All Alone In The Palace

Another delay on the long and
winding road to Kota

The drive from Udaipur to Kota was not without its challenges. Despite being a four-laned highway, local traffic thought nothing of taking a detour the wrong way to get to their destination.

The odd tuk tuk was not a concern but the marble laden trucks swaying from side to side with their flowing decorations and honking horns were.

Putting one's head in the proverbial sand helped as we closed our eyes in the hope the scene would change soon.   But touch wood, everyone seemed to avoid one another unscathed.

A well preserved mural in
Kota's City Palace

The last few miles into Kota proved to be a chaotic tangle of vehicles, road works, construction, cows and people as we lurched over the dusty, uneven road. We were on the way to the Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve, spending a night en route in Kota where the main attraction was the City Palace and its artifacts, weaponry and colourful murals.

The sprawling
Umed Bhawan Palace hotel

Our Edwardian heritage hotel was formerly one of the Maharana’s royal residences set in large grounds frequented by monkeys, deer and peacocks. Our room could have been a waiting hall in a railway station, with its spacious layout, high ceilings and hard working ceiling fans.

The billiard room 

We walked the grounds and public spaces, including the impressive billiard room that sported a significant array of trophies from the Maharana’s hunting past. Tigers and deer peered down, frozen in time.

We appeared to be the only guests in the sprawling hotel and were conscious of the echos created by our voices and footsteps.  Our main companions were the pigeons who cooed and flapped, often flying through the arches of the open air corridors, even gaining entry into the former palace's durbar (or royal audience) hall, and unfortunately soiling the magnificent carpet which must have extended for at least fifty feet across the floor.

The hotel's durbar hall

We were asked if we would like a candlelit dinner in the courtyard.  Agreeing, we appeared at the appointed time to find one solitary candle-lit table set up in the middle of a tennis-court sized space surrounded by marble colonnades and potted palms.

A solitary candlelit dinner

It was as though the hotel had been forgotten and we had stumbled upon it by accident.  The echoing hallways and wide open spaces seemed to soften in our minds as a hearty dinner was served by efficient, friendly staff.  

Our night all alone in the Palace had had its upside.