Log in
Join travelers community
Your Profile
Logout
I woke up in my large room to find it in actual fact mildly pleasant, It is decorated with large hunting trophies hanging from the walls, well worn carpets and a wardrobe, the wardrobe contained, luxury of all luxuries: a television, sadly all the cables had been chewed by rats, they even attacked my bag overnight but did little damage.
<br/><br/>
Lucknow, Saturday the 13th of August
Degrubenc2005-12-09 17:36:44
Displayed times (last time: )
I woke up in my large room to find it in actual fact mildly pleasant, It is decorated with large hunting trophies hanging from the walls, well worn carpets and a wardrobe, the wardrobe contained, luxury of all luxuries: a television, sadly all the cables had been chewed by rats, they even attacked my bag overnight but did little damage.
I unlocked all my chains to reach the outside, the palace was a grand all building built by an old Nawab in the late 1800 and subsequently bought in 1911 by Lord Carlton.
The palace was transformed into one of the best luxury hotels in India, it offered this great mix of British elegance in Indian surroundings, at the time it was rivaled only by the Imperial Hotel in Delhi, everyone who was anyone stayed there. Shortly after the independence Lord Carlton returned to England leaving the hotel behind having told the staff to await his instructions. Shortly after his arrival in the UK he sadly died rather promptly. His descendant clearly had no idea that they inherited a hotel and so it was left to rot ever since.
The staff in place now are a few left over and forgotten from the old days of Lord Carlton, they have not been paid in nearly 60 years but they keep the room charge of the occasional visitor as salary. They are still awaiting instructions and have not yet closed the hotel. I expect they must receive an average of 10 visitor a month as my breakfast was served on a dusty table with a dusty old chair hastily arrange in a corner of the outside corridor. Breakfast was indeed a sad affair but it was served with panache by the old butler who dressed in his old dusty uniform for the occasion. I had a chat with the old butler who showed me the old ballroom where he served as a young waiter at presidential and royal dinners, magnificent army balls and large maharaja banquets, now the chandeliers are lying on the floor and the spiders are dancing with the rats. He showed me the
...
See photographs from:
India Gallery
