hotel
Hotel: 880 Rupees Metropolis tourist home hot water, private but small bathroom with western toilet, TV, huge ancient air con which cooled the room and made jet engine noise. I was too tired to count mosquitoes, but I didn't remember getting any bites. Absolutely no view, the windows opened to some dumps. All in all, not too bad (in Delhi standard).
Dinner at Askoh veg restaurant, dirty from outside but food is good.
Internet is bad. Slow and keyboard is broken.
Slept early at night
Evelyn hotel 800 + 100 heat It is a nice and large Victorian hotel with beautiful view to the lake. The owner is extremely helpful like it was said in the Lonely planet. The bed sheet was kind of clean. No hot water, even in the luxury honeymoon room I booked. But the staffs are friendly and nice and would bring the buckets to the high reaching floor.
2/12/04 5:55 pm waiting for dinner inside Corbett national park light is out, my flash is dead, just the best timing
2/12/04 6:29 pm finish dinner at the restaurant food is good Vegetarian Corbett for 60R 3 Rotin for 15R 1 hot chocolate for 20R
Hotel: 200R for Dormitory Very uncomfortable, cold room, dirty blanket, and hard bed, terribly crowded when full. If sleeper class train is like this, I should avoid at all cost.
Hotel: 550Rupees City Heart hotel. Moderately clean. Only have buckets of hot water. Staffs friendly. Bed sheet is kind of yellowish. About 5 mosquitoes but they don't bite (vegetarian mosquitoes?).
Tried to locate Alpana, no luck. Failed to relocate to another hotel.
Morning trying to book train ticket. It turned out to be a greater challenge than I thought.
Bus to Shimla looked like a torture chamber, so I cancelled my plan to Shimla.
The day turned out to be a fruitless day.
My tribute to Pavarti had paid off. The touts dropped me in the right location (after some of my helpful redirection)
The owner (younger brother) like music around the world. If he has time, he might show you some traditional Rajasthan music on his computer.
The in house artist, Shiv, is exceptionally talented. He is the current Guinness record of the smallest painting. Ask him nicely and he might show you his work (it has many fish, animals and birds, quite amazing). He use the pen made from the squirrel tail. He inherited the art from his Brahmin family.
Didn't do much.
Dinner was nice.
Have a nice long talk with the artist Shiv.
Hotel: 600 Rupees Bhaviron Villa Truly a funky place. Clean bed sheet. Hot water kind of working. Friendly, Nice, and Helpful staffs.
Well decorated room with good view. Not a bad place to stay for a few days. It is owned by two brothers. The younger brother is talented, friendly and handsome. They are the descendants of the brother of the Maharaja of Bikaner. It is a fancy and stylish villa, a truly romantic place to stay in Bikaner (as long as you hide in the hotel court yard and don't go outside)
Desert Boy Guest House Room are kind of seedy but with good decoration, each with its own style, beautiful view, beautiful settings. Like all hotels in the fort, it is noisy (people noise in the alley, dog noise outside). The hot water is working in some rooms. Every room has around 2 to 5 mosquitoes in December. Some rooms have hot water. The honeymoon room looks nice but no hot water. Room 5 is noisy, poorly decorated, and with broken geyser. But the staffs are helpful, making the stay a pleasant experience. Check out is annoyingly early 9:00am (same as other hotels) All room prices are randomly negotiable, around 100 to 200 rupees variations. Rooms range from 250 to 900 rupees depends on quality and negotiation skills.
Camel Safari at the Desert Boy guest house: It is "off the beaten track". It is both positive and negative. No ruins, no temples, no beautiful sand dunes, but also no carpet shops, or annoying salesmen. It passes through many small Indian villages along the way. They are pretty polluted by modern tourism. Kids aggressively compete for goodies. But most (probably all) people are friendly.
Taking photos are not easy; the posted photos are largely polluted. Good photos are only possible when sneaking around and stealing shots, which is very difficult to do.
Food is good tasting, with small variation. Make sure you don't look at how they clean the dishes.
Blankets are horribly dirty, not particularly warm; pillows seemed to be pissed by camels. But sleeping under the stars is romantically beautiful and pleasant (except with field mice and beetles sharing your bed).
Nice and gentle camels. Cleanness is debatable.
Guides kind of speak English. They are usually polite to male travelers. Overall, it is a mildly positive experience.
17/12/04 7:11 pm In hotel Wonderview. It is wonderful The view is good The lake side room has wonderful view of the City Palace and Lake Palace. They also have lovely cushion seats. Price only 850 The room is clean, with wall painting, TV, hot water, misquote killer and cozy cushions, friendliness is so-so, but the lake view make up for it. Room 104.
