Rajasthan #4: A Tale of Two Hotels

Since ours was a last-minute trip to Rajasthan, we ended up in a hotel in a visibly run-down part of Jaisalmer. Narrow streets, garbage strewn everywhere, open drains, cows everywhere… you get the picture. (But like everything else in the Golden City, the hotel and buildings near it had the palace look and color).

 

This hotel even had a Terms & Conditions (T&C) card in the room; I’ve highlighted the funniest parts:

 

It was the kind of hotel where you have to call the Reception to operate things in the room (TV – where are the remotes? Geyser – master switch at the Reception). You get the idea. But hey, it offered free Wi-fi (but you had to ask Reception to get the password), which was all my 12 yo daughter really wanted. And she had a good laugh reading the T&C card. So did we.

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Meanwhile, at the other end of the hotels spectrum in Rajasthan are the heritage palace-turned-to-hotels. Of the palaces converted to hotels, some are way too expensive for people like us, while others are very much affordable. The cost depends on the grandeur and size of the palace, of course, but also affected by where the palace is – the more remote the town, the more affordable the heritage hotel. We stayed one night at one of the affordable fort/palace-hotels called Ranvas (shortened from रानी का निवास) in a place called Nagaur.

 

As luck would have it, nobody else was there that day, so we had the entire palace to ourselves. And we also got bumped up to the deluxe suite at no extra cost. The room was huge, with a courtyard and a swing. A walk on the ramparts of the huge fort gave a taste of the sentry’s post, life, and view. We got to see the hawks being fed – raw pieces of meat are thrown up into the air, and the birds grab them in mid-air. As residents of the palace, we got to see parts that are off-limits for mere visitors to the fort. The intricacies and finer details of the various structures inside the fort was very well explained by our guide. Being addressed as हुकुम by the bearers was a nice experience (Equality can take a break for a day). And we visited the Ganesha temple in the fort – the aarti started right when we arrived. It had been arranged that way, though we didn’t know it then.

 

Ranvas was a brief and very enjoyable taste of the raja-maharaja life.

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How is that only in Rajasthan the forts and palaces are so well-maintained? Why do the rajas here still command so much love and respect? Perhaps they had good business skills, perhaps they understood the winds of change at the time of independence better than others, perhaps they didn’t fight and create parallel power centers in defiance of the new Indian government – I don’t know.

 

These heritage hotels are a relatively recent phenomenon. By which I mean it was started only around 25-30 years back by Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, an ex-CM of Rajasthan (and also ex-Vice-President of India). Usually, the palaces and forts are renovated one area at a time. At Ranvas, for example, there were parts that looked renovated, while others looked clearly old, faded and headed to becoming ruins if left to themselves. Renovation is done one area at a time because there is so much to be done and things are done as and when money is available. The renovation of Ranvas has been going on for 20 years.

 

Earlier, I said the cost of the heritage hotel depends on grandeur, size and location. I forgot to mention that timing matters too. We had stayed another night at the Balsamand Lake Palace hotel in Jodhpur (another palace), and it cost ₹25,000 per night. The same room on New Year’s Eve went for ₹4 lakhs per night! As India gets richer, the number of people who can afford to stay at such places will only increase, and it’s safe to say the raja’s of Rajasthan will continue to make money to lead the good life, and also renovate and maintain their palaces and forts for commoners like us.