A Great Holiday Tour to Palaces Of Rajasthan:-
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IT wasn't very long ago that
staying in a palace hotel in Rajasthan was supposed to make you feel like Hollywood's
version of royalty, surrounded by luxury in a romantic desert world of maharajahs and
maharanis. Truth was, the real Rajasthani princes now tell you over a cup of tea on the
porch, a lot of what passed for the royal life and Rajasthani culture was fantasy created
by hotel chains and travel agents. In the last few years, the scions of warrior Rajput families, long stripped of their titles and princely purses by democratic India, have begun a kind of palace revolution to reclaim their heritage. They are opening many smaller family homes and spectacular hilltop forts to draw visitors into the real daily life of India's most dramatic state. In different cases, near-ruins are being bought by urban Indians, expertly restored and filled with antiques. Either way, palaces with worn rugs and mended chairs are still palaces, rooted in the hamlets and towns they tower above. |
At Rohet Garh,
a 350-year-old fortress north of Udaipur, Siddharth Singh (descendant of an invincible
knight who, legend says, didn't let a severed head stop him from fighting his way out of a
tight spot in Jodhpur) will take guests on a village safari by four-wheel-drive vehicle,
perhaps to meet the Bishnoi, a desert tribe whose religion is preserving the natural
environment.
At Neemrana,
a restored citadel north of Jaipur (where there is no front desk and often no electricity)
you can sit unseen on a tiny latticed balcony at dusk, watching the surrounding village
settle down for the night. During my stay children fed the family camels and women
gossiped around their water jars, to the accompaniment of peacocks shrieking in the trees.
From Mandawa in the north to Mount Abu in the southern Rajasthani hills, the great gates
are swinging open. Right now, the traveler has the pick of wonders in some of India's
remotest towns. Uncluttered, undeveloped and often living on the edge of survival,
Rajasthan is its own country. But however remote the setting, almost every room has its
private bath, air-conditioning, ceiling fans or ample windows to let in the night breezes.
"People come here to see what our culture is and how it developed hundreds of years
ago," says Maharaj Swaroop Singh. He is vice president of a new Rajasthani
association called Heritage Hotels and
the owner of Ajit Bhawan, Jodhpur's most interesting palace hotel, its 47 rooms decorated
by local craftspeople. "Here in our home there are no telephones or call bells in
your room, but there will always be a family member looking after you," he said.
The heritage hotels of Rajasthan are widely scattered, but can be grouped geographically.
There are a dozen or more places to visit in a circle around Udaipur or Jodhpur. A number
of restorations are only a few hours from New Delhi, perfect for weekends. Or, if time and
money are not obstacles, a grand tour from north to south (or the other way around) takes
in the full cultural panorama.
A friend and I toured the south with a car and driver last April, when it is hot, very
hot, in this part of India. Temperatures were already in the high 90's; by June they would
rise to 115 to 120 degrees. Most travelers in Rajasthan prefer the cooler winter months
from November to February, when temperatures drop to the 50-to-70 degree range in many
regions. However, as Indian car rental companies continue to put more air-conditioned cars
in their fleets -- we had an Indian-built Contessa -- weather becomes less of a problem.
Box lunches packed by hotels and guesthouses, along with bottled water packed in ice,
sustained us through long days on the road.
WE started with a flight from New Delhi to Ahmadabad, the capital of Gujarat state, worth
a visit in its own right for its temples and its calico museum. From Ahmadabad, it is an
easy day's drive to Mount Abu. Taxi fares for the trip start at about $40 to $50 one way.
At nearly 4,000 feet, Mount Abu is the only "hill station" in Rajasthan and the
site of an extraordinary collection of Jain temples at Delwara, a few miles from the town.
The Jains, a religious group that broke from Hinduism more than a thousand years ago --
its monks and nuns vowing to be nonviolent -- have become a prosperous, influential
community in India. The temples at Delwara (open daily to non-Jains only after noon, until
about 6 P.M.) are sacred places of pilgrimage as well as a vast sculpture gallery. There
are five temples built and rebuilt over 11 centuries, kept in pristine condition through
the generosity of believers.
Accommodation at Mount Abu, a resort town, plentiful. But for those seeking a hotel with
history, there are two choices: the Bikaner Palace Hotel and Connaught House, a smaller
villa.