19/12/04 6:47 pm It is so annoying arguing with autorickshaw driver. Sometimes it is difficult to tell whether they over charged or not.
Padmini Hotel: Exp: Neutral 490R For single 1000R For Deluxe.
The room is basic but kind of clean. It has TV and might even has a working geyser. However, the TV is not connected in the standard room and the air con is simply broken.
It is baffling why they charge more for deluxe. The bed might look marginally fancier.
The standard room has a basic balcony and some view to the Fort.
The hotel staff is polite but short from helpful.
20/12/04 7:22 pm Hotel Royal Retreat The rooms are spacious, kind of decorated and pretty clean. The cost is 450, 500 and 750
Haveli Braj Bhushanjee: Rooms price:450, 750, 1200, 1500 They are nice little room but seems over priced. The staffs are very friendly and helpful (the only advantage)
For 700, you get a small (very small) but clean room. The hot water is powered by solar energy. It is moderately warm enough for a simple shower.
The bed sheet is stained with things I don't want to see, but the towel is kind of clean.
The 1200R room doesn't have much improvement from the less expensive room.
Check out is annoyingly early at 9:00am.
I have no idea why I picked this place. The rooms in Royal Retreat are bigger and quieter and cost the same price. Not to be mistaken, the staffs are very friendly and it is not a bad place, just not the best either.
Overall experience is: this is a nice friendly place but everything is way way overpriced and poor value. (Note: there is a difference between overpriced and expensive, this is not an expensive place, just over priced). I can't really say to avoid this hotel, because so far nothing has made me really unhappy yet. But compare with the options outside, it look really really silly for me to stay here for two nights. The restaurant should definitely be avoided. If you are rich, find a real luxury restaurant somewhere else.
Taxi from Bundi to Ranthambhore (1050+100 tips)
Hotel Tiger Safari Resort Room 900 (Negotiable to 800 maybe lower) Cottage 1300
The room are pretty good. Not very fancy but clean, tidy and comfortable. The walls are painted in yellow. Some rooms have satelite TV. Some rooms are better than the others.
22/12/04 7:42 pm Waiting for dinner at Tiger Safari Resort
26/12/04 8:16 am Sunbird hotel Bed is comfortable with lots of clean, warm blanket. Electricity is kind of unstable. Hot water is sometimes good. Staffs are friendly and the owner is a naturalist. Rooms are pretty clean and comfortable. Good value for the price.
Room 700R including breakfast.
26/12/04 5:32 pm Chambal River Safari Resort:
Sometimes have electricity. Room cold in winter (around 10C at night) but the blankets are very warm. Various spices of insects can be observed in the bathroom. Cottage is generally clean but pretty basic. Hot water maybe working (didn't try the geyser because it caused my lights to dim). Food is excellent. Staffs are generally friendly. Everything there is too overpriced (watch out how much they charge for water). But it is a good place for bird watchers (and maybe cheaper than other bird watching place?)
The river safari is good for bird watching (especially for Indian Skimmers), and crocodiles, and gharial and (very rarely) some endangered dolphins. It is fun enough for common tourist.
Overall, the experience is kind of positive. I was convinced to pay a huge sucker price; otherwise it would be a better experience for me.
Now I am rethinking my charity strategic.
Should we give money to the people who beg for money? If we do, we are only encouraging them to beg.
Would it be better we pay money to the tourist company like a great sucker, if so, we are creating more job opportunities for the locals? Maybe my naturalist friend was right: I should not pay money to the beggars, but should give big tips for him. Then he can hire more people and eventually solve the poverty problem in India. I'm glad to think that my contribution to the Resort has helped some poor souls.
I intended to check into the Mogli Resort, but it was full. When I checked Motel Chandan, it only has one room left, so I quickly grabbed it, even though I didn't like the room a bit.
The hotel only costs 770 (it is a little run down in my opinion, but only if I compare with hotels in other locations)
The owner is kind, friendly and helpful. However, there is not much a little hotel owner can do in this busy time.
Ganpati Guest house Simple, clean room with good service. The owner is very concerned with traveler's comfort and opinion. He can arrange autorickshaw to Jhansi for 150, fair price.
TV with satellite (reception so so) 700 or 650 or depends on negotiation skill.
The experience is positive.
7/1/05 1:03 am Check in to Hotel Pallvi Palace The room is newly furnished with good taste. The bed is lovely make. Cleanness is moderate, or pretty good in Indian standard. The water pipe leaks in the toilet, otherwise a perfect room with the justified price of 600R. AC seems in working condition. They have the same owner as hotel Ajanta. So is Mohan International and Hotel Kristina. Overall, a justified mid range option in New Delhi.