More fun in Darjeeling...

(Second in a series of blogs on traveling to Darjeeling...the first entry appears below this one. Thanks.)

"These are the voyages of Larry Jones, Captain of the Starship Rent-a-Surprise! His five day mission to explore strange new hotels, catch a glimpse of Mt. Everest, and possibly have a hot shower!" (start the music...)

Well, what can I say, the fun continues. Last night I had a nice meal out across town, but everything's pretty close here. Then, on the way back, I decided to stop in a local dive for a couple rounds of coca-cola. The place was shutting down at 10pm, which I thought was kind of weird. I mean, this is a big tourist destination, right? So I finished my conversation with a young Nepali guy with perfect English whose dream in life is to get a soccer scholarship to a Christian, American university.

I walked back to the hotel and was surprised at how few people were on the street. Darjeeling was really deserted! But that was nothing compared my surprise at finding my hotel totally locked up for the evening! And I don't mean the door knob was locked - I mean they had a pull down steel garage door thingie attached to the sidewalk! Unbelievable (and it kinda makes me re-think my definition of a "hotel"). But anyway, what could i do? I banged on the steel door, making an awful racket. No answer. I flashed my cell phone light up at the windows closest to the office - no response. I banged on the door a couple more times. Still nothing.

So I'm thinking...sheesh, I'm going to have to find another hotel room even though all my stuff is in this one and I've already paid for it! So I start down the street but then remember that my bladder is yelling pretty loud (cokes will do that to you), so I stop behind a dump truck to relieve myself. The street was deserted and it was pretty dark, so who cares, right?

Then I continue down the street and on the other side is a young guy outside of another hotel. I ask him if he has any vacancies. He says no. No surprise there - it is, after all, after 10 pm by this point. So he looks at me like "what's wrong"? So I proceed to explain the situation. He said "hold on" and after about 5 minutes, re-appeared w/ a cell phone. Shortly after that, another young guy comes out on the street from the other side. The first guy tells me I should follow this new guy, and I'm thinking "ok...here's where Larry gets mugged and left in an alley til morning", but it was actually one of the workers from my hotel (whew!!). He led me through a back door, up 3 flights of stairs, and I was finally home sweet home!

This morning I asked the front desk guy what time they close the front door. He said "oh, 9:30" as if it was the most ordinary thing in the world! So now I know. In fact, as I'm writing this, I realize I need be back "home" pretty soon!

Oh, the electricity came on today! I was at the zoo when it happened (nice zoo, by the way), so I was really pumped to finally get my hot shower when I got back. So I get back to my room, turn on the hot water device, wait a half hour or so to let the water heat up, and then...there's no water. I figured I was doing it wrong, so I went down to the front desk, where they informed me that Yes, we have electricity but that now there's no water! Sometimes, you can't catch a break, you know? But the guy was nice and offered to heat up some water for me (luckily, I already had half a bucket of cold water in the bathroom from when I arrived). I don't know where he got the water from, and I don't care! Even a hot bucket bath felt pretty good after 2 days without.

They assure me there will be hot water from the tap (and shower) tomorrow. It's like Mt. Everest at this point, though: I'll believe it when I see it!

--Larry