The plane touches down right on schedule with an overhead announcement welcoming you to India. The local time is 11:30 P.M., but by the time you pass through customs, retrieve luggage and find transportation to the hotel, it will be the wee hours of the morning. A hot shower is all you’ve been thinking about for the past 8 hours as the plane crossed over Europe and the Middle East.
This is your first trip to India. That sounds presumptuous doesn’t it? As if I’d expect you to return before this trip barely began. The newly smelled Indian air is whipping through the taxi now as you make your way to A-1 Hotel, the cheapest accommodation listed on the internet. Check-in goes smoothly and with key in hand, you make the walk to your room. You waved off help from the young Indian men in the lobby. Only a duffel bag came on this journey of two weeks in India, no assistance is required to haul that up a flight of stairs.
Into the room, lights turned on, you find the bed, TV, luggage rack. It’s nearly 2 A.M. now. You strip off the clothes which have seen you cross 8,000 miles from the USA as you wait for the hot water in the shower to spit out. After what seems like several minutes, you beginning thinking the hot water must be coming from the basement. You leave the water running while a quick brush of the teeth and floss is performed. Still nothing. Is it possible the hotel turns the hot water off at night? It’s now obvious after 5 minutes of wasted water that the hopeful and long awaited hot shower will have to come another day. Tonight it’s a brief, and very cold, wipe down of the most important parts. There will be no full immersion.
The next morning, with guns blazing from a chill that never passed and sleep that barely came, thanks to the other arriving tourists finding their way through the night, you seek some answers from the front desk. Remember, loud voices, hands on hips and pointed fingers are not a wise way to react in India.
“There was no hot water in my room last night”, you explain.
“Did you turn on the water geyser”? asks the owner.
You fumble for the right words, but all that comes out is, “The what”?
