A day of harmless disappointments

 Our host had offered us English breakfast. At the appointed time he brought us the trays with soggy everything apart from the egg which was chewy. The spicy veg in sauce was lovely, the rest unpleasant. Ah well. Corn flakes tomorrow.

Message from Airbnb telling us our booking for Kolkata is not avaliable. Tried to find somewhere else - narrowed to four possibles. 

Our plan was to find somewhere to do our laundry then Uber to a wildlife sanctuary about an hour away, Pobitora, spend an hour or two if possible then head to the river in Guwahati to join our booked sunset cruise. "If possible" because we've struggled to find any information beyond availability of jeep or elephant one-hour trips. The park is famous for one-horned rhinoceros but we're more interested in a stroll to see what birds are around. We'd decided the only way to find out was to go there and maybe fit in another trip tomorrow. 

The first laundry place was closed so we walked on to the next, which had stopped doing laundry, dry clean only. We recalled seeing a little booth near our first night restaurant, and, especially given we'd walked a mile in the wrong direction and it was approaching local noon with very hot sun overhead, ordered an Uber. Found the place but really struggled to make our needs known as the owner only spoke Assamese and Google translate can only produce written Assamese... and he couldn't read. Eventually a passing English speaker came to our rescue and our laundry should be ready tomorrow evening. 

We'd run out of time for an expeditionary trip to Pobitora and Jen wasn't feeling 100%; walk back to our digs via a local shop (and a few photos of us with owner and his daughter) was enough. 

A couple of hours later another Uber took us to the ferry ghat we assumed was right. The meeting information from the cruise people gave a name unknown to Google, internet or maps. As we trekked across the desert-like sands (if it was a very well populated and dirty desert) to the low-water ferry boarding there was no information about the company at all. A few people advised us where to wait but there was no obvious cruise boat, just several versions of ferries. At fifteen minutes to go I messaged the company with a photo asking if we were in the right place. With five minutes to go they messaged back saying the boat was on another cruise, essentially our trip had been cancelled. 

These boats are landlocked until monsoon season

Desert walk / drive / ride to catch a ferry

Major piling for something - a guide we asked explained carefully that something is being constructed! 

Boarding the ferries seems a damp business

The bridge under construction - it'll make a huge difference to Guwahati 

We waited by this sign for 30 minutes 

Ummed and ahhed for a while before Jenny's lack of oomph persuaded us to return to base. The Uber took ages to arrive - he driver wanted us to cross the road to him, but there was a tall fence along the Central reservation and no crossing point in sight. He then drove incredibly recklessly (and we've been here nearly two months now!) and, at times, three times the speed limit overtaking into high-speed oncoming traffic. He rarely took his thumb off the horn button; he didn't get a five star review! 

Supper? Jen didn't want to go out so I downloaded a food delivery app. These don't exist in Orkney so I'm totally inexperienced. Eventually I selected and ordered a chicken meal from Barbecue Nation which arrived in about 35 minutes. The driver seemed totally shocked that I gave a tip - I've no idea if that's the done thing anywhere. Spiced chicken travels much better than toast! Very tasty and pretty spicy. Not really a meal so much as several different types of chicken and a bit of bread (which had travelled less well). 

I'm looking forward to deleting all these apps - Uber, Zomato, Indigo especially - because of the frequency of notifications and the impact they seem to have on my phone's battery life. But urban India runs on smartphones.