Hotel Room Disasters

When we first checked into our hotel in McLeod Ganj I noticed a funny smell in our room (I'm sharing with Ellie). I thought it might of been a cleaning solution so did not pay much more attention to it.

I went out and returned after a good 6 hours and the smell was still in the room. A real unhealthy smell. Moldy smell. The kind of smell you can die from if you sleep in it.

Of course I had to make my way to the front desk and let them know that I was not sleeping in this 'death trap'.

After several different staff members all visited the room to see what I was talking about.....I had to point to the mold on the wall (white spoungy stuff) and hold my nose for all the other staff seeing as they spoke no English.....they finally referred me to the Manager who could actually understand English.

The Manager agreed we were in a bad situation so he had his staff move us to a 'suite'.

Now....realizing we are in India......'suite' can mean something different.

A 'suite' in India means:

• There is one double bed only for 2 people sharing. The bed is one that does not separate. Indians see no problem with this. Same sex just sleep in the bed....however many of you there are. I had them bring us a cot. A cot in India is a wooden table with short legs that splits in half and bends downwards....not flat. It's also just about ready to break. The mattress on the wooden table is also very thin. I requested a second mattress....but then changed my mind and slept on the couch. It took 2 staff members to move stuff around and open up the table, get sheets and mattresses.
  
• The toilet does not work. Yup...the lever that sits on top of the toilet bowl had disappeared into the bowl so you had nothing to pull. It took 2 staff members to fix it.
• The TV is unplugged seeing as the wires have been cut. A new TV was ordered and just about working before the power went out. This blew the whole cable programming when the power finally did come back on. No TV worth watching. This only took one staff member to go up one floor and get our old TV from the 'moldy' room and then remove old TV while hitting his knee on the makeshift bed cot. At least he kept smiling the whole time.

The next day they promptly move us back to our 'moldy' room and tell us the problem has been fixed. 'I DON'T THINK SO' is what I yell back at them. An open window all night does not get rid of mold. Crazy Indians.

We then got moved to another 'suite'. This one is working okay for the moment.

Last night Debbie and Claire had to move from their room as the whole floor was covered in water. It just seeped up from the floor. There was no leaky bathroom. Very scary.

Shortly after this we notice that Peter and Guido are also moving rooms due to their floor oozing out black water as they walk on the floor.

Pravin was at both these moves. He was a bit surprized at me yelling at the staff when they tried to put Peter and Guido in the 'death trap' room I was in 2 nights prior.

They just don't get it.

Maybe they are trying to kill us Westerners.

I noticed that the locals have the luxury suites.

Pravin advised that the tour company will be using another Hotel in the future.

I guess it's to keep the Westerners alive.