Bucket Bath and Beyond

Here I am again, talking about baths. But this time it's not the long, luxurious soak, but the kind you can have everyday in India, courtesy of a simple plastic bucket and jug. It took me a while to figure out why there's always a bucket and a jug in every bathroom here, but there's no bathtub, or even a shower to step into; the bathroom floor is completely tiled and flat, with maybe a small one inch step down into the immediate shower area to stop mass flooding! My friends talk very matter of fact about taking a bucket bath; in fact, Aussie Fiona is ALWAYS preparing a bucket bath when we're on the phone, think she lives in one! And every time I go shopping I get a free bucket with something or other - I've never had so many, last count eight! So finally last week I took the plunge; after a couple of hours of gruelling riding needed more than a shower. I filled up the bucket with hot water, added a little Space NK bath oil (from my friend Sue last Christmas, not Bangalore!), and jug full by jug full, doused myself in the hot scented water. When I could finally scoop no more from the bucket, I poured that last remaining water over me from head to toe. What a treat! It felt (almost) as good as an hour soak in the tub at The Imperial. I was hooked! This is one of those things that you 'must try at home', even if you have a fabulous bathtub to wallow in. Three cheers for the humble bucket bath!

Storm in a Bathtub

I love to stay in hotels. One of the best things when checking into a fabulous hotel is running a hot bubbly bath for myself. I have a bathtub phobia. It's weird, don't know why, or where it came from, but there are some bathtubs I can get in, and some I can barely look at. Our bathtub in Manhattan, for example, was a no-no: no matter how many times Tom scrubbed it, I barely took three baths in the three years we lived there. I did shower in it though, you'll be relieved to know. There is no tub in our apartment in Bangalore BUT it did take me a few days to get used to my own bathroom and its little quirks. So, when I go to a hotel, I look forward to a pristine white bathtub that I can while away a good half hour in. Some of the best bathtubs I have wallowed in were the marble tubs at The Imperial in Delhi or, very different, The Tabacon Spa in Arenal, Costa Rica, whose bathroom windows fully opened onto the jungle exposing the whole room so you felt like you were bathing outdoors. Both hotels cost under $200 per night at the time of travelling and are billed as luxury. Which leads me to the last 'luxury' hotel I stayed in, the 5-star Ashok in Delhi at $220 per night. The bathroom was so bad, that I was tempted to not even stand in the shower, let alone sit in the tub. The plastic bathtub was stained yellow, the plug was rusted, and the plastic curtain had seen better days. The rest of the bathroom lived up to the tub - the mirrors were tarnished, the toilet seat - which was 'sealed for hygiene' - was once white, I believe, although muddied by years of fingerprints, and even the light switches had been flicked by grubby fingers too many times. Click here for my full account of The Ashok. According to the Ashok website, "they don't build hotels of such grandeur any more". Thank goodness!