Published: January 25th 2018
Woolly says – Having someone hammering on your door at 6am in the morning doesn’t make for a great start to the day, I opened one eye and tried to ignore the disturbance and left Zoe to get up and see what the problem was. I heard the words ‘check out’ and thought I might need to open the second eye, as I rolled over both women vanished from the room and I could hear their voices in the reception area, this didn’t seem good.
We were being told that we had to check out, having shown them our booking which clearly said we could leave anywhere up to 8pm that day as well as the advert on Booking dot com that we had used, which said the same, the man on reception kept telling us that it was hotel policy. We pointed out that there were no policies showing on their advert or on our booking, but he wouldn’t have it. He just kept telling us to leave, we told him that we wanted to see the owner or manager, ‘he is sleeping’ we were informed, and so should we be we both muttered.
Woolly says – Several tense hours passed as we waited for the owner to come out of his slumber and sort us out, finally he arrived and blamed the online company for the error telling us it was the policy, whilst the argument continued Jo and I stood watching him changing the policies on the advert! Having lost the will to live we collected our bags and told them that we would be taking this further and took our departure.
It seemed sensible to take our backpacks to the left luggage ready for our train in the evening and try and make the best of the day, we were shaky and angry but as the online company had yet to contact us there was little further we could do.
Woolly says – Bags sorted, and tummy’s fed we hailed a rickshaw and set off to see Bangalore Palace which is styled on Windsor Castle in the UK. The first appearance was impressive and having had the usual bag and body search we headed to the ticket desk. Jo’s face dropped at the price which was more than a week’s accommodation on our budget and having checked the pennies we realised that we didn’t have enough. The kind man at the desk told us a rickshaw would be a few rupees to the nearest ATM, the driver of the rickshaw didn’t agree with these costings and demanded six times as much, with no other option we had to take it. A short drive took us to the machine which refused to give us notes, the driver refused to take us any further and demanded double what he had already quoted, things weren’t going well.
Having thrust the original amount at the man we stormed off up the road and sat for quite a while trying to stem the tears of frustration and tiredness, with tissue paper down to the last few sheets we couldn’t even have a damn good cry to let it go.
Woolly says – Even I sniffed a few times before deciding that being the man in the party I had better start making some decisions, that said I hailed a passing driver and asked for the nearest metro station to take us to a cash point that we had previously used. An hour passed and a further six ATMs which were either broken or without cash, none of us were able to raise a smile and panic was starting to set in. Spying yet another machine to try I sat with my paws crossed waiting to see if this one would work. Beaming smiles greeted me as both women arrived back clutching notes, at last something was going right. To celebrate our small victory in life we decided that a drink was in order and headed into the nearest bar that was serving food, being mid afternoon, my stomach thought my throat had been cut and as we entered a very dark and dingy back room I really wondered what we had let ourselves in for. Cold beers and chapatis arrived and we seemed to be causing quite a stir, being the only women in the room the men were watching the ladies like hawks. The first man approached and asked for the usual selfie, undeterred Zoe smiled at him and said ‘No problem, fifty rupees’, I nearly fell off my chair as he handed over the money, the camera snapped and off he went, a few moments later and another man approached and the same happened, this was a real cash cow, why haven’t we been dong this all the way round India?
We couldn’t stop laughing, and not because of the alcohol. A small group of young men sat on the table next to us thought it was hilarious as well and started to ask about our travels and our small furry friend. Time passed, and they insisted on paying for our drinks and food in return for a selfie, we left feeling so much bette,r the day was on the up.
Woolly says – I thought that something peaceful might be good to keep our spirits high and having been dropped off at the aquarium we spent a happy half hour wandering round the small place snapping pictures of fish. As things seemed to be going well and we were on a roll we headed to Sultan Tipu’s summer palace for our final stop of the day. The Tipu Sultans Summer Palace was started in 1781 and completed ten years later, the design is Indo – Islamic in style and when originally done was painted in reds, blacks and golds to accentuate the patterns on the pillars and walls.
Entering the grounds, we could see what appeared to be quite a small structure of columns carved from wood, it was deceptive though.
Woolly says – Lots of small rooms led from one to another, each one containing small alcoves, some areas still showed the original red paintwork which must have looked incredible when originally done. The information boards told us about Tipu and his battles and great purchases inclusng a huge throne that he had made, of which some now live in the Victoria and Albert museum in London. Upstairs the black columns looked even better with small balconies jutting out, as I strolled around I thought it could make a wonderful palace for myself, the girls cold have one half while I languished in the other with a lovely open communal area, just as I was planning were my pool table could go it appeared it was time to leave. only one thing left to achieve for the day, tissue.
In many of the places we have been we have found the necessary rolls, being western in our culture we find the washing at toilet time a little difficult and do like to wipe ourselves, plus given the amount of tears we seem to be shedding on the trip it’s vital for mopping up all up.
Woolly says – Our luck was in and having walked around the railway station and asked a few people we were finally the proud owners of three packs of tissue, climbing onto our overnight train and snuggling into our bunks I felt the day had redeemed itself a little in the main due to the young men in the bar who had made us laugh and enjoy at least some of it, they will never know it but they saved the day.