Princess for a Day!

We departed our tent camp early in the morning and headed for Jodhpur.  We toured the fort first, my brother who lives in India visited here a month ago so if you are interested in pictures and the history in general check out his blog for details:  

http://transoceanicdrivel.blogspot.com/2011/02/jodhpur-blue-city.html

We were hot and tired after the visit to the fort and since I did not partake in the brown shower at the tent camp I was desperate to be clean so we headed for our hotel.  The hotel is in the Umaid Bhawan Palace and the royal family of Jodhpur still lives in a section of this magnificent palace.  The palace was named after the present Maharaja's grandfather.  It took 15 years to build and was completed in 1943.  The palace when built had 347 rooms.  It is decorated in an Art Deco Style and our pictures do not do it justice.  I wish we had been here for more than one night because we did not have time to explore all the areas of the palace.

Back of the Palace

Our room was the top 3 windows and our bathroom was in the rounded part

Deb with Doorman

When we arrived to the front entrance (did not have my camera out) we were greeted like royality!  There was a canopy and they were throwing rose petals at our feet (I am not kidding!) and then when we walked in they presented us with leis!

Jeanna at lunch

Entrance hall

Ceiling of entrance hall

Entrance hall

I am not sure how we got so lucky but we were upgraded to a Royal Suite!  We had a living room, small dining area, desk area, king size bed, dressing room, and an incredible marble bathroom!  

Bedroom of Royal Suite

Bedroom

Living room w/ painting of Maharaja

Dining Area

Marble tub (shower behind)

One of the sinks

The view from our window

View from our window

Obviously Trophy Bar

These were on the staircases

Jeanna and leopard

I wish we could have explored the entire palace but we did not have time.  I will say they have a lovely spa and we enjoyed the pampering after our day in the desert.  We got a sanitized view of India this time around and did not get to see, hear, or smell the "real" India that people either love or hate.  I am sure we will be back to see some more of India in our future travels.  We did enjoy being royality for a day!

We are off to Jordan to see the "Lost City of Petra" and it will be the last stop of our long journey.  It is hard to imagine we have been all the places and done all of the things we have done in the past three weeks!  If we didn't have a photo record we would think we were dreaming!