Finally - the hotel from hell!

Pre-warning - I am in Goa but Delhi has left it's grubby mark on me that only Imodium will remove. So I may have to stop before I am finished. It is Feb 11 (my birthday) at 3:30 pm.

Ok, before I start I have to say more about FabIndia. This place has western clothing (which is what we would buy at an Indian clothing store in the west) and Indian clothes (which we can't buy in the west). It also has housewares, decorations and jewelery. I love FabIndia!!! As I mentioned, I bought two outfits but that does not do justice to my purchases. I bought two Kurtas (I may have that name wrong but they are long shirts/dresses that go to the knees) and two pairs of complimentary pants. One set was a top with white and Burgundy pattern and Burgundy pants. However, the second set is spectacular. Saffron pants and a purple top with gold trim! It looks great. You will get to know these outfits as they are in practically every picture. The outfits that Judy got for me were beautiful but neither one of them had pants that fit properly (keep the comments to a minimum here!). But the pants at FabIndia are the best. Why? Because I bought extra small (extra SMALL, no you don't understand - EXTRA small!) size pants. I am moving here. I don't have many pictures of myself so I will have to wait for Judy's pictures to show you my outfits.

Ok, back to the road. Last we left Bandipur and passed through Mysore to get to Nagarahole National Park. As I mentioned, Nagarahole did not have any available cabins so we were just going to go for the morning to do a safari or two and then head out. So Suresh suggested that we stay in Hunusur, the closest town to the entrance to the park - which opened at 6 am. He had never been to Hunusur but he figured it would be ok. ahem. Not ok, very not ok. We arrived in Hunusure at dusk. Suresh stops and asks about a place to stay. The men on the street suggest that there are only two hotels. We go to the first one. We didn't even go in. There were filthy rugs hanging in the 'lobby' to create rooms around the parked motorcycle. Second hotel up the street must have had more than a hundred bikes parked out front. Yup, biker bar on the first floor, hotel on the second. Suresh wouldn't even go in. He said we would sleep in the car before he let us go there.

The first scary hotel.

In front of the second scary hotel

More asking of random men on the street (we knew it was bad because there were NO women on the street). It seems there was a third hotel. Off we went, it was on the main drag. By now it is getting dark. I can't remember the name although I have a photo. It was over a restaurant so that was an improvement. We went up the very dark staircase, into the very cement and dusty hallway/storage area.

The third hotel - juuuust right. Well, just not as bad, but still very bad.

The hallway outside of our room. You know it's going to be good when the entrance is this fancy.

the view from the veranda (haha - actually the outside hallway)


Outside - the wild west feel was too much.

Into the room. Pictures will not do justice to this room. The double bed, grungy would be kind. The bathroom. Oh, the bathroom!

The bathroom: view 1

Anyway, creepy hotelier was happy to give it to us for 500 Rupees for the night. We looked at another room too which had a western toilet but believe it or not, it was actually worse than the squat toilet bathroom. So we took it. Then we negotiated 250R for the next room for Suresh, who would normally find his own place but we wanted him to be at screaming distance. The manager asked for our photo and proceeded to put his arms around us. SOOOOO not acceptable here. That scared us even more.

Our creepy host.

But, stuck as we were, we paid for the room, the manager assured us that his assistant who had been hanging around would bring fresh bedding. He was dispatched to, apparently, the only place that held something 'fresh' in the whole town. As soon as we had paid, I mean within seconds of money changing hands, the power went out. (Maybe the assistant cut the connection??? I just thought of that). Manager man brought us candles which he stuck dead centre of the only table which forced us to put our stuff on the floor. (Judy ended up with an ant infestation in her bathroom bag the next morning) Ok. We can deal with this. Judy and I, of course, by now, were pretty close to hysterical. Poor Suresh, he never knew when we would burst into uncontrolled laughter. After the inappropriate photo op, the manager left with assurances that the assistant would come back with the sheets (he never did) but we were never planning to get under those covers anyway. Thankfully, we both had brought the silk sheet liners so we got those out and got ready for bed.

I was the first to use the bathroom. I go to wash my hands in the sink. As I am standing there, with my little flashlight in my teeth (thank you, Alisma!) I feel something on my flip flopped feet. It seems the drain of the sink is just a hose that isn't actually attached to anything. So the water was just pouring onto my feet! More gales of laughter. When I brushed my teeth I just spit onto the bathroom floor, it probably made the floor cleaner!

The bathroom: view 2.

While Judy was in there, I got into bed. Ok, we have all slept in beds that are squeaky or make a bit of noise but this was a whole new dimension. First, the bed would groan, loudly. Then the groan would be immediately followed by a loud CRACK, much like a gunshot. And this happened every time (EVERY TIME!) I moved. It was not a restful sleep. At one point in the night, I woke up and Judy was sitting up, shaking with laughter. I had woken her up, yet again, by shifting in my sleep and setting off the bed/gun. Judy said when we woke up in the morning that she was having a nightmare that the pillow had come out of the silk sheet and she was sleeping directly on it. That would be a nightmare.

