April 20, 2009

ASIA | INDIA | RAJASTHAN | JAIPUR

Royalty Recycled

By Judy D'Mello

Living life as a Maharajah. Recession style.

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It was almost prophetic. A month before last October’s stock market crash Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, India’s largest hospitality group, launched a new brand — Gateway Hotels — aimed at “the emerging needs of the contemporary traveler.” Indeed, the contemporary traveler has emerged with a specific need: more bang for the buck. While by no means a budget option, the Gateway collection — 18 lifestyle hotels throughout India with another 12 slated to open in 2010 — promises affordable luxury.

Nobody knows about luxury meltdown quite like the Maharajas of Rajasthan. The princely rulers of this parched northern Indian state were divested of their titles and allowances in the 1970’s. But these ex-royals adjusted, and as a result today, one can barely move in Rajasthan without stumbling upon palaces and regal residences that have been converted into hotels.

One of these is Ramgarh Lodge, a recently renovated Taj Gateway Hotel, which feels a million miles away (in reality, a mere 18) from the teaming “Pink City” of Jaipur — all forts and palaces and death-wish traffic. In 1925, Ramgarh, built in classic Indo-Deco style, was the Maharaja of Jaipur’s hunting retreat — obviously much-used judging by the number of animal trophies adorning the walls, ranging from deer and bison heads to taxidermied Bengal tigers. Although hunting is now banned in the region and Ramgarh Lake has dried up, little has changed around the property’s bucolic surrounds where monkeys swing through the trees and peacocks strut across the manicured croquet lawn.

In keeping with its history, the lodge’s eight rooms (another five plus a new spa will be ready by November) have been renovated with stunning Deco furnishings and fixtures. The Maharani’s suite, in which I recently stayed, is the hotel’s grandest. The marble bathroom alone is considerably larger than many deluxe hotel rooms, while the entire suite is decorated to the hilt in blues and golds, and with a vast balcony from which to watch turbaned goatherds make their way through miles of fields.

Simplicity and peacefulness are what you get at Ramgarh. And there’s always a friendly staffer to arrange for things: towels for a dip in the pool, or a gin and tonic for that game of billiards, or a trip to the nearby ghost town ruins of Bhangarh. Just don’t expect the liveried butlers of Jaipur’s staggeringly lavish Taj Rambagh Palace. At Ramgarh they don informal jodhpurs and cravats. According to the Taj, unfussy service is what the modern nomad prefers. Like the nobility of Rajasthan, he too is learning to adjust.