Neemrana Fort Hotel

Our very first Sunday in India, we went to Delhi for Church and no one was there. Hmmm. Turns out there was a big conference that day at a hotel. While there we discovered that the branches had split and there was now 3 in Delhi and the people that Randy had met that we should have attended meetings with were now all in the other branch. Rats. BUT, everyone was super nice to us anyway, introducing themselves and welcoming us, and Rich and Merinda Cutler even invited us for dinner that very day! They are a fun family with 3 little boys (including an Isaac) and we loved having spaghetti with them. Merinda organizes the Delhi LDS Expats online newsletter, and is always organizing ways for us ExPats to get together. OK that is a long intro, but there is a purpose - Merinda called us in late September and said they were going to Neemrana overnight and did we want to come? We knew nothing but it sounded good, so the first weekend of October we headed west. The road our driver knew about was closed so we arrived late and in the dark and only could really see the NARROW, twisty, steep road thru the little town to get up to the fort, which is now a hotel.

We discovered that the hotel is very confusing, and that the dessert buffet had mango ice cream (YUM) and then we found our room. I had booked a room with 2 queen beds then we thought we would order a cot for Sam, but it turns out, the second bed was PLENTY large enough!!

There was music and dancing in one courtyard, so we went to check it out, and Sam found herself dancing with the little girl! The music was provided by this guy and a kid playing some sort of drum.

In the morning we explored the fort - built in the 15th century - and took the self-guided tour with an IPod recording that walks you around the fort and points out all the features. Randy and I shared one player because we are cheap, but trying to listen to the directions and walk up steep stairs and thru tiny doorways was kinda hard when you are attached by one pair of earphones!

Can you see the Cutlers at the bottom of this hill?? Rich is in blue and Merinda in peach.

Our room was just a few steps from the pool. The rooms all had names that ended in Mahal, which means palace. Ours was the Van Mahal.

If you look closely, you can see where the fort is being rebuilt or constucted. Being built up the side of the hill would have really helped keep people out - coming over the top would not be easy but you could easily be seen from the turrets. The fort was for sale for a long time and was finally purchased for some ridiculously tiny sum - $25,000 or something like that - renovated to have plumbing and electricity and it opened with just 14 rooms. Now it has about 38 rooms, located all over the fort, (one even in a turret) and can be rented out for weddings or conventions. It feels very private because all the rooms are tucked around corners and thru passageways and up stairs etc. It was really very cool. Not cheap, but even Randy said he loved it! (ok maybe "loved" is too strong - he probably said it was really neat). We also went for a Camel Cart ride out to a step-well (see the next blog for that - I had too many photos!!) then we spent some time in the gorgeous pool.

I am not sure what Sam is doing here.... drinking like a camel, perhaps??makes for a good photo, tho!

I am amazed (both here in India and also when we were in Mexico) at how casually these amazing structures are treated. No government protection as heritage sites, no safety features for visitors, no wheelchair accessibility (HA to that - you should see the STEEP cobblestone ramp just inside that huge front gate to get into the hotel - you'd have to be Hercules to get a wheelchair up that hill!), no rules about tearing parts down or building new parts on, no environmental consideration, no nothing. If a private party had not bought this and fixed it up for a hotel, it would have fallen completely down or been destroyed by people stealing the stones. On the other hand, if this was the US, no way would you be allowed to sleep there, or maybe even enter - there isn't a safety rail anywhere, even when the edge is only a few inches and the drop is hundreds of feet. No way could you wander unattended all over the fort, checking out all the little nooks and crannys, and no way would you be allowed to climb on the fallen down parts! So, there is that.