CaliNurse

VP, thanks for the recommendations!
Dogster--oh no, another idea shot down!! (There was that idea of five days at Glenburn..)
I read of Cardomom House in Sawdays and it sounded lovely. Is it the Brits you don't like, or it there to much "attitude"?

thursdaysd

The OP has regretfully checked out of the Keys in Trivandrum, and is now in Madurai, with lousy net access. I would just say that I did check the Lemon Tree chain, and the home stay site, when I initially booked for this trip, and nothing worked. I don't remember now whether it was price or location or a combination.

WRT Chennai, the "random date" is the date I'll be there. I will be staying at Malles Manotaa booked through agoda.com for $36.45.

dogster

Cali, if I was to write what I actually thought of C House and its 'owner' I would truly be banned from Fodor's forever. I'm not sure what the internet defamation laws are.

There was, however, the matter of The Frozen Chicken Of Death...

It was that sweet pink meat in the middle that brought me down... and down, and do-o-o-wn, wiping out Chettinadu, Tanjore and all points north till I made it to the very Lemon Tree, Chennai where Dogster and his digestive system came to a closer relationship than either of us had ever intended.

The FC of D was more entertaining than the owner.

'It's <i>my</i> house,' he said grandly, waving one pudgy finger in the air, 'they can like it or lump it...'

Many do like it. Dog got the lump.

Kathie

Alas! The place where you got poisoned! You'll never forget that. People who get violently ill from a particular unfamilar food develop a permanent aversion to it (called the Garcia effect). If you get food poisoning in an unfamilar place, I think you also develop an aversion to that place.

thursdaysd

Having recently suffered (although considerably less violently) at the Gateway Coonoor, all my sympathy... BTW, I was actually moved to post a review of the Ginger Mysore on tripadvisor, although I'd been sort of boycotting them since an unfortunate incident in Marrakesh. See [email protected]

dogster

I think this link will work better to read thursday's review:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserR...ECK_RATES_CONT

BTW, Kathie's theory [and Mr Garcia's] may not be strictly appropriate to that particular situation, but it's so interesting I think I'll adopt it anyway. For those with too much time on their hands, here is probably just about enough information:

http://www.psywww.com/intropsych/ch0..._aversion.html

CaliNurse

FC of D!! SUrely the "F" stands for something besides "frozen." Is there a name for gastrointestinal syndrome brought on by laughing so hard that one's stomach cramps, necessitating an intimate relationship with the toilet of which the above posts speak?

Interesting fact: original motivation for the creation of incense was the need for a magical stick whose fumes would override those of said intimacy.

Garcia effect works both ways: one may develops a fondness for a place(town, hotel) where the food was delicious. Perhaps this partially explains different reviews for same places? It might explain the reason many English take short-break holidays to France, despite a traditional, possibly genetic, dislike for "les frogs"

Back to the OP. Here's an example of the kind of non-chain hotel many of us (I think) prefer. this was in Mandi, HImachal Pradesh, but places like this are found elsewhere, for sure:

http://www.viscoresorts.com/photoalbum.html

It was about $50/night. The river was little more than a gravel pit in June, the term "resort" is used quite loosely... it was friendly, beds only moderately hard, super clean, room painted bright pink, lawn was green and lovely, filled with vacationing families and local folks celebrating a child's birthday. We were the only Westerners. Loved it!

CaliNurse

WHY is it that those who get up in arms about one-time posts, aren't noticing or questioning the post from Ginger Hotels directly addressed to VP Singh, obviously referring to his mention of Ginger on Dec 28 post. Here it is:

GingerHotels on Dec 29, 10 at 1:35am
@vp_singh: Hi Mr. Singh,

Your feedback has been noted. Please do share your contact number at [email protected] and our team will get in touch with you shortly.

Thanks
Team Ginger Hotels

indianapearl

The first time I ever got sick from drinking was when I was 15 at a New Year's Eve shindig. My date had a bottle of cheap bourbon. Although I've gotten sick from every alcoholic beverage known since then, to this day, the odor of bourbon still makes me ill.

We very much enjoyed the heritage hotels where we stayed in India. They're all different, so can't be pigeonholed like a chain hotel might be.

Kathie

LOL, you read more carefully than I do, Cali, I had totally missed that post. But I wouldn't want it removed - it's not advertising, but Ginger Hotels responding to a post. We've had a number of hotels/restaurants/tour companies respond to complaints on this board, and I think it is a healthy thing.

I hope VP will let us know how his communication with them goes.

CaliNurse

Kathie, i think the post from Ginger is b/c they know Mr Singh is a trgvel agent. O/w , why did they not send the same response to Thursdads, who first mentioned Ginger Hotels in the original post?