Way back in the day, before Mrs. Columbus and I were married, she owned a futon.  I believed at the time that this was the most uncomfortable ‘bed’ man had ever invented, and was likely created by a father who gave them to his daughters so that gentlemen callers would be un-inclined to stay over.

I have however discovered that the futon is actually a much more comfortable variant of the asian bed.  The majority of the beds we have slept on here are of the similar futon style of a dense ‘mattress’ on top of a more western style bed frame or riser.  The net result looks similar to a western bed and is about the same height off the floor, but the similarities end there.

The asian bed I think has not evolved since Medieval times when they were more commonly used as torture items.  The bed itself is very firm, rating on a softness scale of somewhere between sleeping directly on a concrete slab and sleeping on a concrete slab covered by a towel.

Clearly the Asian people have adapted to this and find them rather comfortable, as they are a step up from the many people we see having a nap on the floor in the back of a shop or on the bamboo floor of the small salas (like a small gazebo) we sometimes see on the roadsides.  I however have not been able to adapt myself to this form of comfort, and look forward to my comfy bed back home.

Some of the places we have stayed have reasonably soft beds, but others not so much.  After spending a night in one of these beds you often feel like an elephant has been dancing on your back while you sleep.  Perhaps that is why the housekeeping ladies left us these creations to show us the firmness rating of the bed…

In this case the rating is 2 elephants – meaning that in the course of the night 2 elephants will gleefully do the cha-cha on my back.  We have had beds that were I believe rated as high as 5 elephants, but after about 3 it all seems the same to me.