Day 135 (Sun 19 Nov) - Bhubaneswar
After breakfast, we packed our gear and headed out to grab a taxi.
En route we stopped briefly to chat to the owner of the hotel, Violet Smith, who was sitting in the garden. A lovely old lady although seems a trifle potty. When we replied to her question that we came from London she responded in grandiose tones with "Don't talk to me, dahling, about Larndan. I know all about Larndan. Had a hotel in Kensington don't you know. Grandson's gone to Charterhouse... ".
Got to Howrah train station which was surprisingly not too busy ie. it was like Victoria at rush hour.
We bundled onto our train and were sitting opposite an elderly Indian gent and a youngish bloke who had a mobile phone surgically attached to his right ear. Pulled into Bhubaneswar about 8.30pm after an uneventful journey.
We got a cycle rickshaw to take us to our hotel. However after the guy had travelled about 200 yards he decided it was too far and turfed us off. During the unloading of the bags and flagging down a passing rickshaw Sarb later discovered that he had lost his beloved hat.
A trifle frazzled we managed to get to our hotel. Checking in was an ordeal. We were pretty tired and said to the clerk that we would dump our bags in the room and Sarb would come down later and sort out the paperwork. The clerk wasn't having any of this nonsense and said that we should check the room first. We said that we didn't care what the room was like we just wanted to get in there. The clerk was adamant we should check the room. A standoff ensued whereby we were ready to check in but the clerk would not allow us until we had checked the room. Sarb lost it a bit here and suggested to the clerk that he use his imagination and PRETEND that we had checked the room.
This seemed to satisfy the clerk and we were allowed to get to our room. Dumped our bags and as Jo stretched out Sarb went down to sort out the paperwork where there were now two clerks. They both agonisingly proceeded to copy down visa and passport numbers, dates of issue etc. By the end of all this Sarb was ready to commit multiple homocide.
Finally all the nonsense was completed and we headed out to a local restaurant for a fab meal and a beer.
En route we stopped briefly to chat to the owner of the hotel, Violet Smith, who was sitting in the garden. A lovely old lady although seems a trifle potty. When we replied to her question that we came from London she responded in grandiose tones with "Don't talk to me, dahling, about Larndan. I know all about Larndan. Had a hotel in Kensington don't you know. Grandson's gone to Charterhouse... ".
Got to Howrah train station which was surprisingly not too busy ie. it was like Victoria at rush hour.
We bundled onto our train and were sitting opposite an elderly Indian gent and a youngish bloke who had a mobile phone surgically attached to his right ear. Pulled into Bhubaneswar about 8.30pm after an uneventful journey.
We got a cycle rickshaw to take us to our hotel. However after the guy had travelled about 200 yards he decided it was too far and turfed us off. During the unloading of the bags and flagging down a passing rickshaw Sarb later discovered that he had lost his beloved hat.
A trifle frazzled we managed to get to our hotel. Checking in was an ordeal. We were pretty tired and said to the clerk that we would dump our bags in the room and Sarb would come down later and sort out the paperwork. The clerk wasn't having any of this nonsense and said that we should check the room first. We said that we didn't care what the room was like we just wanted to get in there. The clerk was adamant we should check the room. A standoff ensued whereby we were ready to check in but the clerk would not allow us until we had checked the room. Sarb lost it a bit here and suggested to the clerk that he use his imagination and PRETEND that we had checked the room.
This seemed to satisfy the clerk and we were allowed to get to our room. Dumped our bags and as Jo stretched out Sarb went down to sort out the paperwork where there were now two clerks. They both agonisingly proceeded to copy down visa and passport numbers, dates of issue etc. By the end of all this Sarb was ready to commit multiple homocide.
Finally all the nonsense was completed and we headed out to a local restaurant for a fab meal and a beer.
posted by Jo and Sarb at
11/19/2006 07:19:00 am
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