TRAVEL-INDIA: Revelling in Regalia

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Rahul Bedi

SHEKHAWATI, India, Oct 10 1995 (IPS) - Tourists seeking that holiday with a difference have the chance of a ‘royal experience’ in India by staying at one of the 18th and 19th palaces in the western state of Rajasthan that have been transformed into hotels.

Five such castle-hotels in Rajasthan’s rugged Shekhawati region, ringed by the Thar desert, have been restored after decades of slow decay.

During the October-March tourist season, these hotels some 272 kms east of New Delhi, have been heavily booked by foreign and local tourists with many Europeans coming in large numbers even during the hot summer months.

Last year more than 70,000 tourists visited Shekhawati of which around 15,500 were foreigners. This year a bonanza of 25,000 are expected to view the solar eclipse on Oct. 24 that will be visible from here.

Room rentals average 30 dollars for a single to 70 dollars for a double while a suite is anywhere between 115 to 165 dollars a day. “Atmosphere is the most important ingredient at these castles and it tends to cost a fair amount,” says Akbar Hussain, secretary of the Adventure Tour Operators Association in New Delhi.

Besides palatial rooms each castle has tented “townships” – sited amid nearby sand dunes – which provide private bathrooms with running hot and cold water. Visotrs can take off on week-long horse and camel safaris into the desert.

Dinner at these hotels is a dramatic event, with entertainment by local bards and fire dancers as well as choreographed firework displays from the castle ramparts.

Starting at the 240-year old Mandawa castle, all five hotels are located on an 128 km stretch along a narrow, pot-holed road through some of the regions most impoverished desert landscape. All were once under the rule of the Maharaja of Jaipur, now the capital of Rajasthan some 160 kms east.

Shekhawati is famous for its colourful, often riotous murals and frescoes, painted on outer walls of houses, mansions, cenotaphs and even wells.

Local legends including religious ceremonies, childbirth, portraits and hunting scenes are migled with modern-day additions like gramophones and bicycles, to create a fascinating effect.

History can be traced through the murals: trains replace elephants, automobiles appear where there were horses and the English sahibs and memsahib’s disappear to be replaced by turbanned Indians. These early 19th century murals remained undiscovered until the early 1980’s. (MORE)

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