Sunday, March 05, 2017

India Day 9-ish Hotels.

I want to remember the hotels I stayed at, so this post will be my own personal Trip Advisor. The hotels ranged from really, really nice to really, really nice, to my kind of quirky-older-heritage-nice.

All the hotels other than the Pushkar Resort, the Mandawa Desert Resort and the Rawalkot had scanners and X-ray machines to pass thru before you entered, and a discreetly armed guard. Well, not always discreet, some had rifles, but some didnt, but I read enough Jack Reacher novels to recognize that lump in a pocket!  Or, maybe it really was a banana. Anyhow, the scanner generally made horrible screeches when anyone walked thru and no one was ever stopped, so I'm not sure how they worked or if anyone cared. I guess a bunch of middle-aged Canadians don't pose much of a threat. *sigh* The three places that were scanner-less were not as hoity-tooth, and also not in the middle of a city.

1. The first hotel was in New Delhi and was The Metropolitan. It was a perfectly fine hotel, actually quite beautiful, but nothing memorable. Very modern and businesslike.


Roomie and I had to constantly rearrange our rooms in most hotels so that we weren't sleeping face to face. Usually we just pushed the beds apart and put an end table in between, but a few places had the two single beds pushed right together and made up with a king size bottom sheet and bedspread. We'd phone the front desk to explain that we needed twin beds and they'd say "Yes, is twin bed" not getting the fact that since they were made up with one giant sheet we could not separate the beds! It all worked out in the end though, even if they thought we were odd and demanding.


2. The Trident in Agra. Let me tell you, the Trident chain is pretty fantastic, the type of place with slippers, robes, turn-down service and so forth. We had 6 nights in various Tridents, and honestly? A bit too fancy for me. No one should ever need another human being to turn their bed down for them unless you're 7 years old and it's your parent doing the turning down. But I did appreciate a new toothbrush and toothpaste at each stop and toilets that flushed like a regular toilet. Nothing is worse than getting up in the middle of the night to pee and fumbling in the dark to find a flusher that may or may not work, or may or may not be found. I thought Europe had strangely placed flushers, these were just as odd, and maybe even odder.




3. The Trident in Jaipur. So much marble. 



4. The Pushkar Resort.
I wrote about this one earlier, the one with an organic garden and individual cottages. It was one of my favorites, out of the city and so peaceful. It didn't feel like India though, it felt like Palm Springs!

Bougainvillea was everywhere, along with these odd little birds that might have been India's version of a crow because they screeched like howler monkeys all day long.

The Pushkar had lovely lily ponds, however the still water was probably what caused the mosquitoes  to hang around. There were very few bugs in general, and this place was the worst, although it was nothing compared to mosquitoes at home. 

5. This was another Trident, this time in Udaipur, also called the Lake City. It was another fabulous place and the location was spectacular....right near Lake Pichola.


From the restaurant, overlooking the lake. 




Haha, I hadn't seen one of these for years and years. Very British. The British influence is still widely seen.

All the rooms had a little Juliette balcony, we were on the bottom so I could hop over it and sit under these trees with the extremely fragrant yellow flowers. Not sure what they were, but smelled sort of like magnolias. 


6. The Indana Palace in Jodphur.

This was another pretty awesome place with too many people wanting to help. I don't mean that in any kind of negative way, and I understand that the service industry in a place like this is meant to be over-the-top, but I'd really rather open my own doors. If you want to be pampered, believe me, these are the places you want to go.


I sat at this bench in the lobby with a money changer; a fellow our guide knew who would come and exchange USD for rupees at a better rate than banks, and no service fee. I've never seen anyone with such a massive roll of cash, and believe me, I've seen some massive rolls of cash. 

Yet another glorious pool.

Courtyard. 

7. The Rawalkot in Jaislamer.

Another awesome spot, which may or may not have been the place my roomie (because it certainly wouldn't have been me) flooded the bathroom.

Odd enough, as I was walking down the stairs to the restaurant here, there was a large chandelier and as I was underneath it I heard a crashing tinkle and a pigeon fell to my feet! I was momentarily quite scared, thinking some Indian god was out to get me (remember, this is Pigeon #2) but it shook its little head and flew away. *whew*

Once you're inside the main doors (which are behind me in this picture), the whole place is maze-like. All these walkways have little twists and turns and you find yourself in odd little nooks and crannies, some with resting areas containing chess-sets and swings, others with little pools and fountains. I loved it.




The pool had an incredible view. This area of India is almost desert-like.






There are two more hotels, but I'll post this before I lose it all. My fingers sometimes go all spastic-y and I hit the wrong key and delete things.

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