The night without sleep in my quirky hotel

My hotel in Ayodhya is on the surface normal. Yet, walking into reception on my first night I immediately saw its quirks. With four or five employees standing at reception, surrounding me, all equally keen to take my bag and welcome me in, I knew this was going to be an interesting stay. From the waiter who runs between rooms with trays full of food, or the struggle of receiving wifi from a portable device that is shared throughout the hotel, my stay has made me laugh.

Looking back, although at the time it was rather irritating, the Saturday night I spent here was quite funny. The hotel runs weddings and that was the night of a wedding party. From being empty, the hotel was suddenly full. The space outside was prepared with food, chairs, a stage and so many people taking selfies that it seemed strangely like a teenage house party. With music so unnecessarily loud that when it played my room would vibrate violently along with it, I knew it was going to be a night without much sleep. But the noise did not stop there.

The hotel rooms from the hallway are all identical, as one would expect them to be, apart from the glaring room number which everyone seemed to miss, or ignore. So, assuming they had booked the entire hotel, or simply not realising which room they were at, for the entire duration of the night I had people loudly banging on my door, shouting in and ringing the doorbell as if it were strange that someone could be sleeping in the middle of the night.

I suppose I was lucky to get my three hours sleep between 2:30 and 5:30.

Waking up the next day, and exiting my room, I was again reminded of those wonderful teenage house parties. The hotel was a mess, covered in flowers and confetti, the staff looked like they had been through a war, and the guests were sleeping, sprawled on the sofas in the reception and the restaurant. I laughed to myself, before setting out for the day.