CHAPTER LAKESIDE, TRIPURA

Because seventeen is the number at which a hotel still feels like a house. Everyone at Cassette by the second night is someone you've seen at breakfast. The bartender knows your drink by the second night — that isn't a promise we make at a 200-room hotel, and it's one we can keep at seventeen. It also means you can take the whole place. All of it. A wedding, a fortieth, a weekend the family brings up for years.

The lake hasn't decided what colour it is at 05:48. Coffee on the terrace by seven, properly poured. The pool wins from 11:40 and keeps winning. Lunch is long; plates keep arriving. The light goes gold at 18:50 and the music comes up. At 00:20 the bar stops asking what time it is. Stars you can actually see at two in the morning. We took the clock down for a reason.