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.