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Imagine You Are A Princess
must surely be the most played out fantasy for girls.
Alas, we grow up to find that it is
Not Always As We Imagined It To Be.
YuC as a princess "confined to the Harem", looking down into the Durbar Hall
The Prince Charming,
Guard adjusting YuC's veil, posing as a "couple" like the painting on the wall
Corridor leading to passageway outside -2nd floor Durbar Hall
a mere illusion ?
Floral designs painted on the arches, walls and vaults of the corridor leading to the Zenana 2nd Floor Samode Palace
And The Happily Ever After
Me and YuC as Maharajah & Maharani- 2nd floor Durbar Hall
And The Happily Ever After
Me and YuC as Maharajah & Maharani- 2nd floor Durbar Hall
Just A Fairy Tale.
Painting on the wall (details)
Living A Fairy Tale
Samode Palace
Living A Fairy Tale
And that was exactly what me and two of my girlfriends decided we should do when we were in Jaipur. Who cares if it was only an illusion? In fact, the more unreal , the better. And no, we did not need it to last.
If you want to live a fairy tale, there really is no better place in the world to do it than India. Where else can you check into a real Maharajah's Palace and start your make believe?
Infinity Pool
Where you can bathe in a pool with water extending to as far as your eyes can see only to reflect the Mighty Aravelli Range like a painted canvas with you in it.
Deck with day beds
Where pool decks are decorated like palace harems so that you can laze and read in the outdoors with the comforts of the indoors.
Jacuzzi
And when night falls and you are reluctant to leave, you can slip into the enclave of a warm jacuzzi and bathe some more.
Puppet Show
Where there is never a dull moment even if you are merely walking towards dinner as the puppet master entice you to stop whilst his handsome young apprentice drums his way to your heart.
The creme de la creme Royal Suite- but aren't they all?
And when luck is on your side and they upgrade you to The Royal Suite, you stare incredulously at a living room, a reading room, a dining room, a fireplace and a huge bathroom, spoiled for choice on where to rest your feet.
And in the morning when you wake and you open the door to what you think is the balcony, an ostentatious courtyard greets you instead. Even on the 3rd floor, you have your own fountain, an outdoor jacuzzi and more luxury than you have time to enjoy.
Best of all, this fairy tale is full of art.
Roomful of art
Blue Hall
Details of shutter windows
Maybe even a life time worth of art.
So who cares that it is just for one night?
Is it not better to love and lost than not to love at all?
So I say live and love and don't care that it doesn't last.
In fact, live and love like it is your last
because one day, you will be right.
59 comments:
I do, I do! :)
I am, I am! :)
India is so beautiful, all of the attention to detail, the myriad of patterns upon patterns.... luxury for the eye.
Liked the music, too. :)
Oh lovely post Sans! Princess for a day sounds wonderful, but yes, I'd like to live the rest of my life as me too....
Wow, Wonderful, a real dream palace !
What an extraordinary and magical place. I would readily volunteer to stay for a while, and wander. Being a princess means being attended to all the time, that would be hard for me. But pretending, and getting lost in all that living art, I'd try that.
Dear Princess Sans,
you have visited in awesome place. And you are so right, we should remember to live now and today!
With love, Princess piikko
realmente la belleza del ambiente y el increíble paisaje hace que el corazón se abra, y uno se sienta el rey del mundo, y que la vida es maravillosa. la felicito por poder vivirla en un sitio como ese aunque solo sea una noche.
un abrazo
really the beauty of the environment and stunning scenery makes the heart opens, and you feel king of the world, and that life is wonderful. I congratulate you on can live in a place like that if only one night.
a hug
वास्तव में पर्यावरण और तेजस्वी दृश्यों की सुंदरता बनाता है हृदय को खोलता है, और आप दुनिया के राजा लगता है, और है कि जीवन अद्भुत है. मैं आपको बधाई देता हूं पर एक जगह में रह सकते हैं जैसे कि एक ही रात अगर.
