Hotel Project

As I was making my way up to Hoi An I was beginning to get the feeling that my dream of the hotel project was slowly slipping away. Reports of rising costs of steel, concrete and other building supplies foretold what I didn't want to hear. While last year all of my friends were eager to help with my plans this year all they wanted to do was talk about Duy's passing and my Mom's health. The bad news was going to be delivered by the Minister of Tourism.

This took some courage from me-knowing what the answer was but having to hear it for myself. So, I called the office of Tourism and scheduled an appointment to meet Mr. Truong Van Bay. At first I expected it be difficult and it was a little difficult because I didn't know what he looked like. After waiting for an hour he arrived and was waved down by some folks at the office telling of my meeting. Once I mentioned that I'm friends with the late Tu Duy he smiled and invited me in.

He said that since he had not heard from me he had to give the piece of land away to a company by the name of Dac Viet. They want to build on this plot a 5 star resort. (The arrow on the above map pointing to very location.) He said though that I should look for another place and come back to him with my ideas, but by then my enthusiasm had already waned. He even suggested a couple of locations but I had quickly done some arithmatic and determined that my budget for the project would need to be almost tripled in order to build with the current and rising construction costs. My friends later told me that I'd need at least $1.5 million first to even consider my plans again.

Needless to say I'm hugely disappointed and midly relieved.....more on the being relieved later....