We stayed in 80-year-old Bikaner House, still a cool hilltop getaway for the Bikaner royal
family of northwest Rajasthan. A rambling, rattling little castle, it has rooms of all
shapes and sizes priced at only $15 to $30 a night, plus another $5 or $6 for evening meal
and breakfast. The isolated palace, with surrounding gardens and a graceful interior
courtyard, has been a hotel since 1962 and is now a favorite honeymoon spot for Bombay
couples and a destination for energetic Europeans who hike the surrounding forested hills.
A group of German landscape painters had just decamped when we arrived.
My "room" at Bikaner House was really a suite that would have been impossible to
fill even with the massive pieces of 40's furniture it contained. The bathroom, as is
often the case in old royal houses, was vast, with an exterior door to be used by
"sweepers," members of the caste that traditionally cleaned latrines but was
barred from other rooms. A big bed floated in the middle of one room; in the sitting room,
overstuffed chairs were arranged by windows overlooking the garden. Dinner was a Charles
Addams affair, in a mournful and nearly empty dining room with traditional gravy stains on
the tablecloths. But the food was fine and the service nearly baronial.
On the way out of town, we stopped to look at Connaught House, which opened to paying
guests in 1985. This is a much cozier villa of six rooms filled with family memorabilia of
the Jodhpur maharajahs. Another eight rooms in a motel-style block have been added, out of
sight of the main house, but with a common porch overlooking a garden. Prices are about
the same as at the Bikaner Palace, but Connaught House does not serve meals.
Approaching Rajasthan from the south, the first major concentration of heritage hotels is
in Udaipur, a day trip down from Mount Abu and across the scorching plain, with stops
along the way to talk politics or watch the tailors of Pindwada, a little town where just
about everyone makes the colorful, swinging Rajasthani skirts and short midriff blouses
that are the hallmarks of the women of this region. Handsome village girls come to browse,
weighted with gorgeous, chunky silver necklaces -- an arresting sight in this barren
landscape.
Udaipur is best known for its Lake Palace Hotel on Pichola Lake, a conventional luxury
hotel. But I would go back to the place where I stayed, the Shivniwas, part of the huge
City Palace complex that dominates the Pichola Lake shore. For about $125 to $150 a day,
what you get seems like a royal apartment: a huge lakeside room with one or two balconies,
a bathtub by the window and a "Do Not Disturb" sign that says, "My room is
my palace." (There are cheaper rooms with interior views for under $100.)
Shivniwas has more parapets and stairways, lawns and pools, dark corners and broad vistas
than anyone could possibly explore in a few days. Furthermore, it's a reasonable walk or
short taxi ride from the City Palace museums, full of the history of the royal house of
Mewar, Rajasthan's oldest dynasty and the only one whose ruler could call himself Rana,
the king.
About four miles outside busy Udaipur, the Hotel Shikarbadi, where we stopped for tea, has
both royal ties and rustic serenity. Shikarbadi in Hindi means hunting place, and this was
a hunting lodge built 60 years ago for the Mewar kings. A royal prince, Maharaj Kumar
Arvind Singh, still lives here and runs a small stud farm. The lodge, with 25 rooms
renting for only $15 to $30 a night, offers horseback riding and target shooting, and has
its own small game sanctuary and deer park. There is a bar and dining room. The staff at
Shikarbadi, which is only three miles from Udaipur train station, will arrange
transportation, including sightseeing in town for those who want to stay in the country.
Back in Udaipur, Gulab Niwas is a good example of a smaller-scale conversion of a family
home to guesthouse. Capt. Jaiveer Singh, a retired Indian Army officer, opened six old
suites of his 50-year-old family home in a quiet garden four years ago. These are
old-fashioned suites, paneled in dark wood and opening on a veranda leading to the family
living room that doubles as a lounge. He has now added five newer and smaller rooms in an
annex. The cost of a night here is about $20 for a double.
The territory north and west from Udaipur toward Jodhpur is developing into a particularly
rich region for travelers willing to bounce over unpaved roads and plod up long winding
hills to castles like no others in the world. Just north of Udaipur, off the road to the
Hindu temple towns of Eklingji and Nathwara, is the Dilwara fortress, an extravaganza of
colonnades and turrets rising over a little town. Restoration work is just beginning at
Dilwara, which will be a palace hotel in a year or two. But though you can't stay there
now, it's worth the detour to take a look.
