Hotel Farmer Luxury

Jeff and I are spending a few days in Bettiah, West Champaran, observing a field project, and we have the delightful privilege of staying at “Hotel Kishan Vilas,” which roughly translates to “Hotel Farmer Luxury.”

When we pulled up, the slogan on the door read “Redefining Hospitality.” This felt a little ominous to us, until we found out that this is a new branch of their original hotel, Hotel Kishan (Hotel Farmer) across the street. I think we made the better choice.

They are clearly attempting to redefine hospitality in small and large ways. It’s clean, the beds are comfortable, there’s AC, a fan, a coffee table with chairs and a private bathroom, and even a (crackly) television. However, in their attempt to show their eagerness for hospitality, they may have omitted a few things. For example, they serve food but there’s no restaurant, so we’ve been eating in our room, which is totally fine (the food’s quite good).

What’s a little more awkward is their habit of knocking to deliver a meal while they are also walking inside. We either lock the door (and hear a thump as they walk straight into it), or more often, Jeff’s taken to remarking, “Yes, you may come in” after they’ve entered the room. This is strongly reminiscent of our attempts to train our dog Lalu by directing him to do something after he’d already decided (and started) to do it.

It’s very normal for restaurants here to have an enormous menu but actually offer only a small number of items. Hotel Kishan Vilas takes this to another level. They have a notice on the back of the menu that says: “Ice Creams and Sweets Available on Demand,” but when Jeff politely asked for ice cream last night, we were informed that they didn’t have any. “Of course!” we realized later – he wasn’t demanding enough.

Go figure we didn't take it literally enough.

All of this is a gentle critique, because it’s a lot better than we expected and we’re totally comfortable here. We’d heard horror stories about Bettiah from J-PAL RAs when we lived here, but for a short visit, we’re doing great.

The view from our window, on a gorgeous day.