A Contrast in Travelling.

Hastings Standard, Issue 191, 8 December 1896, Page 4

A Contrast in Travelling.

HOW THKV 1)1) IT IN AFRICA. The Dak IHuigalo is a nnic-h-valucl Anglo-Indian institution, and would be very much appreciated if imported into the-e parts of South Africa where there ar■> few or no railways, and where the population is sparse. All South Africans know what travelling ill South Africa is like anywhere oil the main railway lines. The roads, originally made when the wo-ld was created for soft barefooted pedestrians only, have been worn away by the heavy vehicular traffic of many generations of a toll-hating people in deep channels of .soft sand, relieved at intervals with loose boulders, or disselboombreaking proturberances of bed-rock. Bad as are the roads, they do not, I think, hurt the traveller so much as the hotels that are to be; found by the wayside. We all know what the average country hotel in South Africa is like. It is generally a one-storied tin shanty, with a sordid little bar 12 by Bby G. A sitting-room with a cheap, hard, ricketty sofa, four bentwood chairs, a table with a pictorial IJible, an antimacassar, torn, shabby copies of ancient local papers, and an Argus weekly. Sometimes there are four or five comfortless stalls in which arc two beds, two chairs, one tin-backed looking-glass, one wash-stand, a mud floor, and a generous allowance of ants, fleas, and bugs--especially bugs. In some go-a-head establishments the furniture is supplemented by a tin of Heating's insect powder, which is ostentatiously placed on one of the chairs. The dining-room has one deal table, a dozen or more chairs, several cheap, execrable, Scriptural prints, some framed full-length, much-faded, and very atrocious photographs, a dirty table cloth, a dingy cruet stand, and an assortment of iron knives and forks. They give you muddy coffee without chicory, mutton boiled to rags, tough fried chops and eggs, leather steaks and rissoles. You don't always get all those together, but you can always be sure of the rissoles. The waiting is always bad, and the waiter frequently insolent and dirty. For the meal you are charged 2s Cd, and the bed comes to as much more. No charge is made for the tin of Heating's. The discomfort of such hotels can only be realised by those who have tried j them.

HOW THEY DO IT IN INDIA. Now in India they do not allow traveller traps of that sort. The Government substitutes the dak bungalow. which is in most instances a j handsome building in charge of an j c fiicient staff of servants. "We travelled I for days and days, and came upon one j of the>e bungalows every four hours or [ so. We would drive up to the door with a great rattle, and would be met by the head of the establishment, a | dignified handsome Indian of maI ture age. lie welcomed us with a ! delicious salaam, and led each of us ! to a small suite of big rooms, consisti ing of a bedroom about 20ft high and

about 18ft broad ; a dre-sing-room a little smaller; a bath-room and a lavatory. Above the bed were the punkah, and salaaming at the door were the punkah wallahs, who for four annas each undertake to keep the punkah going every minute of the twenty-four hours. Before we bathed and changed our attire we were made to write our names in the visitors' book, and given the menu card, which in different districts varied a good deal, but generally we could order roast mutton, chops, eggs, chicken, puddings, milk, tea, and coffee. In due course, we would sit down to a nicely-spread meal, admirably cooked, and very smartly served. When we preferred it, the meals were served in a private room. The fare, though simple, was almost invariably perfect, and we were served, apparently, 011 the supposition that we were members of the Royal Family. In the building there is always a number of other suites in which fellow-travellers would be entertained in just the same style. There is never a European servant or manager, and it is rare to find any one in the establishment capable of speaking a word of understandable English. But the menu card and the wine list make up for most deficiencies in this respect, for, after all, you don't talk much to servants. .Round the bungalow is a verandah which is covered with great easy chairs—chairs in which you recline very comfortably, and which have leg rests and a place to put your brandy and soda. All the liquors and the food are supplied at cost price, plus the small expense of keeping the establishment going. We very rarely found other travellers there, and so practically enjoyed advantages of a series of private mansions all the way from Itawal L'indi to I'urumulla—a distance of many hundreds of miles.