The Lake Palace Hotel... words WILL fail me... but i will give it a shot anyway.
Udaipur Palace provides a good example. On discovering the city, Europeans referred to it as the Indian Venice. I thought Monte Carlo personally but lets not split hairs. A small story i liked, could be referred to as a Maharana version of "Cash in the attic". To enlighten Indian readers this refers to a mildly crass UK television show in which the premise of entertainment is derived by irritating "professionals" pontificating over the value of someone's junk regarding its value before hawking it all off at an auction house. I suppose the premise is that one of these forgotten unwanted artifacts may just be a hidden teasure. Of course they never are.
The Udaipur palace version was a little better when a huge collection of Crystal was found. For 300 years it was forgotten. So the crytal was used to make th most opulent of furniture. Chairs, tables, lamps etc etc all out of pure crystal. My particular favorite was the crystal 4 poster bed. Unfortunately the ruling Maharana never got to enjoy the use of any of it as he died at the age of 29. His successor deemed the crystal to be bad luck and has never permitted its use. It sits only as a museum attraction.
Gordon Nina & Jay
Udaipur is a relatively small city of 500,000. But its a real jewel in a crown for the region that was the Mewar kingdom. The city was supposedly born when the Maharana - Udai Singh II was out hunting and came upon a hermit that blessed him and upon listening of the "Maharanas" troubles with invading Moghuls (a derivitive of mongal), passed advice to build his kingdom's capitol on the site. Principly becouse the mountain terrain of the aravalli range presented good defencive ground and hindered the movement of the Moghul army's armoured horses.
Our guide told us that The title of 'Maharana' should not be confused with 'Maharaj' meaning great king. 'Maharana' means great warrior and the there is a great deal of pride based on this distinction. On a side note its not surprising that given India turbulent history of invading dynasties all shaping the country, the caste system has its own representation of this with the warrior caste - the Kshatriyas. Our guide Jitu Singh explained that he is decended from this caste and the Singh (meaning Lion) is a common surname in this caste. Whilst very popular with Sikh faith, it is not exclusively sikh.
So it turned out the Hermit advice was sound and whilst much of the other parts of the kingdom fell, Udaipur did not and the decending line of the Maharana rulers have added more and more opulence to it. And thats really what this blog entry is about.
Udaipur Palace provides a good example. On discovering the city, Europeans referred to it as the Indian Venice. I thought Monte Carlo personally but lets not split hairs. A small story i liked, could be referred to as a Maharana version of "Cash in the attic". To enlighten Indian readers this refers to a mildly crass UK television show in which the premise of entertainment is derived by irritating "professionals" pontificating over the value of someone's junk regarding its value before hawking it all off at an auction house. I suppose the premise is that one of these forgotten unwanted artifacts may just be a hidden teasure. Of course they never are.
The Udaipur palace version was a little better when a huge collection of Crystal was found. For 300 years it was forgotten. So the crytal was used to make th most opulent of furniture. Chairs, tables, lamps etc etc all out of pure crystal. My particular favorite was the crystal 4 poster bed. Unfortunately the ruling Maharana never got to enjoy the use of any of it as he died at the age of 29. His successor deemed the crystal to be bad luck and has never permitted its use. It sits only as a museum attraction.
However many other of the treasures of Udaipur are in use. On the picturesque Lake pichola sits 4 man made islands where kings retreated for indulgences beyond what we could imagine and on a scale we wouldnt believe. The three arches below are common place for major entrances, the middle arch is for the king and perhaps his close entourage, all others would pass through the side arches. Two of the islands where specifically built for the king to enjoy indulgences that were forbidden for anyone else. He even forbade his own son to enter a 'pleasure island' on account of his activities being too much of a a bad example to expose his son to.
Lake Pichola has some strange but enchanting characteristics. At some angles it captures the Light like liquid silver. It never seems to break into a a wash. The boat wakes roll to the shore like liquid glass.
But the real point of opulence that still remains is the The Lake Palace Hotel - a marble island retreat built in the 1750's as a summer retreat for the king, and now a luxery hotel of the Taj group in which you are treated like a king. Sounds like a cheesy tag line right. This place just floored us from the outset......
Now James Bond entered the establishment via a mini sub disguised as a Crocodile in the movie Octopussy. I'm quite a Bond fan so i remember that he unzipped his dry suit to reveal a full dinner tuxedo. Our entry didnt quite live upto that but not that far off.
A private fotilla brings you to a front dock where you are greeted by a trio of strikingly beautiful young women and a large gentleman of an Indian strongman resemblance. (Kshatriya descendant im guessing) bearing a large red and gold umbrella. On approaching the middle arched front door, a shower of rose petals rained down on us.
We were escorted to an open marble courtyard where the clientele were seated around and served exquisuite tasting fruit snacks and juice, there was already a Rajistani dance performance. This involved a striking women witha an array of tricks such as balancing a tower of pots on her head and intermittingly standing onto objects, such as swords. The surrealness of it all was nothing short of dream like, the live music accompaniment increased the drum and chanting pace fevourishly while extrodinarily complimented with a chorus of birds that had descended into the 4 small trees in each corner of the courtyard. Upon the end of the show we were led (still mesmerised) through the main garden courtyard where another dancer was sillently shadow dancing as a backdrop to the stunning lotus garden courtyard..... someone pinch me.... but then i couldnt even dream this place up.
Views are nothing short of stunning. The service really is exempolary. Everything about this place is just ultimately refined to service you to the highest standard.
Although looking at Jay's face......you can never please everyone.
Breakfast in the gardens.
Our rooms were on the top balcony and looked onto the city palace on the shore.
Myself and Ajeet enjoying the rooftop terrace.
Gordon Nina & Jay
Really can't say much more than "WOW" it looks amazing in the pictures and must be 100 fold better in reality.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see Mittens is still alive and well also! :)
K and T