the money grab

i booked a room in advvance so i'd know where i was staying.  i knew i'd be exhausted after the train ride but i really wasn't it was exhilarating.  we leave the train as a group and negotiate a taxi into town.  they drop me at the Aung Minglar and at the reception desk i'm told by the woman who had english as a first language that i could have my choice of two rooms.... one over the router so had internet access and a view, the second room did not have internet but was a double like i had booked. i ask  to see both.  first, the wireless access everywhere in Bagan is crap so it doesn't really matter how closer you are to the router, you are not doing anything that involves the internet.  i look at the first room and i'm 100% positive this was not the room i had booked.  plus there was no view but a big window that  looked out onto a closed corridor.  it looked like the carpet was mid century or so.  i looked at the second room and its not as bad but still dingy so i go back to reception, fire up the ipad and show her the lovely room pictured which is what i was expecting.  oh, she smiles, no that is the deluxe room and they are fully booked.  i'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest they are probably overbooking the nice rooms and then putting guests into the crappy rooms.  she tells me i'll be charged one night regardless of whether i stay.  the rooms got mildew, a few holes in the wall from something that once hung there, a space under the door large enough that a python could

probably crawl in and the shelf in the bathroom over the sink is slanted so anything you put on there slides off.  the next day i moved over to the Pann Cherry where they had better rooms that were $20 US less than the crappy room at the Aung Minglar.  the worst part is the girl at the desk tried to argue  with me everytime she saw me that she wasn't responsible for the photos posted on the website.  i chose to politely disagree but not wanting to spend another minute in this rediculous conversation with her i just smile and walk away.