Day 8: Quaint Hotel

Not much happened today as I spent most of it in the hotel, working, sleeping, so the things I notice are mostly confined to the hotel, whose name is The Meadow's Inn. Jennifer says it is one of those hotels that were great once but somehow went down and down the hill, though not yet at the bottom. The only fridge in the world whose inside temperature is very close to the room temperature! Only ONE towel! The hot water is lukewarm at best, and drips out almost. So your shower ain't gonna be very strong, either! The shampoo, conditioner, and body soap all come in one kind: shampoo, and all three bottles of shampoo are nearly empty! Of course, there's the ubiquitous marble floor. Two, yes, two giant fans in the bathroom to suck out all the stink from eating spicy Indian food. (Hey, you decided to read this blog!) Took a full hour for the bottle of water to show up (because of understaffing!), and when it did show up, it was already opened! I had to ask for an unopened one, and one came not only unopened but also sealed with plastic! There's the ubiquitous bucket. It was explained to me what the bucket is doing. It is part of the traditional way of cleaning yourself after you do number two in the toilet. Unlike the less civilized rest of the world that uses toilet paper that doesn't clean up your butt entirely, especially after an explosive episode of diarrhea from some yummy street food, here in India traditionally (and that means now) you pour yourself a bucket of water from a bigger bucket with your right hand and then pour the water down your butt crack with it while washing that butt crack with your left hand. Get it? Now I wonder how you dry yourself.... But I have to say, even though this place is nothing compared to the Gemini and only marginally cheaper than the incorrect rate at that luxury hotel, at least it has free, working, wireless! Yes, it's mega slow and I am luckly to have one bar on my wireless card, still, I am able to write this! The male manager (as opposed to this bossy lady) is an example of an Indian man with dyed hair, and it's dyed with henna, so it's a rusty color. I don't know why I am so intrigued by the prevalence of men with henna dyed hair! I did manage to go outside today. People didn't stare at me much. The pharmacist got tired of my very broken Hindi made even more broken with my dictionary. But something stood out in the few minutes I was outside. I saw two young men biking with a crap load of steel beams on their bikes. Steel beams! I saw a guy with two fridges yesterday, but today, steel beams? That must be really heavy! Cows everywhere. They seem so serene, but I am sure their lives are crappy. I haven't been desensitized enough to stop feeling sorry for them. There's a ditch in the middle of a road, apparently for sewers but whatever is in it is stagnant, even a tree started growing out of it. I was told that in the monsoon season, which starts soon, the whole city is flooded, imagine with the open sewers?!?

cycling with steel