March 19, 2010
The train, of course, was late. When I finally arrived at Umaria, it was well past midnight. The rickshaw drivers were anxious to collect their hefty reward for ferrying me through the darkness to Tala. Buses hadn't been available for several hours. I asked the station manager if there were retiring rooms where I might hole up for the night. I asked if there were hotels. He said there were.
The rickshaw driver could take me to a hotel, unmentioned in guide book or online forum, for the mildly annoying rate of Rs50, The direct to Tala ride was Rs 350.
Clearly, the best, safest choice was to take a chance on the unknown hotel and continue by bus in the morning.
That's probably why I chose the other option.
It took nearly two hours with music blaring in the my ear, presumably to keep the rickshaw driver awake. Somewhere in the last 10K, the road turned to moon scape. I had to use both hands to keep myself steady.
We arrived past 2:00am. The hotel was full, as I had been told it would be. But it was really to late to beg the manager to help me find a room. After dealing with the “no change” scam with the rickshaw driver, I spent what remained of the night sleeping lightly in the staff quarters. In the morning they would have a room for me.
I later learned that the hotel was full, not with tourists, but with forest department trainees who were leaving that morning. If I had understood that part, I would probably have done things differently.
Now that the trainees are gone, I had to wonder if there are foreign tourists around for sharing jeeps.