Farther north is Kumbhalgarh, a fortress where the Middle Ages come to life. This site,
under the protection of India's archeology department, has eight miles of crenellated
ramparts rising and falling over the gentle hills, enclosing a world unchanged in five or
six centuries. The village below was the essence of life in the age of castles, Rajput or
European: a warren of little homes clinging for safety and sustenance to the foot of the
mighty fortress looming over it.
There is now some very fine accommodation near Kumbhalgarh, in a small stone hunting lodge
called The Aodhi. Fifteen cottages climb a wooded hill prowled by leopards, black bear and
deer and inhabited by tribal people. The Aodhi is a center for trekking and wildlife
safaris. The comfortable, individualistic rooms are furnished with rich country
tapestries. Simple southern Rajasthani food is served: curried vegetables, chicken, mutton
and chapatis. Rates hover around $20 a night; meals are only $3 to $4.
From Kumbhalgarh, a small road goes north to Ghanerao and Ghanerao Castle, a rough-cut gem
of a minor fort. Rooms here were about the most basic we saw, often with a simple iron
bedstead on a stone floor. But rates are low, beginning at about $15, and Ghanerao village
is another experience of life in an earlier age: stone streets too narrow for cars and
courtyard after courtyard of family life to take in on a quiet stroll.
Ghanerao Castle has three properties, which we visited but did not stay in. The main house
has 20 rooms, with prices starting at about $15. There is a hunting lodge with 10 rooms,
and a farmhouse with five rooms and suites, some of them mud-walled, opening on small
courtyards at the edge of meadows where pieces of religious sculpture were placed. For
some American tourists, this would be close to roughing it, but the farmhouse is very
popular with Europeans.
Rohet Garh, on the road to Jodhpur, where the Singh family runs its village safaris, is a
more commodious residence than Ghanerao, with a lawn for strolling peacocks and 15
comfortable rooms, imaginatively decorated. Prices start from about $15 for a single to
$25 for a double. The buildings are set at the edge of a lake, with harsh, desert
countryside beyond the gates. Writers come here to work, or to experience festivals still
celebrated in traditional ways.
Jodhpur, which rises from barren land, is a center for handicrafts and antiques (or more
often reproductions) and ornate paintings on cloth. It is also a city of museums,
fortresses and royal residences. The best of its hotels seems to be Maharaj Swaroop
Singh's Ajit Bhawan, a small complex of elegantly designed and decorated rooms grouped
around lush courtyards. Unfortunately, we had chosen to stay in the huge Umaid Palace
Hotel, which has the atmosphere of a public monument. I never got over feeling I was
sleeping in city hall. One good thing to be said about this 350-room wonder on a
mountaintop is that it was built as a form of famine relief beginning in 1929, when local
people were starving and needed jobs. The maharajah who commissioned it -- down to its
European ballroom for 300 guests -- died in 1947, only three years after it was completed.
Some of his descendants still live in one wing.
North and east of Jodhpur, Rajasthan falls into the orbit of New Delhi, and many palaces
are within a day's drive of the capital; for example, to Jaipur, Sariska, or the Shekawati
region, with its wall frescoes.
Castle Mandawa, and its new desert village complex in the Jhunjhunu region at the edge of
the Western dunes, is a morning's drive from the Indian capital. Mandawa town will soon be
the site of a luxurious Oberoi hotel, but the landmark to look for is the old castle, a
walled fort on the hill, where donkeys carry up luggage from vehicles too wide for the
cobbled lanes. This is an eccentric place, the home of a princely family that has also
opened a Jaipur residence, Mandawa House, to the public.
The rooms at Castle Mandawa, full of wonderful objects (only one piece has been stolen, by
an American, they say), have window seats overlooking the courtyard and town. Mandawa town
is a center of painted compounds, frescoes with exquisite renderings of mythological,
historical and contemporary themes.
Neemrana Fort, a few hours' drive southwest of New Delhi, near the Haryana-Rajasthan
border, is being restored. At Neemrana, every room has a motif. One, named for Chandni,
the moon goddess, shimmered in yards of cool white cotton cloth and chests of hammered
silver.
