Checking in at the Four Seasons Youth Hostel 春夏秋冬青年旅舍

Whenever I come to China, I always make bookings for accommodations but only for visa purposes. I also tend to book as cheap as possible which means that I would get the dorm beds more often than not. The reason is that I don’t know whether I can follow the schedule of the bookings or not, so if I lose the booking I don’t really lose much money. This has happened to be several times in the past. I book a bed at the Four Seasons Youth Hostel and I immediately head there after I had my meager lunch. I had difficulty orienting myself the layout of the city. For an old city, Dali seems pretty modern as least in this part of town. It somehow reminds me of places like Malacca in Malaysia. I passed by several hostels but it doesn’t seem to be the one I was looking for. I also asked if they had available rooms but they only had the expensive ones which was immediately out of my budget. I lucked out when I saw the Hostelling International logo outside a hostel. This place didn’t seem to have an English name but I didn’t care as long as I can get a room. I wasn’t really reading the Chinese name either and perhaps I was hoping for a direct translation of the name. Upon closer examination of the name, it turned out I was in the right place. I was expecting the name to be something like “Four Seasons” or 四季, instead the Chinese name was “Spring Summer Autumn Winter” 春夏秋冬 – four seasons.

Well, it happened again in Dali, I missed my booking so I lost my dorm bed. Unfortunately, they didn’t have an available bed for me that time and I was forced to get a single room. An affordable single room was perfect for me and I was sort of excited to get my own room for once. That is, until I saw the room. As you can see in the photo, this is one of the old houses which they kept and it was all made of wood. The inside of the room was dark and musty, as if it hasn’t been opened in a while. The door is locked by the use of locks you use for cabinet and it was difficult to close it from the inside. I had my room open all the time but fortunately nothing happened. Inside was quite specious for a single room, while the bed is on the floor. I didn’t really like this room and it reminds me of movies that people get kidnapped and wake up tied up in some dark and damp cabin in the woods. It is probably a strange way to describe it but that was how I felt about the place. The toilet was nearby which wasn’t really a problem for me. Anyway, I locked myself in the room for a while to get a feel of the place, somehow I don’t think I would stay here much longer.

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