and then this one time...

Day 8 – Monday, April 3 – Just a Little Grasshopper

Nitin and I had met up for the free breakfast buffet in the hotel. The hotel has a made to order omelette station, and the sad thing is that we both love eggs, but are trying not to blatantly eat chicken and chicken related products, given that they had found bird flu here within the past year. But there are lots of other things to eat, so that’s ok.

So it was a long day at work again, made tougher by the night shift of doing Toronto work at night. So, after getting dropped off by the driver at the hotel, I headed into an elevator to go to my room. There was a hotel employee already in the elevator. I forgot to get my key out in advance, so I was in the elevator searching through my purse for the key so that I could activate the elevator and select my floor. After rummaging through my purse and finding the key, we were on our way up. The hotel employee asked me how my stay was going, and after I answered “good”, he asked if there was anything else that he could do. And that was when I decided that I should try to get a discount on the internet connection fees in the hotel!

I figured, there’s no harm in asking, as the worst case scenario would be a “no”, and since I was in India, I should try to negotiate something! So, I mentioned that there was something he could do. Since I was staying at the hotel for an extended period, and many of my colleagues from the same firm were staying for extended periods too, whether we could get a discount on the internet. He said that he would check for me.

So I got into my room, and started settling in and relaxing. A woman from customer relations called shortly, and asked me if I had asked for a discount on the internet. I responded yes, and she said that since I was staying for a longer period, she would be able to give me a 15% discount. I felt pretty good, and wanted to see if I could get more! So I started to ask, and the woman said that it was the most she could give me. That was unsuccessful, but I thought maybe they could extend it to Nitin. So I asked on his behalf. So the customer relations rep looked him up, and then said that he wasn’t staying so long, so she couldn’t offer the discount. As luck would have it, he had checked out on Saturday morning, as he went to visit family, so it only looked like his stay was 6 days, rather than over 14. Oh well. At least I tried. And I was pretty excited about even getting the 15% discount for myself :P I definitely need more experience negotiating!

Anyway, the rest of the night was room service, working, and having the tv on in the background. Some things I noticed from tv:

• There’s an ice cream ad for Kwality Wall’s, which has the same logo as other icy treats I’ve seen Spain and Oz. It appears that they’re all related, but branded differently in different countries.
• There’s a commercial where a bunch of guys are drinking Coke, and then a group of women walk by, and they guys whistle and make some comments. Then the leader of the women turns around and says some snappy comments to shock/reprimand the guys, grabs the Coke bottle, and then says another snappy comment. I wonder what she’s saying, and what the slogan they show at the end is.
• While I was surfing I thought I had found American Idol, but it was Indian Idol! It’s quite different, with 3 guys being in the final. I have seen billboard ads for these 3 guys. It’s weird, ‘cause the show is in a mixture of Hindi and English, with 2 hosts (1 male, 1 female).
• In addition to the news, Bollywood movies, and knockoffs of American reality tv, there are lots of movies. This week, Top Gun, Dirty Dancing, some Kevin Bacon movie, and lots of other B-list movies were on TV. What a wasteland! Haha.

Picture of a cab and traffic on the route home.

posted by LZ @ 12:20 PM