HOW MUCH do you want for that hotel room per night, you dirty Capitalist SWINE ?

My stomach hasn't created any ill noises or  feelings in over 36 hours !!! AND I've just  spent a fabul day in Halong Bay.  So what could  go wrong now?

Don't be pessimistic, you say?  On this trip, I have learned, that it can't hurt  to be a bit on the cautious side ;-)

In my days of toilet-bowl embracing, I let fear and despair get  the better of me.  I  booked a flight  back to Hong Kong today, to sit in a room by a beach and pursue a VERY leisurely lifestyle for a few days as is appropriate for a person my age, and this calm lifestyle might also be beneficial to my stomach..

Expedia does not agree.  My flight to Hong Kong cost  $271.  The room at the beach was supposed to cost $150/night (that's  what it cost  3 days  ago when I last checked)..  Nowhere cheap but affordable for the purpose.  I  go back  to Expedia today to book my room for a couple of nights and feel my stomach cramping up. The rates have gone up.  To  $400.  ???!!!!?  PER NIGHT !!!!!!!!!    And I kid you not.  

This of course poses the question whether Expedia or other travel websites have their own kind of the VW exhaust-gas the planet cheating software?      Which automatically increases hotel prices (for you only) in some area once it knows that you've booked a flight to that area?   Now that we have targeted advertising, this should be a snap for any decent programming designer and I'd be shocked if it's not in use.   

Keep on rocking in the free world !!!  

(No, I'm not The  Donald, but at least I realize that the previous  line is intended to be taken with irony ;-)

So I face yet another lost flight dilemma.  Take advantage of my PAID flight and then loose many multiples of that amount  in Hong Kong trying to house myself.

OR

screw the money for the flight; Stay in Vietnam, where people are SO VERY NICE and where my dreamy hotel room costs me US$27 / night?