Hotel Switch

Today I checked out of one hotel and into another just down the street. The first hotel was fine and all, but we were paying too much. Although at the new hotel we are paying the exact same price, but at the new hotel I know the price is going to the right place.

All these countries over here deal in the commission system. So the first hotel we checked out, had rooms that were we weren't interested in, so he's takes us next door and says he has a room here. 'Oh, don't worry about the name on the sign out there, it's still our hotel.'

So a portion of our money was going to this clown and that irks me. I also know that he's a con man cause when I asked how much a taxi to Sarangkot is, he said 700, when I know it was 500. He says if I need a taxi he'll get one for me. No thanks, pal. I'll just get my own cab.

The hotel we were staying at was run by a Nepalese family who had a German grandfather thrown in the mix. They were super nice, but annoying. I asked how much it would be to store our luggage and one of the younger girls said, 20 ruppe's a day. That sounds cheap, but it's not as cheap as the zero ruppee's a day the other hotels charge. And when I was checking out of the hotel, the guy didn't have exact change and he owed me a few ruppees, and he's like 'oh don't worry, no problem.' I was like, 'No problem for you since you're the one getting the free cash.'

This place is all about getting the tourist dollar. It makes sense though. All these honkeys coming from far away countries with seemingly bottomless pockets full of cash. They just spend and spend and spend. So the locals try to scam as much as possible. Whenever you ask the price on some item to purchase, there's a momentary pause while their brain is trying to size you up and figure out what you're willing to pay. Every shop has a different price. The trick is to go into a variety of shops and find the average and figure out what you're willing to pay. The problem with that is that it involves shopping and I hate shopping. It's so time consuming and tedious and boring and uneventful and uninspirting and pointless and useless and a few more negative adjectives that I can't think of right now. I dont' understand how some people plan their days around it. But there's a lot of things that I don't understand about people.