It may appear that I didn’t enjoy my tour, but I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. With hindsight being the best sight, I would have done it differently, that’s all. Having organized this trip entirely unaided, I’ve been rather pleased at the way things have panned out, considering my novice status. But the moment I handed over the reins…
You see, I selected ‘Incredible Home Stay’. Me. I did. I opted to stay an extra day, and it was always my intention to return there after my tour. To my surprise I found it was included in my package. Before leaving, I checked with the one of the hotel staff just to make sure. He showed me my name in the diary. On my return the tour operator, Abyss, have informed me I’m now in a different hotel, because the Incredible had made a mistake. Now this I know not to be correct, but there’s no point beefing because I have allowed things to be taken out of my hands and permitted this firm to find me a hotel. This hotel, The Royal Holiday, is nice enough, the chaps are friendly, and it has free wifi with a half decent signal, which is a bonus. The air-con doesn’t work though; it is merely re-arranging the hot night air at great volume. I’m slightly amused, because there is an air-con cover on the wall, but no electrical device for cold air. No controls, nothing inside. It’s empty, bar the blower!
Electricity is delight here, if you don’t work for HSE back home. Like the driving, it’s something best not thought about. There are two types of plug in use; two pin and three pin; both round, and many sockets have holes for both. The two pin plugs fall out at the drop of a hat. Since my arrival I have used my two trusty books – the Lonely Planet Guide, and Keenan & McCarthy’s Between Extremes, to either jamb underneath my adaptor or add weight from above. You have to twist the plug, or leave it half out sometimes, ignore the crackles and sparks & hope in the morning your phone has charged. I have broken my faithful fruit knife trying to widen the pins on my adaptor. Could have been worse, have broken the adaptor I suppose.
The standard method for making a connection is to first bang the plug hard. The net result of this treatment is that many sockets have a rather tenuous hold on the wall. On the train, an Indian gentleman attempting to charge his mobile, said to me,
‘Electricity here is a joke. A joke’, and proceeded to tear up newspaper to jam behind his plug. Another gentleman calmly pushed two bared wires from his laptop into the socket holes and held them there with toothpicks.
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