Fortunately, we had to get up at 4 am to get to Nagarahole by 6. So our night was short. I actually had a 'shower' in the morning, I felt to grubby, much to Judy's amazement. She couldn't believe I would spend more than the absolute minimum time in that bathroom. But I figured that the gigantic cockroach that was in there in the morning, needed some new dead skin follicles to live off of for the next few weeks until the next victims (oops, I meant visitors) arrived. Oh yeah, one last note before we peel out of Hunusur. There was a lock on the outside of our door, which we joked they were going to use to make us there white slaves. Haha, good joke. When we got up in the morning, our room door was not locked but when we went down the stairs, the door out of the hotel was deadbolted! I don't think we laughed at that point. Anyway, Suresh went and found someone on the right side of the locked door who had a key and let us out. Goodbye Hunusur!! (or as Judy named it 'Inasewer')Poor Suresh, I think he was horrified that he had put us in this place. He kept apologizing. But, as you all know, if it makes a good story, it is worth it.

We got to the Nagarahole gate by 6 am, and it promptly opened 20 minutes later. Once we got into the park, we only had the stamina for one 'safari' bus ride. No time to charm the bus driver this time so I had to ID my own birds. No elephants here but there was some wild buffalo on the way in. We saw the spotted deer, a few barking deer which look like dikdiks (wee), more wild dogs and some birds. It was so long ago, I don't remember which ones (they're in the book though). Oh wait, there was a crazy drongo with a awesome tail and a barbet or two. I'm not sure if it was worth the night in Hunusur, I know Judy doesn't think so since she slept through much of the bus ride.

The sun comes up in the forest.

A wild Buffalo.

A samba deer in the park while we waited for our safari.

Judy sleeping on the bus.

Mailing my postcards from the park to get the cool cancel mark.

Wait, back up a bit. We were planning to visit Little Tibet before Nagarahole which Judy was very excited about. She being a follower of the Buddha. But on our way from Bandipur, Judy was reading the Lonely Planet book and saw that there was a place to stay on a farm that had a 'veranda room' which was near the Golden Temple. We had been planning to visit Little Tibet (which has a real name but I didn't write it down) on the way to Nagarhole but when we called the farm (have I mentioned how excellent having a phone is) the veranda room was booked for the night we wanted, but was available for the next night. Again, we changed Suresh's well planned schedule (after the park business, I think he may have given up on it anyway). We booked and decided to go there after the Nagarahole. So we left the park by noon and headed to Little Tibet.

Leaving the park

A Giant Squirrel. They were big but they have very cute faces.

A domestic elephant near the village just outside of the park. Notice that he has been painted.

Then we came across this structure which I recognized was an elephant 'crushing' pen. We learned about those in Thailand and it is not nice.

Then we came across this poor fellow, chained up.

Haha, you didn't think we would go straight there did you? Silly reader - there was a temple on the way. We were in the mountains by now (geography of the region??). We stopped at a very boring temple, in my now temple-experienced opinion. It was new and modern (for a temple). But Suresh said there was a waterfall behind it (side question: why doesn't anyone put the parking lot for the waterfall at the TOP of the hill?) Up we went, at the hottest time of the day. At least we could wear shoes. It was actually a very beautiful walk up and we looked spry compared to the old Indian ladies in full Sari (ok, not spry, but we kept up to most of them - ok, some of them).

The river before the ascent.

Ladies crossing the river.

Some women who passed us on the stairs.

Our first view of the waterfall.

Getting closer.

The staircase wasn't too too strenuous and we made it to the top to a gorgeous waterfall full of worshippers. (remember back to the river I mentioned before with the ritual bathing. The waterfall was like that but looked much cleaner.) There was lots of boys and young men in underpants right under the falls. The ladies were sticking to the slow moving pool off to the side.

Arriving at the top.

A tentative dip on the edge.

Heading in.

In we went, fully clothed. Just up to our legs. One of the old ladies chastised me for wearing my shoes, I hadn't realized this was still 'temple' so I had to get out because there was no way I was going onto the jagged rocks barefooted.

Judy in the pool.

It was colder than it looked.

Judy goes to the men's pool.

Anyway, it was all good fun, the locals were really enjoying their outing.

Once they were in, it was a free for all.



The men.

Is splashing each other part of the worshipping?

Once we were back on the stairs down, we got to take pictures of pretty much everyone and they in turn, took our picture. We are part of many family portraits that day. Then off to Sri Kalpa farm at little Tibet. Which I will save for the next post. The air outside seems to be cooler and the Imodium seems to be holding - wish me luck!!

Some pictues from the road.
Girls (and one boy)

The boy without the girls.

Working in the field.

Pointsettas grow wild here, this one was on the side of the road.