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First Class Passage to India
Steven Slon June 13, 2007
See a slideshow of first class India highlights.
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Our guide and his driver collect us for the ride from Agra to Jaipur, a harrowing seven-hour trip to go a mere 180 miles along a primitive road that is clotted with traffic. A white-knuckle experience for Westerners accustomed to, oh, any semblance of the concept of rules of the road. India is known to be a me-first country, but the routine pushing and shoving takes on a truly terrifying aspect when cars, trucks, busses and oxcarts are all jostling for position.
In the outskirts of Jaipur, at a stop light, beggar children run up to our car, tapping on the windows, cupping their hands and making eating gestures. One of the children, a girl of about 12, presses her face to the window and weeps. I feel terrible, but, partly because we’d been advised not to give money to beggars (the money goes directly into the pockets of their adult handlers, so we were told), and partly because we’re numb from the long terrifying drive, I hesitate. The light changes, and we lurch away. In my mind, thanks to an admixture of guilt and compassion, I will always have an image of that little girl’s face. (Later, we will begin carrying a box of energy bars and hand these out. Unlike in the US, a gift of food to a beggar is gratefully received in India.)
After a suicidal right turn across whizzing lanes of traffic, we’re in the long driveway of the Rambaugh Palace, a lush refuge from the chaos of the Jaipur streets. Jaipur, a relatively small town in Rajasthan, has a population of 2.3 million. But the palace is an oasis of peace on 47 acres of perfectly manicured parkland and was once the residence of Marahaja Sawai Man Singh II. Elegantly clad bellmen escort us from the car. It is beautiful and perfect and safe. But we are dazed from our long road trip. We mount the marble steps, noticing the beauty but not actually seeing much. We have 1000-yard stares. We want to check in and go to our rooms; where is registration please?
“Please take a seat for our welcoming ceremony,” we are told by a beautiful young woman at the desk, as she points to a tufted couch in the grand foyer. Next thing, two hotel greeters, a man and a woman, approach. They drape garlands of orange marigolds around our necks and paste a ceremonial patch of red clay on our foreheads. They hand us glasses of a ruby red drink. Watermelon juice. Lovely, delicious. Our room is a former palace chamber with dark mahogany floors, marble details, and a canopy bed strewn with rose petals. Our private balcony overlooks a garden graced with shrieking peacocks.
Mystery solved: Turns out there is no registration desk -- after being shown our room, our escort requests a business card so he can complete the registration process for us. Which is how it’s done here. That fussy business of actually signing papers would be undignified.
First Class Indulgence: Attend a private elephant polo match in Jaipur. A tea follows, in which your group mingles with the players and their families. $3500. [www.artisansofleisure.com / 800-214-8144 Contact: Ashley Isaacs Ganz; Cost: $2,000]
See a slideshow of first class India highlights.
Jaipur, Day 5
Our car, driver and guide are waiting outside. We are off to see the famous Amber Palace, built in 1036 AD by the Hindu Rajput dynasty. Its endurance has to do with its being situated high in a natural ring of hills, the Aravali mountain range.
In the parking lot an old withered man approaches and puts a small basket on the ground. We don’t really notice until we are startled by a blaring sound, as he honks on a small pipe. A snake dutifully emerges from the basket. On the advice of our guide, I hand the man a 20 rupee note (about half a dollar) and flumpf goes the snake back in the box. Off trots the man in search of another tourist.
The Amber palace is stunningly beautiful, particularly for the intricate paintings of the deities on the walls. I’m particularly taken with Ganesh. One room is all gems and glass, creating an impression of endlessly shimmering jewelry. Over the parapet, you look down at a lake where elephants cavort after a morning ferrying tourists up the hill to the palace, and a geometrically planned garden. In the distance, the plains. You can see why this place was so easily defended.
Afterward, it’s lunch and then a visit to the Jaipur Astronomy Conservatory, and displaying the most extraordinary series of sundials. The largest ones are accurate within 20 seconds.
First Class Indulgence: Dine at the exquisite Suvarna Mahal restaurant, a former ballroom of the Rambaugh Palace. Liveried servers wear safas. Green marble columns rise to support 30-foot high ceilings with Florentine frescoes.
To Jodphur, Day 6
We fly to Jodphur, and are driven to the spectacular art deco Umaid Bhawan Palace, the 105 foot high dome of which can be seen from far away, rising above the plain like a sacred temple. Two stuffed tigers greet you at the main entrance. We are taken to our three-room suite, past a uniformed guard who salutes. Our rooms have a private balcony that overlooks the hand-tended palace gardens.
Later that evening, one of the young, liveried butlers offers a tour. We learn that the beloved Maharaja, whose son still resides here with his wife and their son, built the palace over a 14 year period starting in 1929 as a kind of public works project (those were hard years of drought and unemployment in India, too). The sandstone slabs were hand-chiseled and assembled, tongue and groove style, so that they fit together without cement.
First Class Indulgence: Have a cocktail in the trophy room at the Umaid Palace. This amazing chamber is stuffed with stuffed animals—more tigers, two leopards, a bison head—all prizes from the Maharaja’s hunting expeditions. We learn that certain trophies, such elephant tusks, were removed when the palace was converted to a hotel for fear of offending Western sensibilities. But even this un-tusked version is outrageous, over the top. MORE...
See a slideshow of first class India highlights.
