Bharatpur Trip Report - A TRIPPING TRIP

What a trip! It's the type you must type about - the type that's all hype and no heart.

This palace belonged to legendary Jat warriors, Badan Singh and Suraj Mal, of the Kingdom of Bharatpur. The royal brochure advertises: 'We offer a perfect experience of royalty, right from the hospitality services'. When we booked our stay, they said, 'It's the best suite in a most luxurious palace, so elegant and so much ambience',

I followed the bell captain, tripping over these weirdly raised whatchamacallits that should be called trippers. After tripping into my room, I called the 'superb' hospitality services for a wi-fi password, only to be told that wi-fi is rather weak and unviable in any of the rooms! With no internet access and my now swollen ankle, I hoped to rest and catch up on the news on TV. But, of course, there is no English news channel but the one that repeats the same bit about a Ram Mandir, ad nauseam! So much for hospitality services. As for the ambience, it's the kind that has neither comfort nor luxury. I received a ‘perfect experience’ of a royal pain while I fiddled (and prayed)

with crass brass hardware for hot water.

The Indian government had permitted the many kings of India to use their palaces to make themselves a livelihood instead of a privy purse from the nation's coffers. Therefore, all that glitters may just be a whole lot of brass for the top brass here.

PS- for a real royal touch, including a royal welcome, check out, I mean check into, The Royal Hermitage (https://theroyalhermitage.com) in Jaipur.

from Gita’s Chronicle of Chronically Underwhelming Experiences