Taking a break in India

November 2^nd, 2026

Guwahati, India

The last two weeks have been spent here in the city of Guwahati in Assam India.

We moved from the last hotel to this one down town as noted in my last entry.

The next morning, I started a two week time off to mainly relax and hopefully get some work done.

Over the two weeks I manage to get all the blogs uploaded with photos so they we are now caught up with the activities leading to Guwahati.

My other main goal was to get as many videos edited from the summer Arctic trip as possible so I can get that trip moving along and eventually can start editing the Asia content (though that will still be later this winter before it is ready).

I managed to complete 11 videos, all which are online and scheduled to release over the next few weeks, so I will be ready to start again when I get back home.

We did walk around town a bit as well.  I discovered a pizza place about ½ mile from the hotel, so made two trips over there for lunch during the two weeks to get something other than Indian food in me. 

I also ate at the restaurant in the hotel across the road as they have some western dishes on the menu. (But the place had a strong odor throughout the building, thinking some cleaners or something used to cover the odor from the canal next door which did not smell pleasant.)

I ate most of my meals in the onsite restaurant called Omara, which was all Indian style foods, but had dishes from all over India and a few that were created by the resident chef as well.

I had a few breakfast as well, which was mostly local dishes, but they did offer eggs and bacon at least.

I had dinner most nights in the club, Noya.  The menu was more small appetizer things, but many were unique to the club, not on the restaurant menu (though same kitchen prepared both).

I enjoyed eating there as the options were more pan Asian and not just India, and the smaller, darker room with the music playing as nice.

I also found I got much better service in there than the restaurant, though I did have at least one lady in the restaurant that typically took my table and was able to predict some of my needs.

But the staff in the bar were even better at that, and soon just brought my drinks over without my needing to ask.

I went there every night to enjoy a few drinks, some good music, and worked on converting 360 video or even editing a few times.  Allowed me to get work done outside the room where I would be more likely to fall asleep while working.

I had spent a bit of time talking with a few of the people in the bar, and the manager had spent a fair amount of time talking to me and asking questions about my travel both in the bar and the restaurant where he also took shifts.

At one point I had joked about dabbling in doing DJ work (I had noticed the nice controller they had on the DJ station) and he asked if I wanted to play.  I said I would have to see if I could get some of my music onto a USB drive (I have a about 200 songs on my phone for playing on airplanes, but not the full 15000 song library I have at home).

He said to just let him know.

So, I did actually copy the songs over, but since they had a resident DJ come in most nights around 10:00pm, I was just content to wait for him to play, and they usually had good music going when he was not there (I think they mostly used playlists off YouTube as the occasional advert would also play).

However, the one night things were a bit quiet, and the music playing was not too good, and the place was mostly empty (actually pretty empty most nights before 10pm.) so I saw him and said I had my music and he asked if I wanted to play, so said we should see if my stick will work.

As I was afraid, the controller only had USB-A, but my stick was USB-C.

However, he said to give him a few minutes and he returned with a USB-A stick that the resident DJ used occasionally, think it might also have contained the software license for the device as he usually inserted it along with his other key when he played.

We used my laptop to copy my music to that stick and then I was able to load up the songs in the controller (it can play right off the stick as it has all the software built in, no laptop or computer required like I have at home).

I spent a few minutes figuring out the controller, thankfully it was a PioneerDJ system, which I use at home, so many of the controls were labeled the same and in same places (though some controls are standard across all brands).

I then had them switch the sound over to the controller and the guy did help me adjust one setting that I did not know about to get something to work (my setup does not have any option to disable that function, so was not sure why it was not working).

I then proceeded to play about a 2 hour set and the place actually did get a bit busy for the last part and I was told later by some of the staff that the other patrons seemed to be enjoying themselves, dancing along at their tables while they ate and drank.

I also had the audience of the extra bar staff as this was the night before Halloween and they were doing preparations and practice for the big event and bar take-over that night.

So, they had multiple bartenders working along with the guest bartender who was up from Kolkata (not sure what she does there, but she must be with some bigger place there, as Barcardi (the event sponsor) brought her up to host the event and lead the bar.)

She later said she enjoyed my set as I played a lot of older western music she does not get to hear as often around the places.

I had spent some of the previous night talking with her as well as she was there getting stuff setup for the practice night, but had more time to talk then, she even brought me several non-alcoholic drinks to get my opinion (and I was not charged for them).

When the resident DJ arrived, I think he was a bit surprised to see me playing, but he rolled with it, and we got to talking and he then started to show me some of the functions I had not figured out how to use on the controller (either things my equipment lacks, or they work in totally different ways).  He actually offered to let me keep playing with his song set, but since I did not know his music, and it was setup for more advanced transitions which I am still learning, I figured it would be better to just turn the table back over to him.

I did take the stick so I could erase my music from it and then gave it back in case he needed it.

I did attend the next nights event, which was very busy, most people I had seen ever, but sadly it was not the turn out they had hoped.  Guess there was a concert from a well known regional music star in the stadium nearby, so they lost to that event.

They did bring in a 2^nd DJ that night who might have been a bigger name locally, the resident started the nights set, and then turned it over to him, and then took over while he took breaks as well.

Overall, a great night though.

I then chatted with the resident DJ each night afterwards as he always came over to the table to say hello when he saw me, before he would go up and play.

I did mention to the main staff member who had assisted me the most that I would miss hanging out there as that was my last night on Sunday, since they were closed on Mondays, but he told me they would actually be open on Monday, so was cool I would get one more night.

So, I arrived on Monday and by then I had had several conversations with staff that all knew it was my last day at the hotel, and guessing that while someone would have known due to my reservation, that fact that it had been communicated around was kind of interesting.

As I was waiting for my food to arrive, the manager came over and we talked for a bit, and then he said they had a gift for me and he motioned and all the staff came over and they presented me with a local scarf (these are given out in many regions around India to guests, though each has a unique regional design) and a coffee much with the club’s name on it.

We then took a group photo before everyone went back to work.

Overall, I had a great two weeks at the Palacio: Paltan Bazaar.

I got lots of work done for my Blog and YouTube channel, read several books on my Kindle, and enjoyed many good nights at the club in the hotel.

I will be leaving tomorrow to journey to my next adventure in Sri Lanka.

So, look for more regular entries as I start to adventure on a motorcycle again in a few days.

Catch ya down the road.