Sorry to trouble your inboxes twice in one day, but since I last
wrote, I've had a little difficulty locating my hotel... and my
bicycle... and all my worldly belongings...

As I walked out of the hotel a couple of hours ago, I took care to
note that it was the one just down the road from the bus station, at
the back of a shoe shop.

Returning to that street, down the road from the bus station, I now
find a row of at least twenty shoe shops, each indistinguishable from
the next to the naked eye, and all with much-of-a-muchness guesthouses
at the back.

I have now walked into about a dozen of these places, looked around
for something familiar (my bicycle, for example), failed to find
anything, smiled feebly, muttered something in half-Chinese about
"silly me", and walked out again.

This process is easy enough the first few times, but as I get deeper
into double figures, I'm starting to feel more than a little
self-conscious.

So I suppose I'm just sending this message on the off-chance that the
proprietress of 'my' hotel is on my mailing list; if you are, could
you please stand outside and wave, in about ten minutes' time?

Thank you very much.