A review of our AirBnB in Rishikesh

When we were planning our trip we wanted to begin with a month in Rishikesh. I’d been to Rishikesh 3 times previously for 4 or 5 days at a time. The idea was to get a place with a kitchen. This way we could do our own cooking and if we got food poisoning it would be our own fault. This is also a budget trip so we need to try and find the best deal and balance it with location, amenities, etc. There was a lot to choose from on AirBnB but not a lot in our price range.

We settled on an apartment right near Kailash Gate and booked it for 3 nights. It didn’t have a lot of reviews but it was cheap – around $15 a night, I knew the location, and it boasted a queen sized bed. FYI – no one has a queen sized bed in India with the exception of the prime minister. A queen sized bed is basically 2 twin beds shoved side by side with a queen sized fitted bottom sheet holding them together. Mattresses are about as thick as a carton of smokes and about as comfortable. Overall the place was kind of dirty but it was huge. We have 2 bedrooms, 4 beds, a living room, kitchen, shower room, toilet room and even a prayer room. The kitchen was sparsely equipped. Upon close inspection we decided that we would need 2 plates and 2 forks if we wanted to eat anything. One pan was clean enough to boil water for tea.

AirBnB – if you’re listening – Westerners have certain expectations, even with cheap budget accommodations. A little coaching with Indian hosts would go a long way – and I’m available to do it for you. This place would be great with a thorough cleaning, some new clean kitchen items and a fresh coat of paint. Plus the hosts could charge a bit more and they’d get better reviews.

The place also boasted free wifi, something that’s important to us since I’m running a business from 7000 miles away. The wifi was horrible and worked about 5% of the time at best. This also meant our U.S. phones (wifi only) would not work. We figured out a hack with our 3rd phone, the one with Indian sim card and used it as a mobile hotspot. Yesterday we found an even better solution. Our good friend MP set us up with a mobile hotspot with 1GB of data per day for 80 days. Cost = $7.20 total. I’m not kidding. 80 gigs of data over the next 2 months for 7 bucks.

This place is a bit too noisy for us. We’re headed to a guesthouse today. Stay tuned.