The local pop band became a nightly feature at the hotel. Their mixture of Western and Vietnamese love songs were very popular. Many of the older villagers who had never had access to regular entertainment other than Karaoke stood outside each night listening and singing along.
John walked outside one evening and saw them standing around. "Why don't they come inside?" he asked. Eddie sighed, "We had a problem with security so we hired some guys to enforce a dress code. They are too tough. So we have gone from too little to far too much."
"Mick has worked out an answer. He wants to convert our site office and storeroom into a bar with a small dance floor to accommodate people other than hotel guests. We don't need the storeroom any more. It is big enough and it is adjacent to that big open patio. If you agree the builder can use material similar to the sandstone of the old building so it won't look out of place."
John became angry, "I don't want them standing outside while we are inside living it up. I want locals to think this is their hotel not a hotel for foreign guests. Any suggestions that locals are not good enough or are to be treated differently will really stuff things up and give our opponents an opportunity to cause trouble."
Eddie reacted quickly to John's anger. "Don't worry there won't be two dance floors only the one. The combo will play in the new area. The inside bar will become a place for a quiet drink".
John was partly satisfied, "Tell Mick to get on with it and convert the bloody room. In the meantime, invite everyone to come inside while we are testing our facilities. I don't want to see anyone left out." He started to walk away then stopped. "Retrain those bloody security guys."
John could hardly object when Lelani pursued her idea of a health club and beauty saloon. Rose had already agreed. He was surprised when Ruby called on him to offer her support. "I know why you men visit massage rooms," she said with a smile.
"We are not against a well run massage business. What we would love, is for you to help Lelani set up a Beauty Salon with well-trained staff and modern equipment. Women up here have to travel to Hanoi for professional beauty care."
"In the past most women in our province have been too poor to pay for professional help so no one has ever tried to set up a proper salon. You have given many local women a chance to earn real wages. Those women can afford to pay for beauty care." She smiled, as she looked hard at him. "If you build massage rooms to look after the men then to be fair you should build a beauty salon for the women."
"I want to be fair but there is no room," he groaned. "You should have asked earlier." They sat silent until Eddie broke the deadlock. "They have a point," he argued as he opened a cold beer. "Let's renovate the old carriage house down on the road just inside the entrance gates to our grounds? It is a big barn with high ceilings. It's a bit decrepit but appears to be quite sound."
Lelani and Ruby immediately went down and inspected the building. They came back all smiles, "it's perfect," Lelani, cried. They whispered together. "We know we cannot count on you two men to plan a beauty salon. We will give Shauna a call and ask her to come up and help."
Every morning John drove Rose to the various enterprises so she could talk to the workers and run a Vietnamese eye over the previous day's work. "We don't want to do anything that might offend," he said when he first suggested the daily visits.
Eddie added the new entertainment area to their program. "You will be pleased to know that the new bar and dance floor are working well. I know you were both worried about the changes. They have not created an impression of first and second-class citizens. There hasn't been a single complaint."
He opened a door. "After the first few nights, we installed this external door to allow visitors to enter without tracking through the foyer. That door has reduced the congestion in the lobby.
"On Sunday nights we run a teenage talent quest and the place fills to overflowing." He looked at Rose. "Lelani told us that you did not want the hotel to promote heavy drinking especially amongst young people. Our bar staff produce a non alcoholic local drink based on limes and sugar cane especially for the young ones."
"We decided to have a fashion parade and ask locals to vote on our staff uniforms. We received entries from all over the country. So many locals turned up to watch we had to hold it out on the patio."
"It was so successful that we have invited Vietnamese fashion designers to use our facilities at no cost. Many small designers have booked times to display their new fashions. We hope the top designers will accept the challenge so we can plan an annual country fashion week as a tourist attraction."
"At the same time to satisfy the drinkers we have cut our margin on house wines and keg beer to keep prices down so more locals can afford them."
"Lobby bar prices will be higher. They will be set to reflect prices in similar hotels in the major cities. We have retrained the security people. They will maintain a reasonable dress code."
Another month passed before Mick was satisfied that both staff and facilities were ready to accept customers. He asked John and Rose to join him for a final inspection. "Eddie and I have invited a number of foreign hotel management people and leading chefs working in Hanoi to visit this weekend."
"They knew there were strings attached when they accepted our offer of a free weekend in the country. They have agreed to be positive. We have told them we do not want to know what is wrong. What we need to know is how to make it right."
John was hanging fruit fly baits on trees in the old orchard with Ronnie and Mick when the foreign experts arrived. Two French women from the group walked down and asked what they were doing. "These trees would have been top specimens when they were planted by your French compatriots," Ronnie said as she introduced John and Mick.
"They have really only produced fruit full of maggots in recent years because of problems with fruit fly. A professor from a University in John's home state is working with a research center in South Vietnam seeking an answer to the fruit fly problem. Their research showed that a fruit fly seeks protein before laying her eggs in the fruit."