A dozen or more other palace hotels are reasonably easy to reach by car, bus or train from
New Delhi when airline tickets are hard to get, as is often the case with Indian Airlines.
There is Samod Palace, the Golbagh Palace in Bharatpur, and palaces in Alwar, Bikaner,
Kota, Tonk or Jhalawar.
And there is always something new to explore in Jaipur, where the well-known Rambagh
Palace is getting competition from the smaller Raj Mahal and Jai Mahal, the latter with a
classical Mogul garden designed by Elizabeth Moynihan, whose husband, Daniel Patrick
Moynihan, is a former Ambassador to India. TAKING TO THE ROAD IN RAJASTHAN: A SAMPLING OF
HOTELS Getting There
Travel by road in Rajasthan is the best way to see the terrain and find offbeat palace
hotels. Although self-drive rental cars are beginning to appear in New Delhi, it is
advisable to rent a car with a driver experienced on India's narrow and badly maintained
roads, where trucks speed, animals plod and accidents are frequent.
Car rental costs are based on mileage, with a minimum of 200 kilometers (125 miles)
normally charged as a base rate. Travelers also pay for the driver's accommodation, often
less than $5 a night.
To rent a non-air-conditioned Indian-made Ambassador car with driver, the charge is about
16 cents a kilometer. For an air-conditioned Ambassador, a small and not very comfortable
car, the rate is 25 cents. A larger, air-conditioned Indian car, the Contessa, costs 34
cents a kilometer.
When foreign cars are available, they rent at higher rates. A Datsun costs 40 cents a
kilometer; a Mercedes nearly 50 cents.
In all cases, companies require the renter to pay for all the mileage accumulated,
including pickups and dropoffs and possibly the return of a car to its original base.
Travelers should be certain to ask what extra charges may be involved. As an example, a
10-day rental in southern Rajasthan cost $775, nearly a third above our actual mileage,
because the car was driven from Udaipur (its base) to Ahmadabad to pick us up, and then
back from Jodhpur to Udaipur after we flew back to New Delhi. We agreed to this in order
to have a good car and reliable rental company, and the same driver for the entire trip.
The cost includes $36 for the driver's food and accommodations plus a daily tip of about
$4.
Air fares in India are still inexpensive, although foreigners must pay in dollars at a
higher price than the rupee fares Indians pay. Some sample fares on Indian Airlines, the
domestic carier, are Delhi to Jaipur $56; Jaipur to Jodhpur $58; Jodhpur to Udaipur $28.
Buses also connect cities and towns.
Accommodations
Following is a sampling of hotels I visited: For general information on the Heritage
Hotels, write to Maharaj Swaroop Singh, Ajit Bhawan, Jodhpur 342006, India.
Jai Mahal Palace, Jacob Road, Civil Lines, Jaipur 302005, India; (141) 73215.
Rambagh Palace, Bhawani Singh Road, Jaipur 302005, India; (141) 75142.
Ajit Bhawan, Jodhpur 342006; (291) 20409.
Umaid Bhawan Palace, Jodhpur 342006; (291) 22516.
The Aodhi, Arat ke Bhagal, Near Kumbhalgarh Fort, District Udaipur, India; Kelwara 22 (no
direct dial service.) Can also be reached through The Aodhi Office, 2A New Fatehpura,
Udaipur 313001, India; (294) 25822.
Mandawa Castle, District Jhunjhunu-Rajasthan 333704, India; Mandawa 24 (no direct dial
service), or through Mandawa House, Sansar Chandra Road, Jaipur 302001, India; (141) 75358
or 65398.
Bikaner House, Delwara Road, Mount Abu 307051, India; 3121, no direct dial.
Connaught House, Rajendra Marg, Mount Abu 307051, India; 3360, no direct dial.
Rohet Garh, Post Office Rohet, District Pali 306421, India; (2932) 824, or care of Rohet
House, P.W.D. Road, Jodhpur 342001, India; (291) 31161.
Gulab Niwas, Khatna-Khudala House, Fateh Sagar Lake, Udaipur 313001, India; (294) 23644.
Lake Palace Hotel, Pichola Lake, Udaipur 313001, India; (294) 23241.
Shikarbadi Hotel, Goverdhanvilas, Udaipur 313001, India; (294) 83200.
Shiv Niwas Palace, City Palace, Udaipur 313001, India; (294) 28239.