Palermo Hotel

This is not Italy hehe! Far from Sicily, really! I was just in Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines, entawon haha! Palermo is an aged hotel in the middle of Baybay. One of the first (among few), and probably even the oldest as such in the city. Not that it is grand or anything. It has seen its days, but its location is prime.

Why did I stay in this facility anyway? Ah, one of those uncommon days where my first picks (Novotel and GV Hotel) were fully booked (I was just walking-in, no prior reservations). Any of the VSU facilities would've been my next choice, but that university's campus is far from center of town where I wanted to stay at, this time. Thus, I settled with Palermo Hotel. This was just for an overnight stay anyway.

What can I say? Ah well, I guess pwede na for an overnight stay..!

If you are not used to passing by this city, the hotel is easy to miss as it sits on a 'faster' portion of the national highway. When I say "faster", I mean there's usually no traffic, so, vehicles usually fly their way to and fro. There's no big signage. And.., the white building looks more like a "funeraria" than anything!

As I said above, this is not new. Aged and ageing in fact. It is dark everywhere - especially the lobby!

Note that I have already 'retouched' this picture by making it a lot brighter! 70% brighter - to be exact! I did see that there are a lot of fluorescent and whathavya lights up the ceiling, it's just that... everything was not lighted! It can be that those are all busted or they are trying to save on energy costs. Or both!

Still at the lobby, you may get excited seeing many drinks and drink-related things lining up the walls.

Restrain yourself, it's a "false alarm"! Those bottles are empty. If one or two contained anything, those are not for guests' consumption. Those are just "displays" (like in a library) for their school's students!

School?! Yes school! The Palermo Hotel Institute of Tourism & Hospitality! See this..?

Whatever that corner is for (the school's registrar? or administrative offices?), it is at the hotel's lobby!

Nothing wrong with that, right? Well, you go up the stairs, walk the corridors, and the permanent scent is of a wet rug (basang trapo)! Everywhere you look is old or 'has been', like at old school dormitories. That means their students learn outdated (or should we say "historical") industry information hahaha!

Look! This was at the wall of my room. Do you even recognize what that brown thing is?

Hahaha, I know, I know! Many of you my millennial readers were probably not even born yet when that thing started disappearing! That thing is called an "intercom"! The predecessor of telephones in hotel rooms! You press that button at lower right to talk to front desk. And when they reply, their voice come out loudly from that speaker (upper left). That is what their hospitality & tourism students learn hehe!

I think the last time I saw such a gadget in use was 3 decades ago, at Narra Residence Hall hahaha! And I have a trivia that not many people knew in those days. That intercom thing can actually listen-in to every sound in your room without you knowing. All front desk has to do is press a button. Oh my G!

Yes, dinig ang hilik, halinghing, pati utot mo!

Anyway, here is a collage of pics I took in/of my room...

I do not know what or which type of room this was, but there were two single beds with a very narrow space between them (isang dangkal lang yata)! And I wondered why the other bed had a mirror on the wall just millimeters above the pillow (ano yun, headboard?). The TV was so minute (sang dangkal din yata) and way high up near the corner of the wall and ceiling. Well, linens were clean and smelled fine.

The room and bathroom were generally clean, so okay na for an overnight stay!

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