On Monday morning Adam and I woke up with the sun, hung out in our room for awhile, and then decided to go and explore the rest of the palace to see what treasures we could find. As we walked around I just couldn’t believe that we were actually STAYING in such a beautiful place. I literally FELT like royalty as I explored the palace halls and coridors. It was just so surreal (and again a screaming deal for $120 a night) to actually be staying at a palace. I mean the Maharaja himself had built the palace (in 1921) as his personal home and now I – Sarah Egbert had a room there. It really was very cool. If I remember right the Palace was converted to a hotel around 1974.
The palace itself was beautiful though, the gardens and grounds were beautiful, and everything was just so ornate and detailed. I also loved all the bright colors! I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves, but we were just in AWE!
Every morning they had a new creation like this down in the lobby. Some were made with flowers, others (like this one) was made with colored rice. So neat! And can you imagine the HOURS it must have taken to make this thing?
The Palace main Entry. If you look closely you can see a bunch of flowers strung all over the banisters. While we were staying at the Palace some sort of commercial or movie was being shot and they had decorated the hall for a wedding. It was really quite cool to watch!
This is a model of the Palace that is displayed down in the main entry.
Each morning we had a complimentary breakfast in the main dining hall. You could have toast and eggs with fruit (Foreigners breakfast) or a large Dosa (Indian breakfast). Yum!
This was the view from our room! Adam went swimming one morning and was the only person we saw in the pool our entire stay.
A view of the city from the top of the palace.
One of the coolest things about the hotel is that it used a very old pully system for the elevators. Here is the elevator that the Maharaja used when the palace was first built in the 1920’s. Pretty cool!
In this room the hotel was setting up this cool platform for the “wedding” movie that was being filmed. It was so neat to see all the beautiful flowers and how they were arranged. Weddings are HUGE here in India. They really go all out!
The Maharaja Krisnaraja
This was the elevator that we took up to our room. Again it was the original one put in back in the 1920’s. Adam and I LOVED that it had a little couch in to sit in during the 30 seconds it took to take us to our floor.
And if you still don’t think it felt like we were living in a fairy tale being able to stay at the palace, just check out this horse drawn carriage outside! I was SO tempted to take a little stroll in it, but alas, I had left my glass slippers and princess dress at home! 🙂
We truly felt spoiled getting to stay in such a beautiful place! Once in a lifetime experience!
