Mahakal homestay

Location...kind of....since we visited during the rainy season, we could not have the view of the mountain range. But the cloudy Darjeeling view was enjoyable alongwith the toy trains passing from near the balcony. That was kind of an experience. Besides, the location is on the hillcard road itself, about 4 km from the mall entry point....walkable distance.

Multiple things actually. We selected the homestay based on the 9 reviews at booking. com giving more than 9 rating. However, we could not quite enjoy the stay. 1. The 3 bedroom apartment charged about 18000 for 4 nights. At that price, you expect atleast a hygenic environment with toileteries and attached toilets. 2 bedrooms had a shared bathroom with an Indian toilet where the shower taps were broken. The one with an attached English toilet was so damp that I slipped in the deposited water inside the room. You have no option to open any window in that room due to lack of privacy. That bathroom window was exposed to the next building. Despite request for a cover for that window, no action was taken. We had to help ourselves by using a paper. 2. We received one towel and two handwashes as toileteries. No soap. Rest of the towels never received. We were a family of 6 people including 2 senior citizens and one 8 year old child. 3. We were instructed to keep the used crockeries outside the corridor. The dustbins as well. However, the cook complained several times regarding us keeping the crockeries at different point of time ( due to different eating time). Actually, if you need strict timings, you need to keep a note for the guests pasted in the rooms which most of the good hotels and homestays opt for. 4. The cook also expressed displeasure for not immediately running to the door when she came to serve food despite being requested to wait for a minute (no doorbell or intercom). If you need that kind of response you should not encourage senior citizens or anybody sick to stay. Mentioning sickness, me and my child had a severe food poison ( not from the homestay food) leading my family to panick. However, we received no cooperation from the host. Rather my parents ( senior citizens) were bashed for not running to the door despite them having no doorbell available, for not following the timings of dustbin vacating and crockery disposal.

The owner of the homestay

The owner's name was Santosh. He was very nice and even provided his own vehicle to roam around all the tourist places in Darjeeling. He even woke up at 3 in the morning to show us Tiger Hill sunrise which was so mesmerizing and dropped us till the airport the same day.