Instincts of a tiger

Of the elusive snow tiger to be exact. Elusive, because I will be alluding the snow this year by being in India and Argentina during the winter months here!

So regarding the hotel of choice for Delhi, the Metropolis Tourist Home, I am glad that I followed my instincts (see description of my instinct above). After I got that half-assed response from them, I decided that I was going to suck it up on Monday morning and give them a call from work (Shhh, hopefully no one will notice that little short blip of a call to India on our long distance bill). So I called them and the conversation went something like this:

Man with deathly heavy Indian accent: Hello?
Me: Hello, is this Metropolis Tourist Home? I am calling to confirm a reservation with you.
Accent at the other end: What day would you like to make the reservation for?
Me: No, I already have a reservation. My name is Jennifer Richardson, for December 2.
Accent: nope, we have nothing.
Me: *sigh* okay, can I make one? For December 2.
Accent: Okay for December 2, what time do you arrive?
Me: 9:20, actually do you have an airport pick up service?
Accent: Yes, what flight are you on.
Me: (realize I don't know the airline I am flying on) Oh no, I don't know the airline I am flying on, I am sorry....
Accent: okay, you call me back in December *click*

And so it ended. I apparently had made a reservation, but for how many people, and how many nights, and which airline and which flight were they picking me (and others) up at? So really I had nothing.

Back to the drawing board I went. Looked into two more reliable looking email responses. One from the Hotel Namaskar, and one from the Hotel Star Paradise. Emailed both of them, got prompt responses, in well written English with details, and personalizations that let me know that at least someone had read my email! And presto, I picked one (The Hotel Star Paradise), confirmed the room reservations and we are all kinds of set!

I was really worried at first when I didn't trust the emails from the first hotel. I felt like I was being paranoid, and that the people there are so relaxed and had a totally different standard of interaction and that I should just let it slide and assume that things were fine. I am a notorious worrier! But in the end, I am glad that I took a step back, breathed, and listened to my tiger like instincts that told me this hotel was not a good idea. No mistakenly eating poison arrow frogs for this tiger!