The height of being laidback

It'd been a long while since i visited the hills. Ladakh happened in 2013 and it only helped create a fear in me for altitude. So i was a bit apprehensive about visiting McLeodganj over the past (long) weekend. But then, Ladakh is at a massive 18,875 ft above sea level while McLeodganj is at 6832 ft. Lower the better, for my breathlessness. So my partner and i reached early morning and headed straight to our hotel. The overnight bus trip was kind to neither of our backbones so we just wanted to sleep off. There was only one problem with that plan. Nobody seemed to be at the reception. I knocked on the door only to realize that it was unlocked. As i let myself in, i noticed that there was nobody behind the table either. I tapped the table bell repeatedly to no avail. By then, we had wasted about 15 minutes. I repeated “Hello” in various accents too. No response whatsoever. It was then i leaned over the table to notice that somebody was fast asleep on the floor. I raised the decibel of my unpleasant hello in an attempt to wake up whoever was sleeping with the quilt covering his entire body. No response, again. I proceeded to shake his legs gently—in the beginning at least—to wake him up. He wouldn't move, let alone bother to open his eyes. Tired but amused at the same time, i finally decided to pull his quilt off, hoping he'll get the sign. But no, he had his own plans. Without disturbing his forty winks, he dragged the quilt back over his face and went back to sleep. After my third attempt at tug-of-quilt, he finally gave in. On getting up, he apologized profusely but not without explaining how he went to sleep at 4.30am! However, that's not the funniest part of the story. He informed us that the room we booked wasn't empty because the occupants didn't check out! Sheepishly, he further requested us to leave our luggages behind and go have breakfast somewhere. His idea was that he'll get us room—somehow—within an hour. We did as he instructed because we were so damn indebted to his awakening.