neemrana fort palace hotel

This weekend was the school's weekend away from the city for teachers who want to pay their own way and who don't want to attend meetings. Basically, the school sets aside a block of hotel rooms, and anyone who wants to go goes and anyone who doesn't does whatever they want to do instead. I signed us up since Phet was up for a weekend away, and booked us for not just the Saturday night but the Friday night as well. When it came close to departure time, I got a little worried. What if traffic sucked? What if we got stuck on the highway in Gurgaon and Seung Yi was mad? What if it took us four hours to get there? Oh deary me was I worried. Mostly for naught (nought? not?) it turned out. Phet, Ji, and Seung Yi pulled up at school with John in the driver's seat at 4:15 and we hit the road right away. Phet had super smartly ordered us take away subs and snacks and drinks, and so my usual late afternoon death by hunger was averted.

Seung Yi was absolutely great on the trip. She was cheery, calm, and didn't seem to mind being in the car until the last half hour when she was ready to sleep. And, folks, the last half hour was a doozy. We came up to a number of "Neemrana" signs including a large one that said 'Neemrana Palace Hotel', but John kept going. It seemed later that someone had told him to go to a specific landmark before turning, but perhaps that landmark no longer existed, because we ended up 20 km farther on, in the next town's market before it was clear that we were not on the right path. We turned around and headed back, with me saying, "There was a sign back aways..." but not wanting to actually DEMAND than John return to it so as to seem somewhat polite when he was obviously doing his best to fulfill his duties! Anyways, several wrong turns later (one of which was into an INDUSTRIAL zone, on a pathway filled with big horned COWS), we got to the right spot just where the original sign was that I'd seen. Now, ok, that sign turned out to be for an imposter hotel (neither fort nor palace), but ours was just down the street a ways through the village.

When we arrived I was mad and grumpy about the detours and we were further unimpressed when told that our original room would be unavailable due to electrical problems. Dudes, so what if your hotel is a "heritage" site built in the "1400s" - we need air con and stat! Me, grumpy, carried a sleeping Seung Yi and dragged a relatively enthusiastic Ji Hong up to see one of the rooms on offer. It turned out to be fairly crummy; up a foot-wide, twenty-foot-tall, unlit rock staircase, and then had only two little wee beds and really low ceilings. The next room we huffled down to was in the dungeons below and was in the under-renovations section. We had to walk over a big pile of dirt and rubble to get to our "private terrace" and the room was still small, but it at least had two rooms and enough space for us to have them pitch a cot for Ji.

The next day found us in far better spirits. Waking up, we could look out our windows and see clear across the countryside. The Hotel Fort Palace (oy vey) is built on the side of a decent-sized hill / rawther small mountain. It seemed to have over 20 different levels and was absolutely gorgeously picturesque. We breakfasted near the reception area and Ji played Go Fish with some nice kids from the school. Later on we adjourned to the poolside and concluded our day with lunch, more pool, naps, firebreathing and dancing performers over tea, and finally a big buffet dinner followed by a serious dose of sleep under brisk air conditioning. Check out the photo album of Seung Yi's birthday and the Neemrana trip for picutres worth thousands of words.

[On the Road-4-September-2007]