Rockstars of the Grown-Up Lady Variety

For several days in a row, Kady and I traveled and slept for mere dollars. A seven-and-a-half hour bus ride cost us $2.79, and the night prior we slept in pristine conditions (on what I'm pretty sure were hay mattresses) for $5.80 a person.

When we arrived in Unawatuna, Sri Lanka, we were exhausted, hungry, dehydrated and filthy. Our bus dropped us off in what felt like the middle of nowhere but was a two-minute walk down a muddy road to a group of resorts. We had arrived just in time for happy hour. As we nursed our second mojito, bellies full of tandoori chicken salad, our budget grew fuzzy.

"We are grown-up ladies," we bemoaned. No, really--we said that out loud. A few hours later we were checking into a luxury hotel.

"We are grown up ladies," we justified.

Settling into accommodations is the. ultimate. luxury. when you're traveling on a tight budget. Even if the place is a tiny room with only a stiff, twin-sized mattress and a lone lightbulb. Knowing you can just stay put for a while feels almost as good as home.

Back in the states, with this ocean view and thread count, this place would put us back more than three times what we're paying here in Sri Lanka. Within fifteen minutes, we had trashed it.

"Man, we really trashed this place," I said.

The next day we noticed it had gotten only worse: "Man, we really trashed this place," we said.

"You know what? That's what staying in a luxury hotel means," said Kady. "It means you get to trash the place. We are grown-up ladies!"

Kady left to go lounge under a giant umbrella, and I thought to myself, "Yeah, just relax. We're rockstars. We are grown-up lady rockstars and we trash luxury hotel rooms. Deal with it."

That's when I took a closer look and realized that our version of trashing a hotel room was neatly hanging all the garments we had hand-washed in the sink because we are too cheap to pay for laundry service.