Part 3: Travel Journal

Memorable Moments in Neemrana

Neemrana is known for its fort converted into a well-known hotel—Neemrana Fort Palace, which is where we stayed.  Lucky us….

August 7, 2013:

·      Neemrana Fort Palace

Neemrana Fort Palace is coined a “non hotel”, and it truly lives up to the expectations when you are looking at a completely offbeat holiday experience.  It is definitely not a typical resort; it is more of a destination and an experience.

From 1986, the ruins of this Fort-Palace have been restored and reconstructed. The rooms are furnished with an eclectic mix of traditional Indian and colonial furniture, antiques and artwork.  Each room is completely different and unique.  That said, each room does come with plenty of caterpillars, a pad locked door, and thankfully, air conditioning (but watch out for the copious drips!).  It is also extraordinary because the fort is a bit of a maze, with staircases and doorways at every turn.  On more than one occasion, it was a challenge – and an adventure – to find our way to lunch or back to our rooms. 

Because we did not have adjoining rooms at the Fort, we opted to split up: one adult and one child in each room.  As we previewed the first room, being a seasoned Indian traveller I quickly surveyed the bathroom: bucket shower…. Oh no!  We then walked around to the next room.  Ah, the latter bathroom had an overhead shower.  Quickly, I asserted, “Emily and I will room together, and we will stay in this room.”  I then slyly whispered to Emily, “I chose this room because it has a real shower; the boys room only has a bucket shower.”  She smiled, concurring silently. 

·      Camel Ride

As part of our hotel stay at Neemrana, we were offered camel rides.  However, there was only one camel and only two persons could ride at a time.  Emily and I decided to ride first.  As we sat on our camel, Raju, and waited for him to rise, nothing could have prepared us for the terrifying, heart in your stomach sensation that was to follow. We clutched on for dear life with white knuckles, as Raju first brought up his tremendous back legs, propelling us wildly in our seats.  Then Raju lifted his front legs, and we were once again launched in the saddle.  Emily gasped and I giggled while our guide said, “no danger, no danger” in very broken English. 

Raju began walking, and the views were absolutely spectacular from the top of the camel.   We saw warthogs, peacocks, goats, birds and all sorts of wildlife. Children clambered up walls and ran to the street to wave to us as we passed by, cars honked their horns; drivers waived; and everyone we encounter greeted us whole-heartedly. After about 20 minutes, Raju set us down.  Emily and I assumed – quite mistakenly – that our ride was over and that it was now James and Toms’ turn. 

However, our tour was not over, rather our guide motioned to Emily and I to follow.  We did.  And much to our astonishment, we were given a tour around one of India’s biggest step wells – a gargantuan well, running 9 stories down below the ground (picture an upside-down, inside-out 9 story apartment building).  Emily was clearly anxious (as was I, but I was trying to hide my anxiety to help keep Emily calm) as our guide encouraged us to come to the wells un-walled edge and to hand over our camera for photos looking deep down into the enormous chasm below.   But believe it or not, the abyss was not even the truly terrifying part of the story – the truly terrifying part was that Emily and I were at this well, in the middle of nowhere, surrounded only by men – and many, many men at that!

As we walked deeper and deeper into the unknown, I was fairly certainly that Emily and I were in jeopardy of being kidnapped and sold!  But I played it totally cool, assuring Emily all the while that ‘this was totally normal’ – NOT!!! 

Thankfully, this turned out to be just what it appeared to be – a tour of the well.  And Emily and I returned to Raju unscathed.  I later learned that the well was an illustrious monument in Neemrana.  It was built in the 1760’s.  It is in fact a 9-story underground structure of majestic scale. The Maharajas built the well for famine relief. The well had been neglected for decades, but is now under the Rural Tourism project of the Union Government, which has plans to covert the well into a bazaar – so, it was not nearly so far fetched for our camel guide to want to show us this spot.  In fact, it was a rather nice gesture – too bad we didn’t recognize that at the time.

And finally, it was Tom and James turn on Raju.