Frieze On Wall Of Room At Gangaur Palace Hotel
The Gangaur Palace Hotel in Udaipur is a converted haveli, that is, a former residence of a wealthy family. It probably dates back two or three hundred years.
The building is made of stone and built around a courtyard. The pillars that support the floors above are made of a dense grey stone carved and decorated in a very old Indian style. All in all, it oozes character.
We paid 1,000 rupees (about £12 or $20) per night for the room, which is about as much as we have paid anywhere in India.
We had a room on the top floor. It overlooked Lake Pichola and had a large bay window with a cushioned seat and a cotton-covered bolster on either side. The top of each of the windows in the bay was cut out in a fancy curved design so that the bay had an ‘Arabian Nights’ feel to it. It was very cosy, comfortable, and inviting. The curtains filtered the light and we could read and lounge and watch the lake and the town below.
A delicately painted frieze ran around the bay window and also around the high ceiling and the door that led into the room.
The way up to and down from the room was a bit more problematic. It was reached by steep, narrow, stone stairs painted red and set off against white stone walls.
The first time we went up, we joked about stopping for tea half-way up to recover before the final push to the top. After a couple of days though, we were more or less trotting up and down the stairs.
At our floor at the top of the building we then had to negotiate the narrow balcony that ran around the courtyard. This was the problematic bit. The wall of the balcony was very low.
By ‘low’ I mean well below waist height for me because I am over six feet tall.
This meant that being aware of exactly where we were – four floors above the stone courtyard – was always in our minds as we went to the room.
On the other hand, we were just a few steps aways from the rooftop restaurant which could serve up most dishes from curries to pancakes and omelettes and they could always bring something up from the German Bakery on the ground floor.
India is a tough country in which to travel, with huge variations in living standards. Some parts of Delhi, for example, look like the aftermath of war. This makes the romance of the city of Udaipur, with its architecture, lake, and comparatively high standard of living, all the more poignant.
Now that we have stayed in a number of hotels in our travels around India, we look back on that room – remembering the light streaming in – and think how lovely it was.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
sounds fantastic
Thanks Nick, and yes – within the context of India and its problems -Udaipur is very pretty and the hotel was lovely.
That parapet was awfully low, though!
I enjoy the writing and photos, as usual. How was the day of color? Are you feeling like Michael Wood, finding adventure around every corner? I know there is MUCH more than the sliver of thoughts, observations and photos that you are sharing here. I look forward to the full report!
Hi Joan,
We holed up in our room in Rishikesh for Holi – too much paint flying around and we had no old clothes to wear for the day – which would definitely have been needed.
It was interesting seeing the locals gently smear each other on the face with paint and then hug – not at all like the paint throwing we imagined.
That happened later.
The day after Holi, everyone was walking around looking hung-over but with scrubbed faces.
However, the paint clung on to them despite detergent, skin cleansers, washing up liquid, and repeated hot showers.
It seems a million miles away after the night train we took that left from Haridwar at midnight and arrived here in Varanasi fourteen and a half hours later.
We dragged ourselves dazed out of the railway station and into an auto-rickshaw that promptly ground to a halt, out of gas (petrol), in the crazy pell-mell traffic.
While the driver pushed his vehicle (with us in it) across the traffic to a gas station, we looked at each other and burst out laughing.
It is crazy here – filthy as well from what the cows deposit in the narrow lanes near the ghats on the banks of the Ganges.
Will publish the low-down later.