital of Sarawak state in Borneo, there was no room at the hostel where I had planned to stay. I asked the proprietor if he could recommend another place that was priced similarly to his hostel.

"Old Lady Inn," he said, pointing down the road.

"Old Lady Inn?" I said. It wasn't listed in my guidebook. "How far is it from here?"

"Mebbe twenty minutes," he said, still pointing. "Walk like this and you see."

The road was curved and slightly uphill so I couldn't see where it led. I wasn't looking forward to hiking to this Old Lady Inn with my heavy backpack and the Bornean sun beating down on me. I followed the road for awhile and came upon a row of upscale hotels. I looked around for a short, modest building that I imagined the Old Lady Inn must be. Nothing but towering Western-style hotels like the Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn.

"What the hell is he talking about?" I thought. "Maybe I heard wrong." Old Lady Inn. Old Lady Inn. Could he have mistaken it for something else? I stood in front of the Holiday Inn, trying out different Malaysian speech patterns and vocabulary variations I'd noticed throughout my trip. Red Lady Inn? Mother's Inn? "Ole! Dean"?

It finally hit me. "Ol' Leddy Inn." Sounds like...Holiday Inn!