8TH Mon. Chanoud Garh (cont.d) More rooms

The 'official' tour was very interesting. This palace is around 300 years old and has been in the family for 13 generations. Ajeet Singh (Patriach) told us that his father lost interest in the family home and ventured into the horse racing world. Although he had some success with his horses, he managed to lose a lot of the family fortune so in order to turn things around the current family members have turned it into a 'top class' commercial venture. Two sons and their wives are involved in the running/upgrading and they're doing a superb job.

Ajeet told us that despite growing up here he didn't know what was in many of the rooms till the last decade or so. Many of the walls and pillars are made of marble but had been covered with limestone for years/ It wasn't until 2010 that the family decided to have the limestone removed professionally to reveal the original marble … the job took 6 years to complete. We saw storerooms containing row upon row of original books detailing all the commercial activities of the palace, salaries, taxes paid etc., private temples, the ladies' only areas, the coffers with metal/wood trunks (empty now) and lots of other fabulous artefacts.

small temple room in the 'ladies' section of the palace
 

Just so many wonderful doors/windows and passage ways in this place

Ganesh - the elephant god

The elusive peacock ... playing hide-and-seek

These used to be the camel stables.    The elephants were kept on the lower ground floor - but sadly there aren't any here these days.

Several rooms are devoted to family photos through the decades, and artefacts/trophies – many of which I found disturbing but, of course, game hunting was the 'norm' until fairly recently so its unfair to judge by today's standards.

Our ears aren't quite attuned the Indian accents yet. The family all speak excellent English but I know I've missed out on lots of the anecdotes as I don't like to keep asking our hosts to repeat themselves.

After the guided tour we had tea and cake on the rooftop terrace and watched the sun set – very civilised 

At 7.30pm all guests met for drinks in one of the garden areas where fire-pits were lit to keep us warm (morning and night temps are still pretty cool at the moment). 

Then we were shown to our tables in intimate dining areas and served with a fantastic assortment of Indian dishes.

Sadly David didn't feel well and retired early … I think he's going to be OK – just a combination of no sleep, a stressful uncomfortable journey and possibly something he ate yesterday?? Time will tell.

8th Mon - Chanoud Garh our arrival, rooms and first impressions

On arrival at Chanoud Garh we got a traditional greeting at the entrance to the palace. Ceremonial sprinkling of water in gate entrance before we passed through and a garland of fragrant flowers each and the red mark on our foreheads. 

Although we'd missed lunch they'd organised a meal for us and it was absolutely delicious. I don't eat sweet things normally but I tried a spoonful of dessert and instantly fell in love. Mango and frozen yoghurt … but not yoghurt as we know it – this was thicker and creamier than anything I've had before. Wow!!

These are pictures (and a description) of Chanoud Garh taken from their website

There are seven meticulously renovated spacious deluxe suites for you to choose from. Each suite is unique in its décor and its stories. But all are furnished with the most modern of amenities that are masterfully hidden into its authentic interiors.

We've seen this bathroom and bedroom 'in the flesh' as a couple from Sussex are currently staying here and showed us their room.   This used to belong to the current owner's father who was so fond of his race-horses that his favourites were kept in a room below his bedroom

 Some of the other rooms (which we haven't seen as they're occupied)

and this is our room ...... it is amazing … here's a few pictures but its difficult to convey the scale of the place. The bed is large enough to sleep 4 or 5 people comfortably. The bathroom is a succession of rooms with separate washing areas, corridor leading to the modern loo, a large shower room with alcove/window seat – loads of toiletries and luxury bits and bobs - everything you can think of really.

After dropping our bags in the room (and snapping some photos) we had half an hour to spare till 4pm when we'd been told the patriach of the family would give us a guided tour of the palace so we had a quick walk around the grounds and then look briefly at the area outside. As we left the gate we bumped into a group of schoolchildren heading back to their homes and they insisted we join them. They spoke very basic English but were great fun and very keen to have their photos taken. We'll meet them again over the next couple of days when we spend time visiting the village and its school

A few pictures taken in the beautiful grounds of the palace and the nearby streets with the schoolkids.

David with two of 'mine hosts'  The patriach (75 years of age) on the left and youngest son on the right

The building and grounds are pretty amazing – I don't really know how many rooms there are in total – they have created 7 luxurious guest suites but these take up just a small area of the whole place and they are all very spacious. I just kept snapping!

Breakfast room

corridor with punkahs (but no punkah wallah)

There are flower displays like this in all the rooms, walkways etc., and loose marigold flowers on all the steps (and there are very many steps in this place)!

There are 3 wonderful dogs in residence … a lovely German Shepherd (elderly but very affectionate/sloppy), a 'naughty' golden retriever and a great dane. We also met the 3 resident tortoises which David reckons are Spiders Web tortoises (because of their markings) but we were told are called Hadrian's tortoises. As soon as I can connect to the internet I'll check online. There is a lovely male peacock living here but 3 times he eluded my camera … I got a partial shot of him and one of the female … maybe I'll catch him/them out tomorrow.

Its very peaceful here ... except for the constant cooing of pigeons and the shrieking of parakeets - there are lots of both around the place.   The parakeets all seem to have paired up but the pigeons are all over the place and are pretty ra*dy and doing naughties - I really don't like pigeons!

One of the parakeets drinking from a fountain in the courtyard outside our room

8TH Mon. From Udaipur to Pali

This morning after breakfast we left Udaipur. We had very little sleep last night as the street/stray dogs of Udaipur started barking and howling around 1am and kept it up throughout the early hours. We probably got less than 3 hours sleep and weren't at our best today.

We'd asked the hotel to book us a car for the drive to Chanoud Garh which we anticipated would take around 3.5 hours. The taxi was very old. No seatbelts and kna**ered suspension and the journey was over some very rough rural roads so David wasn't a happy bunny as he jolted his back quite badly on a couple of the larger bumps.

The driver didn't speak more than a couple of words of English so I concentrated on the scenery. I always find the roads fascinating with its mix of human and animal traffic – lots of hooters blaring (not in anger, more to let other road users know of your position/intent to overtake). David loves driving but he says he'd never drive in India.

The roads were very bumpy and I was sitting in the back seat trying to take photos through the front windscreen - most of my photos were so awful they've been deleted now but here's a few as a reminder to us of the journey. A few are taken through the side window whilst we were sat in traffic.

Any side of the road will do

The usual overloaded bikes

 4 to a motorcycle is common on the roads here (and no helmets)!

We stopped after a couple of hours to have chai at a small hotel with gardens overlooking a lovely valley with lots of squirrels and birds. An egret I startled …

 and a couple of the puppies dozing in the gardens. They were very cute and I hate to think they'll grow up as strays and cause the sort of nuisance we experienced last night.