cockroaches. Next hotel, the room hadn't been cleaned after the previous tenant left two days ago. Next hotel, didn't even go inside because there were cows blocking the door. Finally, exhausted and in serious need of sleep, I settled on a hotel that ended up only being 100 rupees less per night than the first one (which is about $2), and which was significantly grosser. I had the management change the sheets, which I'm not entirely sure that they actually did because the next ones looked almost equally bad. The electricity and water worked on and off, and aside from all of that, I thought it was fine as long as I had my earplugs in so that I couldn't hear "It's A Small World" playing everytime the lift was used on any of the three floors of the hotel. The bugs eventually emerged from the walls, and once I saw the first few, they seemed to be everywhere.
Feeling like somewhat of a failure, alone in a dark room in Bangalore, surrounded by bugs, I reevaluated my travel style. Yes, 100 rupees has come to seem like a lot of money since I've been here. However, at home I would usually spend that much without even thinking about on a drink on my way home, or for a quarter of a movie ticket, or for a bagel and juice for breakfast. And aside from my clear need for a change in perspective, I'd rather pay a little more and feel comfortable lying down to sleep, rather than wonder what else I'm sharing my bed with. I have also changed my opinion of tourist things. I used to be firmly of the belief that carrying around a Lonely Planet, wearing a backpack, and excessively applying hand sanitizer were all signs that one was too obviously a tourist, and these things should be avoided at all cost. However, after traveling with Emanuel and Alison, both of whom had the Lonely Planet guide to South India, and finding myself
in many gross situations where I couldn't wash my hands with Jess, who always carried around at least two bottles of "anti-bac", as they call it in England, I realized something: I AM a tourist, and while there are some things that I can do so to not be offensive, like dressing appropriately and eating with the correct hand, I'm in a third world country, alone, with no real idea of where the nearest restaurant or hotel is, and no way to find out.
Lesson learned! Ugh. If only it were that easy. Three and a half more days on India, then two weeks in Europe to keep learning lessons.
Anyways, the excitement of my post-travel nap was interrupted by the bus company that I had booked a ticket with to Chennai on Monday, in order to be there in time to be at the airport on Tuesday night. They were calling to inform me that there was another bus strike starting Monday (are these like a weekly thing now?) and that I wouldn't be able to get back until later in the weekend. And this is why I love India. So in order to make my flight in Chennai in time, I had to go back to the bus station (which was fine because the power went out at the hotel) and rebook my bus ticket for Sunday, just over 24 hours from when I had arrived. No Mysore Palace tour... (one pro to this situation was that I had slept most of the morning so I hadn't had a chance to book my tour to Mysore yet, which would have been nonrefundable since it was less than 24 hours before. It also meant that I would be able to get out of the gross hotel after only one night).
So I decided to make the most of Bangalore in my 20 remaining hours, starting with a walk as far as I wanted to go. At this point, I also realized that I was really hungry since the last meal I had eaten was at the wedding reception yesterday morning. I was either in totally the wrong section of Bangalore, or Bangalore was too far north to find the familiar "Pure Veg" restaurants lining the streets (although I'm going to go with the former). I finally found one after passing a demonstration at the town hall (I found the town hall!), where there were people protesting and yelling for peace, and shouting things like "westerners created terrorism" and "go away, UK". I steered clear of that and turned down the next street where I found the restaurant.
After lunch, I found a Vodafone recharge shop and decided to put some money on my phone since I was down to about 30 cents on my phone, which wasn't going to do me much good anywhere. I paid the guy 300 rupees (about $8, which is a lot here) and waited for the phone to get a message saying that it was filled again. Unfortunately, the message that I got said that I had only refilled 0.84 rupees, which is virtually nothing. The shop owner said that since I was from a different state, I was supposed to know the correct amount to recharge (333 rupees, apparently) and that otherwise it wouldn't work. Glad he warned me about that... not. Anyways, he still made me pay him the 300 rupees, and sent me to find the Vodafone main office. After an hour of walking and asking lots of questions, I finally found the office. This guy actually tried really hard to help me an spent half an hour on the phone with Vodafone Customer Service, but wasn't able to do anything
about my lost 300 rupees. At this point I started feeling really dizzy and hot, so I bought a couple bottles of water and headed back to the hotel.
In desperate need of a nap, I set my towel over the pillow and laid down. Within five minutes, I found two bugs on the bed, and was fairly certain that I had felt something move in the pillow. Next step to learning my lesson: check out. I bit the bullet and decided that spending an extra $10 to go and be somewhere that I would actually be able to sleep and feel clean was worth it. Despite my wounded pride, I went back to the Raj Hotel, and to my surprise the manager didn't recognize me. And probably due to the fact that it was later in the afternoon, he offered me the room for the same price that I had gotten for the gross hotel that same morning. It was so amazing to finally have a shower and lay down on a bed that looked much better and had no big bugs in sight.
The rest of Bangalore involved a couple more restaurants and watching Germany defeat Argentina in the World Cup in the bar of a nearby hotel that I don't actually know if I was supposed to be in. I slept really well with my earplugs and in that much better bed and hotel, and was really glad that I moved.
I woke up on Sunday and realized that it was the 4th of July! Unfortunately instead of fireworks and barbeques, I would spend my day traveling. Getting the bus to Chennai was a more successful adventure though. Even though I thought that I left my hotel really late (only 20 minutes before the bus was supposed to leave) it actually turned out to be good because I got to the place where I was supposed to take the bus and they told me that the bus was picking up somewhere else that day, so I took another rickshaw to get there, and i ended up being there an hour early because apparently the other place told me the wrong time. While I waited, I talked to an Indian guy named Krishna, who had lived in Boston for a year. The bus left 20 minutes late, and stopped in the middle of Bangalore for an hour to wait for people who hadn't been at the station on time. It was all fine with me though because I was on the air conditioned bus, sitting with my bags. I thought
that I was packing so light with just the internal frame pack and daypack, but with both of them full of things I had bought in the past month, lugging them anywhere turned into quite a feat.
Internet at a bus stop! I'm going to try to post this. Hope it works!
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