New place

So, I'm in a new hotel, The Capitol. It's much more of a Western style hotel with carpet on the floor so that it will be quieter. If you want my number here, please send me an email. I've actually got a complimentary mini-bar and my room looks out on to a very nice tree rather than burning trash.

Allow me to share the fiasco of getting out of the last hotel. So, I call Shamala to tell her about the guy coming back and she calls the travel person. She called me back, told me that she had made arrangements at this new hotel and that a cab would be there for me in 15 minutes. That was around 10am. I figured that would give me enough time to get finished packing and check out.

I got down to the front desk to checkout and I was asked by the front desk manager what had happened. I started to explain, but I was interrupted by her taking a phone call. I told her about my laundry as well and she was kind enough to compensate me for 815 rupees. Yeah...so I got about $20 for about $70 in clothes that were ruined. Thanks!

She asked me about the man that had come to my room and proceeded to parade a variety of men in front of me that weren't the TV man. I tried to describe him and she finally brought him out from the back. I said that it was him and I actually told him that it was really stupid of him to come back...he never should have come back. That's just DUMB. If he hadn't come back, the hotel would have gotten spanked, but they wouldn't have lost another two weeks worth of room charges. Think he lost his job? Hmmm...maybe.

At any rate, this was fortunately after the manager had already printed up my bill and I had signed for everything. Of course, after I had identified him and said my piece, she started talking to him at length. I finally asked if we were done and I left. Someone tried to get my bags and help me out the door and I told them that I had it. For those of you who have seen the angry Anne, she was out in near-ballistic form.

I got outside, fully anticipating that the cab would be waiting since it had been so long since I had talked to the travel lady. But, no. No cab. I flaunted convention and started smoking outside. Fortunately, I knew Nick from the AMZN UK office arrived yesterday and this gentleman wandered outside wearing short pants. I had a feeling it was him and I was right! He stood and talked to me while I waited. And waited. And waited.

At 11am, I went back into the hotel and asked to call the travel lady. She said that a cab would be there in 5-10 minutes. She was close - it was only another half hour. At least I got to talk England with Nick and give him my partially used internet card before I left.

So when I got to the new hotel, I was unable to connect to the new wireless network. Turns out that the network guy at the old hotel had set a static IP and I had forgotten about it (BASTARD!). At any rate, looks like AMZN is going to have to pay for network help at the new hotel as a result of the poor service at the old hotel. That's sad.

This whole thing has been sad overall. If I wasn't feeling isolated before, I'm certainly feeling that way now. At least the new room is nice and I made plans to have dinner with Nick at the Keebab House where Tim and I ate on his last night. Nick is here for three weeks and this is the first time he's been away from his wife since they married five years ago, so he's already feeling lonely. I know that I will welcome having another Westerner around :)

Ok - I'm going to sign off, order some food and try to put the events of the last few hours out of my head. Blog at you later!