Sleep comes easily

 Sleep comes easily so sang Kenny Rogers and the First Edition and they weren’t wrong but staying asleep is a different story as the upset body clock kicked in around 4.00am.

 

Downstairs for breakfast, which consisted of papaya, curd, chapatti, curry, the old staple cornflakes and coffee, and we were waited on by a young fellow who is Nepalese and from memory the first person from that country that I have ever spoken with.

 

We then decided that we would book the room for the rest of our stay so sent a message to Ashok telling him what we planned and that we would discuss later when we got together and then off downstairs to see the receptionist.

 

We could see that they were preparing to host a wedding so it shouldn’t have been a surprise that all the rooms were booked for the next 2 nights so it was quickly upstairs to pack our gear as checkout time was fast approaching.

 

Ashok duly arrived and obviously was told the situation by the receptionist as he said there was a hotel in Narnaul we could book into so we headed into the city.

 

He parked the car and disappeared for 5 minutes and then came back saying we could have a room in this particular hotel yet before he could turn the car around to be in front of the hotel a guy came over and spoke to him. As they were talking Sherry said to me that she had heard the guy say it was fully booked. 

 

Without telling us the situation Ashok then started driving through the city, or at least the main street the runs through the city obviously looking for an alternative.

 

Finally we pulled up in front of Hotel Dev and he went inside reappearing shortly after asking that I go with him for “room inspection”

 

A quick look showed that from a man’s perspective it looked acceptable and it even had a proper loo so I gave Ashok the thumbs up and so we returned to the reception desk to sign the paperwork.

 

I discussed with Ashok that we would book it for two nights, the two that Royal Tulip were full and then return to Royal Tulip for the remainder of our stay but he said after two nights his house would be finished and we would stay there – an issue to be resolved a little later!

 

Hotel Dev has a rating of 4.5 but that wildly exaggerates it’s qualities but it is comfortable enough and might well have been the last hotel accommodation available so beggars can’t be choosers

 

By now it was getting into the afternoon so we and Ashok and his eldest daughter Priya went to a local restaurant for lunch- we had a filling if slightly spicy lunch which we insisted on paying for and  which came to the princely sum of the equivalent of $8NZD – then it was back to Hotel Dev to get out of the 41C heat while Ashok returned home to prepare the room for our stay.

 

It was during lunch that Ashok invited us to a fellow tourist driver’s daughter’s wedding tomorrow night some 45mins out of Narnaul – if we had come all this way for one wedding it seem logical to go to another so we accepted.

 

While we sat around in the hotel room I found a radio commentary of the Warriors game so turned in before loosing connection at 18 all with 15 minutes to go that being a signal to go for a walk which we did in what was now 42C of sapping heat.

After about an hours we returned to our room to wait for Ashok’s return to take Sherry Sarcee shopping 

 

He returned around 5.40 with Gita and Riya three up on his Hero motorcycle and we then headed to the far end of the town for a saree which was duly completed but not without also coming away with an Indian styled dress for one of the days where formality is required.

 

After doing that we returned to the hotel and Ashok left to go home and we had a meal in the hotel restaurant before retiring.

I’ll post this now as the matchsticks are not keeping my eyes open and will post photos into the blog in the morning