I woke up in a great mood, still happy from amazing day 3, and walked down to the main train station to buy train tickets for later in the week and a metro token for today to get to treetops, a place I arranged to stay in south Delhi. This process went (mostly) smoothly and I remained in high spirits.
I was really looking forward to leaving the hyped up but disappointing hostel I've been at since I got here in north Delhi. Each "pro" of the hostel seems to have a catch to it, for instance: I had my own a/c room with a bathroom, but the a/c doesn't work half the time and the bathroom doesn't have hot water. There is wifi- but it doesn't work a lot of the time. I've only gotten the lounge computer to work once, so I make all updates from my iPhone when the wifi is cooperating. The hostel is located near a main railway station, but is in a dangerous neighborhood where you can't leave your hostel without tons of people trying to sell you things or demand your attention in other ways. My fathers friend Naresh told me today on the phone that there was an article in the local newspaper about the worsenimg state of this place for locals and tourists alike. There are many more examples but I'm saving it for the review. What have been reliable sources for me in the past rate this hostel very high and I think it's pretty careless of them.
Upon returning to the aforementioned hostel to check out and gather my things, I managed to check my email. The woman who runs treetops, the new place, emailed me and cancelled only a couple of hours before I was supposed to show up! She offered to set me up at another nearby guesthouse because someone who was already at treetops needed to stay an extra day. Shouldn't they be the one moved to the other guesthouse? But I suppose it's easier to screw someone you've never met via email than set boundaries with customers who are already there. *eye roll*
I think what frustrates me the most about it is night before I was invited to Agra today with some cool people but out of respect for treetops, which is a small local business, I didn't want to cancel with less than 24 hours notice. I guess she did not think it was important to show the same courtesy.
Even so, I still wanted to give this place a chance because it's supposed to be really awesome and I thought, maybe it's an emergency. I've worked in customer service and I know they happen. I politely responded that I'd go ahead and stay at the hostel I was already at and see her tomorrow. I was no longer in the mood to fight the metro crowds. She then responded that would be fine, then some hours later canceling again. (!!!!)
So now I'm really looking forward to writing her rave reviews on at least 5 different web sites when I get the time. Jeeeeez. So freaking uncool.
After fighting with the crappy wifi here, I have found another place to go to tomorrow. It also comes "highly recommended" by a friend and the Internet, but I don't trust that anymore. I will be pleasantly surprised if its decent, but I just really need to get out of this neighborhood. I'm regretting not taking treetops up on their offer to put me somewhere else tonight, but I guess my rationale at the time was that I didn't want to have to get used to a new place Id heard nothing about one night then move again for another 2 nights. Oh well. If the place I've found for tomorrow and Friday night is crap then I'm leaving Delhi on Saturday anyway to go to Rishikesh (4.5 hr train ride away) and stay at an ashram... This place has good reviews, but again, not holding my breath anymore. All that is guaranteed is that Rishikesh will be slightly cooler in climate and much less hectic and scammy than Delhi has been.
