Lies and Deception in Bangalore

Ok so you know the whole 'fingers crossed' thing? Didnt help. Got back to Hotel Toms at ten past two and tried talking to the manager (who was now on the front desk). After a lot of wasted time I've decided I need to get my hands on an Indian dictionary and lookup what a 'Booking' means to these fools.

He stuck to his speil that no1 had vacated and they had a 'wedding party' coming in who had pre-paid for their rooms...therefore there were no rooms available. Sure, acceptble enough. Except when the guy on the desk who we phoned the previous night said 'Yes, we have rooms available', took our details and said he'd see us at 2pm. Mr Manager maintained that this was a "conditional booking", conditional upon them having rooms available. Despite none of these 'conditions' being told to us over the phone when they confirmed our booking. Go figure. It was all I could do to open up a can of Whoop Ass (Contract Law edition) on his ass!

So.... he sent us to 'Hotel Vellara'. Didnt look too bad from the street but trying to get a room proved more than difficult. Our Navsari travel agent had advised us NOT to take our passports. Being a tad wary about only having a NZ Drivers License as ID I took a photocopy of mine. Turns out Hotel Vellara had a strict passport-checking policy for all non-indian nationals. Anway the guts of it is that most hotels here insist that THEY had to check you're a legitimate tourist (hey, forget customs and all that...) and since we were holding only a copy of my passport and nothing of mayas(thanks for your advice, Kalpna travel, Navsari!!!) we couldnt get a room.

Despite what Maya may tell you about Hotel Sunflower, it was another dump. Clean enough but nothing spectuacular. VERY bottom of the range by NZ standards. Hotel dude insisted it had hot water. Tempted by the 'hot' tap on the shower before we went out, this turned out to be a lie. He neglected to mention the hot water only runs in the mornings...

Collected a pretty good haul from the Brigaide Rd shopping area. Nice and cheap, just the way I like it!

'Out' in Bangalore is eventful once you find a place that is open past 11pm. Must take a concerted effort to get decently drunk here as you'd have to be rocking up to bars right on opening time! Hahaha it was Bollywood Night at 'Zero G' so we though we'd go along for a laugh. No less than half an hour of walking later we found it and were predicatably amused by the antics of drunk indians. Complete with token Dirty Old Men and Absolutely Munted Girl no longer able to walk. Funny tunes but they must be big pop hits as everyone(else) knew the words. Almost had to stop some people on the dance floor as it lookd they could hurt themselves....

Laters all, off for a rickshaw-tour of the city before the flight to Goa.