| Seashore Garden@Mahabalipuram-Thats Why Indians Are Not Allowed-Local Discrimination?
It was a tough week full of stress and we [wifey and me] decided to while away time on a long weekend close by the city, so thought we would stay at Mahabalipuram [mahaps for short] some 60KMs from Chennai. It was a easy drive, visiting some temples on the way, some real old not so popular ones, and we reached there at sunset. My idea was to photograph the Shore Temple on a fullmoon day and I was planning to go alone or with a friend, but wifey insisted we stayed there and i will have a lot of time to do so then. So I made it a point we go to the shore and find some shack to stay, before about 7pm. I went to Hotel Sea Breeze and found that there were no sea facing rooms, but only deluxe suites that were sea facing and the fare was a bomb. So I decided i check out some others that are neat sea-facing at least.
Found this place while walking along to SeaBreeze and back, called "Seashore Garden Hotel" they had properties all along the beach side,
must be some local biggo's property I guess, just a few yards from Moon Rakers walk east towards the shore, and you see this property to your right side. Some orange paint and looks like a shack on the front and has 3 rooms in one building and if you enter from the beach front a further 200 feet away to the south, there is a large garden scape and some 10 rooms and another property adjacent with some 15 odd rooms, all cramped in the fishermen's colony. Damn i don't know why i decided to stay there at all, but the guy spoke like a genuine brat and told me to take a big room for about 1500/- which i bargained for 1300/- and I paid him 1000/- and left to the shore temple to photograph the monument.
When I came back, the A/C was not working, I told the guys, [no room boys FYI] all some local fishermen boys, wont even understand a single word thatta come outta mai mouthha!
He said in some fishermen language Tamil, the A/C will work after 10PM, now due to power problem it seems to be low voltage, I was waiting for the 10PM mark, it was darn humid, sweating like hell, right on the shore, hot and sticky. NO A/C still, the damn thing started to fail and the fans were off either. Now n power and it is about 12AM, I get frustrated along with a Doctor from amchi Mumbai from the next room with Mother and family, pleaded to switch on something that will allow them to sleep. I was asking that half asleep fella inside the motor room, when do you think power will resume, I see some other places near by with power, it did not look like a black-out, he said, must be a fuse is gone. So there was no power backup, no one to take care of a blown fuse, virtually hell.
The next day morning, still no A/C but the damn power was resumed, I was waiting to see the face of the man who gave me the room. here comes the menace, he claims when i asked him about the power failure and A/C failure - "I told you nah?" that A/C may or may not work!!
So I ask him why the hell did you take a A/C charge from me then when a NON-AC was about Rs.750/- only? He said the room was a AC room, and he is not responsible if the fuse blows out. I say I want my money back, he says you can leave, U have to pay me Rs.300 more, i say NO way, you give me back Rs.250, this is a NON A/C room.
He starts to exclaim "this is why we do not give rooms to INDIANS", I tell him politely, dude, you are not supposed to talk like that, I'm right here from Chennai, and If you would have told me this AC wont work i would have gone home back. Moreover, the foreigner is helpless and that is why he wont bargain or argue with you fellows, that does not make him anyway superior because he looses his money to con men like you, so watch your words.
He gets busy, tells me to leave if I do not like the place, so politely I left the place leaving the keys hanging on the door, not bidding good bye to any one, 'coz i did not have much luggage, I just packed up and left. I did not pay the Rs.300 nor make fuss about it further.
The guy had given be a stale receipt without no name of the property, no bill number nothing, just a blank receipt, with amounts filled Rs.1300/-
I know if the bill book had a copy, he will be liable for that Rs.300 shortage and wanted him to learn from his mistake of taking it easy. And atleast he learns not to give false promises to guests the next time on.
Please avoid this place, what i learn is, the place is new and does not have a very proper electricity connection, and seems to have periodic outages, must be the property does not have much of legal support. | 
23rd April 2009, 15:45
