The Blue Sapphire

In New Delhi the hotel I ended up in was called the Blue Sapphire. It's an old relic of the colonial days, with marble floors, big wooden doors, the works.

The first night, being an "unscheduled stay", I ended up in the fancy suite. It had a very large room and a balcony. The only real drawback was the stained sheets, oh and the cold shower. The second night I was moved to a more modest room. It seemed clean enough, and this one had hot water.

I decided to be clever and turn on the air conditioner before going to dinner. On my return the room was warm and it had a burnt motor smell. I fiddled around a bit and realised it was broken.

I rang reception;
"The air conditioner is broken, I'm in room 107".
"Oh OK", was the reply.

10 minutes passed and I'd heard nothing. So I rang again.

"Hi it's me again from from 107 the air conditioner is broken".
"Working?"
"No Broken."
"Working?"
"No... NOT working."
"Oh OK. Someone will be there in 10 minutes."

Now I'd like to think I'm a fairly laid back guy. So I took things fairly calmly. I am in Delhi after all. But it was late and I had to get up at 6am to go to Jaipur. So after 1/2 an hour I rang again.

"Hi, I'm ringing about the air conditioner. It's late and I want to sleep, can I get another room?"
"The air conditioner repair man is on his way. If he's not there in 10 minutes we'll get you another room."

10 minutes later he arrived.

"These guys will fix it," I'm told. "Only 10 minutes."

So now there are two guys in my room, a little guy who looks about 10 and a bigger guy with a beard and turban. The little one is in there stripping wires with his teeth, pulling this and poking that. I say, "It smells like a burnt motor". They pull the whole thing out from the wall turn a few more knobs. They stand back and the larger guy, after stroking his beard with satisfaction, decides to turn it on.

There's a puff of smoke, a crackling noise and sparks. So they pack it back into the wall and leave.

The first guy returns and tells me, "We'll get you a new room, only 10 minutes."

So I'm waiting for a while and another guy, let's call him the porter, asks if I want something to eat or drink, a beer perhaps. "For free?" I asked. He found the suggestion amusing.

Half an hour later and I'm moved in to a new room, that someone had checked out of minutes before. The air conditioner was so cold I turned it off after 10 minutes,.... or was it half an hour.

I'm now in Jaipur and I'm heading to Agra today to see the Taj Mahal. But more on all that later.