Not too many people seem to pass by this a bit hidden, but beautifully located heritage hotel. When I checked the book, into which one has to write all the formalities, I discovered my wife's name just on the previous page, although she had been here exactly a year earlier. Being here with friends she liked the place, especially for its setting, and wanted to show it to me as well, although she also has painful memories from here, due to the bite of a big centipede, which had been hiding in one of her sneakers.||||The hotel is located outside a village, also called Rajmahal, next to the river Banas and below some rocky hills, which are part of the Aravalli range. On top of the closest one is an old fort, to which one can go up from the village. Entrance to the palace is through two gates, one with cannons in front, and first one comes to a green lawn by the restaurant and the open reception. Next to it - reached through another gate - is a courtyard, also with a lawn, around which the rooms are located.||||Since we were alone we could select our room and picked No 4 out of 15 in total. It was a spacious room with a marble floor and a lovely arch in the middle, thus separating the seating arrangement from the two attached beds on the other side. It also had windows with coloured glass on top, through which one could look at the Banas river with women doing their laundry and kids bathing. At several places the paint came off the wall in the room and as so often in heritage places it had no wardrobe or drawers. Only at night I became aware that the bed was way too hard. Also the light was almost too weak for reading, so we had to use the headlamps, which we often take on tours.||||Good and strong was the shower and it had soaps and shampoo sachets in the bathroom. We also liked to sit out in the courtyard in front of the room, do some reading, although one could even do bird watching there. What we didn't like was the fact, that when we came back the next day in late afternoon from a rather strenuous excursion the room hadn't been serviced yet. All the staff was idling around, chatting to each other, and only when we arrived they started to sweep everywhere like mad and to clean our room. Also in the whole hotel there was no WiFi.||||The place is managed - and obviously not too well - by two rather strange and authoritarian old men with almost no knowledge of English. We especially didn't like their attitude to payment. Although we asked only for a soup and chapati's for lunch, they told us that we have to pay for a full meal anyway. As said we were alone at the hotel. There had been no complimentary water in the room as elsewhere and they had the strange habit to constantly bring fresh chapati's for the meals, or toast for breakfast, which we couldn't eat anyway. Checking the bill at the end we saw that we were charged all the chapati's brought, eaten or not. Obviously they had exactly counted them. To us this was not very hospitable and rather ridiculous.||||The typical Rajasthani food itself was quite good, but it was only served inside, in the restaurant, not at one of the tables in the courtyard. Kingfisher beer was available, though only the strong variety. On the second day they brought us for dinner most of the plates, which we had already tasted for lunch.||||With some renovation, especially in the rooms, and some professional English speaking management this heritage hotel could be a top selection for a quiet holiday - due to its architecture, its layout and the wonderful surroundings. Also the people in the village, where it is fun to walk around, are among the friendliest we have encountered...
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