Some Interesting Things About the Aryaduta Hotel Here in Pekanbaru…..

…..the hotel lists itself as a 4-star and it is with regards to restaurant, lobby, and facilities. The rooms are plain but clean and secure—but probably not 4-star. I’ve been really happy here and believe me; I’ve stayed in far, far worse hotels on these trips. The kitchen is good but we’ve pretty much ordered everything on the menu at least once and we still have two weeks left.

I have found it curious that the hotel elevator doesn’t have a fourth floor and finally asked someone on the elevator one day about it. He appeared to be Japanese and told me Asians are very superstitious about numbers and in Chinese, Korean and Japanese cultures the number “4” is synonymous with “death” therefore most elevators throughout Asia don’t list a fourth floor. He also told me that the number 4 is avoided in telephone numbers and license plates on cars. Japan, for example, has no telephone prefixes starting with “4” and many people will refuse a cell phone number that contains it at all. In some countries, if you are issued a license plate containing a “4” you are allowed to return and exchange it. In Vietnam, where cars are issued a plate that remains on the vehicle even after it’s sold or traded, some Vietnamese will refuse to take possession of a new car because of the plate—others have traded vehicles just to get another set of numbers on the plates.

What makes this even more complicated is that Asian buildings use the “British” method of labeling floors. In the US, the ground floor is the just that, and the next floor up is the first floor. But in Britain, the ground floor is listed as the first floor and then they count up. So here at the Aryaduta Hotel, I am staying three floors above the ground but, under the British system, I am on the fourth floor but the elevator lists it as the fifth floor since there is technically no “number 4” in the hotel. Since I have time on my hands, I went to the front desk and asked them exactly what floor I’m staying on and, without batting an eye, they told me that officially I am on floor five and “there are no problems.”

Other numbers have other connotations—the number “8” is generally considered lucky in Asia. Personally I find this interesting but not all that odd—I’ve stayed in American hotels that didn’t have a 13^th floor.

My room (#511 and no problem) has about a 12 foot ceiling and in one corner of the ceiling someone pasted an Arabic-looking decal. I later found out every room has one of them and they are actually arrows pointing the direction to Mecca. Since the vast majority of visitors to the hotel are Muslim, they can know which way to face when they pray in their rooms.

The restaurant and sports lounge sell beer and wine but there is no “bar” such as you would find at a lounge in the US. I haven’t seen advertisements for whiskey, rum or any other “hard” liquors anywhere over here. At the Argentina/Germany soccer game the other night the lounge was packed to standing room only and I really wasn’t aware of people drinking beer. That’s something you definitely wouldn’t see at the Richmond Arms in Houston.

They have a beautiful lagoon-type swimming pool here and the kids especially love it. There is also a walking/running path that winds around the tennis courts and through some trees and foliage. I’d guess it’s probably about a quarter-mile and I’ve been pretty good about using it for at least 45 minutes every day—even in the rain which happens at least a little bit every day. I really enjoy the freedom here.

Because of the climate, much of the dining is outdoor and since we’ve been here they’ve been constructing an overhead canopy over one area. The lack of safety standards here just astounds me and yesterday I shot a picture of a guy welding a steel beam wearing open-toe sandals and wearing dark sunglasses. No OSHA standards here…… The buildings here have an unusual emblem at the top of the roofs—nearly all the more traditional buildings have them. You see something similar in Thailand where the emblem has a Buddhist religious meaning but I’m told that here they have no special meaning—it’s just an old, old architectural style. Some of the newer emblems are made of plastic and others have lightening rods embedded in them. They’re usually painted yellow and often are perched over red trim. Yellow and red seem to be favorite colors over here. Just a few things I found interesting in the hotel here…..