Oct. 27, 2004

Our last real day in England. It's always a drag when a vacation comes to an end. In the morning we took the train to Hampton Court. Hampton Court is a big palace built by Charles Wolsey and then relinquished to Henry VIII, who really knew how to throw a party. The palace was beautiful and nobody was mean to me in the bathroom.

We again attempted to eat at a pub for lunch, but got intimidated and went to a sandwich shop where I had a really gross roast beef sandwich.

Oct. 27, 2004
Tandoori Schmandoori

On our last night in London we decided to eat dinner at the Indian restaurant right next door to our hotel. If there's one thing I should say about myself it's that I like to be in control of the situation. I think this little story will illustrate that:

Being the good little planner that I am, I looked at the menu in the window the night before. Since everything costs nearly double in London, we tried to be very thrifty with our food money, i.e. eating at McDonald's and Burger King. I thought it would be okay to spend a bit more on our last night. It looked like we could get a meal for about $20-25.

When we sat down in the little restaurant we saw that we were the only two in there. Our waiter was an Indian man. It's very difficult to understand Indians speaking in a British accent. He gave us some time to look over the menu so he could harass every person that paused in front of the restaurant--"We have great dinner! Come inside!"

It was when we ordered our meals that everything went all wrong. Traci ordered the chicken curry and I chose the chicken tikka.

"Do you want starter?"

"No,” I responded, “I think we're okay with just the entrees."

"No starter? You must have starter?"

"Nope, we're good."

"Okay, I'll get you vegetable side."

Once again I tried to order my entree. "I'll take the chicken tikka."

"With Rice?"

"Yeah, with rice?" (Don't you have to put curry on rice?)

"And bread?"

"Yes."

As we sat there the place filled up a bit, which made both of us feel a bit more relaxed and it got the waiter off our back. He showed up with our $5-a-piece Sprites and then our meals. The food was pretty good, but basically the same stuff you could get at Curry in a Hurry.

And then the check came. I looked at the check. $65!!! $65?!! I don't think Traci and I have ever had a $65 meal in the entire history of our relationship, let alone for a meal we could have got for $8 in Salt Lake. I checked over the bill--we were charged for not one, but two side orders that we didn't want, $10 for two Sprites, the bread and rice for each of us that I assumed was included in the entree price and then the entrees themselves.

I had done so well on our trip at not getting ripped off. I had avoided all situations where I didn't know beforehand how much something was going to cost. And then, even after checking the menu, I ended up spending $65 on some curry. Blast!

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