Opinione dettagliata di koshkha
koshkha(46)
Northampton, Regno Unito96%
My first trip to India included a lot of really lousy hotels. We had places where the electrical sockets in the bathroom were directly under the shower head and my room mate had tripped out the power supply in half the places we stayed with her hair dryer. We'd learned to recognise a wide range of insects infesting some of the rooms and had eaten some strange food served in odd ways by waiters whose waistcoats could have been boiled up to make soup. So nothing really prepared us for a little bit of luxury. When our rickety and very dirty bus pulled up outside the Chandella in Khajaraho we were all sure that we must be in the wrong place. It was altogether far too fancy for the likes of us. Surely there must be a falling down ruin out the back of the hotel where we'd be staying. It must just be sharing the Chandella's car park.
But no, this really was our hotel and it was a very welcome bit of luxury. The problem with Kajuraho is that it's a rather long way from everywhere else. There's no train connection and the only flights are via Varanasi so we'd had no alternative other than a really long drive on rubbishy roads. I think our tour company realised that 2 weeks into a 3 week tour we'd need a bit of a treat and so they put us in the Chandella. As the bus opened its doors and burped out 20 dishevelled and disgruntled travellers, we half expected the staff to escort us to the tradesman's entrance or rush out and disinfect us before letting us into their lovely hotel.
The Chandella's not right slap-bang in the middle of the town but it is only a short walk to where the action is. The action, in case you were wondering, is the world's most outstanding collection of temples which are covered in what might be politely referred to as 'erotic art'. As Brits we of course found it all a bit 'nudge-nudge wink-wink' and exceptionally entertaining. "What is that elephant doing with his trunk?" asked one member of the party before realising with some embarrassment that it WASN'T his trunk. We were also able to borrow bicycles from the hotel (though I can't swear that the tour company didn't organise them elsewhere) and cycle out to the more distant temples. So that, in short, is why people go to Khajaraho to look at mucky carvings and to eat back-packer banana pancakes in cute little cafes.
But back to the hotel. Entering the plush and sparkling lobby of the hotel we realised that India wasn't all flea-bitten budget hotels. This wasn't a massively expensive place to stay or we wouldn't have been there but it was a rather classy hotel that went way beyond what we'd previously been exposed to. This was a 'proper' hotel where things worked. If you rang room service to ask for water, it appeared within minutes at the first time of asking. Your beds got made, your soft fluffy towels got changed, your room got tidied up nicely. All very much par for the course in most of the world but beyond the norm for our tour. The Chandella is the sort of place with not one but several restaurants, with a pool that sparkled in the sunshine and wouldn't make you worry about catching some nasty water-borne disease, a gym where the equipment was most likely properly wired in by a real electrician and not a waiter with a broken screwdriver.
Our rooms were beautiful well equipped, nothing broken, televisions that had channels we could understand, views over the swimming pool through shiny clear windows, edged by curtains that didn't smell as if they'd been hanging there since Independence. My room mate not only didn't need to worry about blowing the place up with her hairdryer, she could just use the one in the spotlessly clean bathroom.
I'm not much given to spas and beauty parlours but my room mate and I found ourselves with a few hours to spare and a price list that didn't scare us too much so we decided to go and see if we could get a booking. She had her hair washed and blow dried and I had a fabulous sandalwood facial that probably did more harm than good with my skin type but felt fabulous at the time. This visit was before I got married and the quiet little lady in the beautician's worked away on us for almost half an hour before plucking up the courage to talk to us. She asked my friend 'Are you married?' and she said she wasn't. Then she asked me and I also confirmed that I wasn't. Her face became suddenly animated. "You are so wise", she said, "Men are NOTHING but trouble. All my problems come down to being married". We both laughed and the rest of our session was much lighter.
The Chandella has quite a nice little shopping arcade just inside the lobby and early on I'd spotted a ring that I really liked. It had an 18ct shank with a really big white opal and 6 tiny diamonds. It took me our entire stay to get the price I wanted and the final transaction took place in a hurry as the bus was loading up outside and preparing to leave. I got it for about 25% of the original asking price and only a few pounds more than my starting offer. Other members of the group used the in-hotel tailor to get clothes made during our 2 night stay and the quality of the resulting clothes was definitely better than they'd found in many other places.
The restaurant was good but predictably pricier than eating out in the town but I don't think anyone minds too much when the ambiance is nice, the selection is extensive and you can get what you want rather than just what they've got.
Sadly when the bus arrived to take us back on the road for an exceptionally long and uncomfortable drive to Varanasi where we rejoined the world of second rate hotels, we were all softened up by two nights of luxury and the peace and quite of both a beautiful hotel and a fascinating city.
Taj Chandela9
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