[Assam] The Nano & not so nano stuff

[Chan Mahanta]

The hotel saga described here by Jyotirmay is accurate. My experiences exactly.

Indian hotels are most horribly overpriced. It is a racket at best.

These so called star rated around Dum Dum  are horrific, at any 
price. Finally this last November, we managed to get the name of a 
halfway decent place not too far from the airport thru an Assamese 
lady journalist who lives in Kolkata and is familiar with the problem.

We stayed at this hotel on the shadow of the Hyatt Regency ( which is 
very nice, but price is atrocious, not worth the money for half a 
night) - it is called  The Stadel <thestadel at yahoo.co.in> . Clean. 
Reasonably priced ( compared to the pits charging nearly as much) at 
Rs 3000/- per night, free highspeed internet ( you will need to ask 
the front desk activate it for you) and complimentary breakfast (if 
you stay long enough into the morning).  You can arrange airport 
pick-up and delivery.



>  The Stadel
>  Yuba Bharati Krirangan
>  Salt Lake Stadium
>  Gate no. # 3
>  Salt Lake
>  Kolkata-700091
>  Phone: 033-23357220
>  Fax: 033-23357219
>  email: stadel at vsnl.net
>  Website: www.thestadel.com


At Delhi we stay at the Ahuja Residency guest houses at Gurgaon. 
Clean. Decent home cooked like meals. Airport pick-up and delivery 
available. At Rs. 3,000/- per night, works out well. Learned about it 
from a New York Times travel article.

Ahuja Residency-DLF
N 3/36, DLF City, Phase II
Gurgaon-122002
Ph: (0124) 4019335/36/37
Fax: (0124) 4015403
E mail : dlf at ahujaresidency.com

www.ahujaresidency.com











At 9:03 PM +0900 1/11/08, Jyotirmoy Sharma wrote:
>I must add that we( me and my wife ) faced exactly similar situation 2 years
>back. Now that you face exactly the same situation shows the state of
>progress of our nation.
>When we arrived at the International terminal at Cal, we walked our way
>through exactly dark alleys into the domestic terminal ( and it resembled
>exactly what you say - a typical railway platform in India ). Hardly
>anything was open. We did find an internet cafe and found out that the
>Airport Hotel was fully booked. Upon enquiring, we also found that there
>were no rooms that you can rent out for the night at the airport( they said
>it was full). We went to the prepaid taxi counter for the nearest hotel to
>the airport. The hotel looked quite decent from the outside. It is only
>after you enter, you realise that it is a hell hole. The funny part is that
>they advertise it a star hotel( can't remember how many stars) with some
>newspaper clippings showing that how good the hotel is. The room was just
>big enough for a bed, once you put you luggages, there is no place to walk.
>The curtains, bedsheets have all acquired a sooth colour from all the dust,
>smoke and whatever else. All these comfort for Rs1200/night. I found the
>toilet unusable. After being bitten by bedbugs I was out of the hotel at
>6.30 am in the morning. I then decided that if I plan to stay overnight at
>any place in India, i will always book something beforehand at a standard
>place. The experience was just unbearable.
>This is the first welcome you get when you visit your country. We are
>Indians and have experienced hardships before. Wonder how foreigners feel
>when  they come to India unprepared. There is no safety, security and
>honesty. Women are most vulnerable. I would never ask any women to travel
>alone in India.
>On paper India is become a powerhouse. We don't even have a decent airport
>in the country( don't know about Chennai. My Tamil friend says that it is at
>par with international standards )
>JS
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