We went to have breakfast and check out of our hotel in
Manali. The day was mostly a travel day. When we arrived at the reception there
was all kinds of security - armed police and solders with machine guns. It
turns out the Chief Justices of Hamachal Pradesh were coming to our hotel for a
meeting. Guards were everywhere, the drive leading up to the hotel was blocked
and there were musicians playing music to honor the Chief Justices. Drums
banged, and Tibetan horns (sounding like elephants) announced their arrival
(and our departure). It was a very exciting start to a full day. You can see a short video of the arrival here.
We had a long drive ahead of us approximately 6 hours to
Taragarh the palace where we would spend the next two nights.
We first stopped to see the very old Naggar Castle. It is in
the village of Naggar, Naggar in Hindi means city, so I guess the city’s name
is City. It is a very small charming hillside village. The castle, an
intricately carved wooden structure, was built in the 1500s.We had Chai on the deck, from where we had a commanding and
beautiful view of the valley below. We drove up in the hills a little farther
to the Nicholas Roerich institute. None of had ever heard of the Russian émigré
to India before. He was an artist, a philosopher, an explorer, a Nobel Peace
Prize Nominee and a lover of India. He lived here in Naggar the last 20 years
of his life. We walked around his house and museum.
We got involved in a monumental traffic jam it took us 1
hour to get over a one way bridge. We actually got out of the car and walked
thru the village and across the bridge, awaiting our drivers. The ride to
Taragarh was through the mountain on a very twisty mostly 1-lane road, it had
beautiful views into the valley below. Once again we were grateful to have
Vijay as our driver. We finally arrived at our Palace: Taragarh in the Kangra
Valley. Surprisingly to me it has many rice patties surrounding it – I didn’t
expect rice patties in Northern India. The Nawab of Bahawalpur built it in the
jungle in the 1930’s.
It is very large wooden and brick palace and is slightly decrepit.
I am confident we are the only people staying here – we saw no other guests. It
reminds us of the movie Grey Gardens or perhaps The Grand Budapest Hotel. There
are pictures on the walls of the people who have stayed here: Winston
Churchill, Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles, Camille Parker Boles, Harrison
Ford, etc. It definitely had its day in the sun.
We had drinks outside on the veranda, watching the monkey-walla
beat his stick to ward off the monkeys. They said all the food is market fresh
and that we had to order 45 minutes before we ate. I have the vague feeling we
ordered and then they ran into the nearest village to buy the food. We ate in
this formally grand dining room with pictures of the Maharajas predecessors
that have ruled this area of India on the wall; just the four of us enjoying
the rather large run dowdy room.
Our experience can only be viewed as surreal. The food was
fine, the wine was good, unfortunately we drank the last two bottles of the
wine we liked. I am bemused by being here. It will definitely be an experience.
I am so used to the creature comforts of luxury hotels, I really think I am
experiencing what a luxury Palace would have been like 80 years ago. There is
no wifi in the room, which will make blogging difficult. Tomorrow we get to
explore the surrounding area. They have wifi supposedly at the office, but when
I went there, all of the exterior lights at the palace are off, so I had to use
my iPhone light to find my way. The office is closed and locked. Everyone has
gone home or to their room. I get the feeling it is just the four of us in the
large palace and the monkey-walla here tonight. I know I won’t be ringing for
room service!
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