Skip to main content

Comfort Vibes

 This hotel chain has always had a bit of a reputation but I did not know it was this bad. Makes you wonder about establishments in the vicinity of one of these and if there is a spill-over effect. Over the years, we have lived in establishments that are very far from "fancy". It specially makes sense when on a road-trip, arriving very late and leaving quite early. The place we stop for the night is usually an hour or more from our destination and marks as far as we were comfortable driving before needing to break for the night. It's not always possible to plan these stops ahead of time because that kills spontaneity and freedom to change plans as we like. I am glad we've never ended up in an establishment like the one in the story - not yet atleast. I do try to research the safety of the neighborhood we will spend the night - in America or abroad and generally select a somewhat boring and uneventful place. 

Our stops for the night often have only one main street, a scattering or stores, a few gas stations and a handful of hotels. If an establishment is rated family- friendly, it's usually my top choice when I don't have much else to go by and then I start to look at the negative reviews to see if there are any serious red flags. People complaining about noise from the street is not enough to detract me but its intolerable for some. The last time we checked into a place that looked may more run-down in reality than it did in the pictures, I wondered if we need to go somewhere else. The neighborhood was very busy and full of tourists, plenty of families with kids but the place did not exude comfortable vibes. Right when we were about to start looking for an alternative, we saw this desi family pull into the parking lot of the establishment. They had two young kids and more than a couple of bags. This family intended to stay here for a few days to check out the local attractions I guessed. That sight immediately put me at ease. The stay ended up being uneventful and  breakfast better than I expected.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Part Liberated Woman

An expat desi friend and I were discussing what it means to return to India when you have cobbled together a life in a foreign country no matter how flawed and imperfect. We have both spent over a decade outside India and have kids who were born abroad and have spent very little time back home. Returning "home" is something a lot of new immigrants like L and myself think about. We want very much for that to be an option because a full assimilation into our country of domicile is likely never going to happen. L has visited India more often than I have and has a much better pulse on what's going on there. For me the strongest drag force working against my desire to return home is my experience of life as a woman in India. I neither want to live that suffocatingly sheltered existence myself nor subject J to it. The freedom, independence and safety I have had in here in suburban America was not even something I knew I could expect to have in India. I never knew what it felt t
111 comments
Read more

Cheese Making

I never fail to remind J that there is a time and place for everything. It is possibly the line she will remember me by when I am dead and gone given how frequently she hears it. Instead of having her breakfast she will break into a song and dance number from High School Musical well past eight on Monday morning. She will insist that I watch and applaud the performance instead of screaming at her to finish her milk and cereal. Her sense of occasion is seriously lacking but then so is mine. Consider for example, a person walks into the grocery store with the express purpose of buying detergent because they are fresh out of it and laundry is only half way done. However instead of heading straight for detergent, they wander over to the natural foods aisle and go berserk upon finding goat milk on sale for a dollar a gallon. They at once proceed to stock pile so they can turn it to huge quantities home-made feta cheese. That person would be me. It would not concern me in the least that I ha
5 comments
Read more

Under Advisement

Recently a desi dude who is more acquaintance less friend called to check in on me. Those who have read this blog before might know that such calls tend to make me anxious. Depending on how far back we go, there are sets of FAQs that I brace myself to answer. The trick is to be sufficiently evasive without being downright offensive - a fine balancing act given the provocative nature of questions involved. I look at these calls as opportunities for building patience and tolerance both of which I seriously lack. Basically, they are very desirous of finding out how I am doing in my personal and professional life to be sure that they have me correctly categorized and filed for future reference. The major buckets appear to be loser, struggling, average, arrived, superstar and uncategorizable. My goal needless to say, is to be in the last bucket - the unknown, unquantifiable and therefore uninteresting entity. Their aim is to pull me into something more tangible. So anyways, the dude in ques
6 comments
Read more