एक आलिंगन
Sans dear, sweet princess, but how the hell do you find these places? you do the tour guide, or you're the daughter of an emir, to let a room so luxurious that I only get to watch, I pay a lot of money? :))
I envy you my dear friend, is the only reason that I speak so because I envy you very much ... I love traveling, and now I can not: ((
... and see everything, just in photography, only makes me suffer ..
But thank you very much, because at least that I can travel with my imagination!
I love you!
Overwhelming pictures - what a beautiful place. And a very thinkful ending... at least, taking every day and trying to make the best of it is the very best we can do - and if we're lucky, we'll experience something beautiful, perhaps read a blog-post about an Indian palace... ;O)
Greetings
Birgit
I love Fairy Tales...beautiful palace pictures.
Hugs
Victoria
Dearling Sans... thahks for such magical beauty. I love so wise words... " live and lovelikeit is your last..."
Greetings. Mariajo
Oh MY! Oh WOW! Oh My oh MY! What a lucky visit!! What an amazing place! What a great story even just for one day! I LOVE all your pictures! Thank you for playing Make Believe Princess for all of us far away followers! What an amazing Guard to help you with your pictures!! And the PAINTINGS!!!!! I wish I could... I wish I could create even half as beautiful a wall as those lacy tracery patterns! Maybe someday I will have the opportunity to come to India... but for now your visit has given a glimpse that is better than anything I could have imagined! What an amazing place! Thank you for this post, Sans! That is what I love about you.... you are not afraid to go to a faraway Palace and play Princess for real... and show it to the World!! :) Your artistic eye has captured so much beauty it is BREATHTAKING! What can I say... I LOVE it all!
Absolutely right Sans: the more unreal the better! ;)
Love your beautiful photos... they are breathtaking!!
Hugs Jollie
Un verdadero sueño hecho realidad! que cantidad de paisajes, arquitectura, arte hay en India! Eres muy afortunada en poder haber sido una princesa (realmente lo eres)
Un abrazo
Wow!!! This is so awesome !!
Hi Sans,
Thanks for the lovely journey into the Palace and it's surroundings!
Hugs
Oh my. It is such a joy to travel with you. What a great world we live in! CM
Awesome setting, inside and out...and great pics!!! The detailed wall paintings are mind-blowing, love the red corridor. Very memorable trip :) xox
What a beautiful place to stay for even one night! Glad you found the time to take so many photos:) Love all the wall paintings and decorations.
Yes, a Daydream for everygirl...
Those pictures of yours show the ideal place for this kind of dreaming. So Lovely. I think there lives a little princess inside every womans` heart.
Stunning pictures!
what a magical place!!!!! a world of dreams...am I still here?
It lasts and lasts. Memories of all this magical beauty stays with you forever.
Wonderful, visiting your blog always make me feel I'm entering another world! You know I almost never dressed up as a princess when I was little, I dressed up as Pippi Longstocking, a Native American(!) and in local outfits bought on holidays, even as an old lady (which was my favourite, I liked drawing wrinkles in my face) But this post makes me want to play princess for a day too! Such a beautiful place, and I love the decorated walls!
Unfortunately, google translator does not translate sighs ...
So I can not clearly express what I feel seeing these pictures, if not the overwhelming urge to spend all my savings on a trip to India!
Only, if to me cair a tooth, I'm in trouble!
I want to be one of your girlfriends traveling companions and adventures :-)
As a princess, now, I suck (after a Sunday spent cooking and washing dishes), but I feel that I could easily regenerate in that suite :-)
Mini sighhhhhh hugs, Flora
Casi me pierdo tu ultimo post, no me habia enterado de que eras la princesa de un cuento de ensueño en la India.
Que solo ha durado un dia o una noche? que importa en tu memoria sera un reinado corto pero feliz.
Que preciosas fotografias, que lindas princesitas, en un sitio tan fantastico debe ser facil soñar.............necesito ser princesitaaaaaaaaaaaaa jejejeje
besitos ascension
Dale, my pictures really don't do justice to the splendour of the palace. It is incredible that we could get so close and personal with museum quality artwork, not to mention posing right in the Sultan Mahal, sitting in those very furniture I have read about years ago.
You know they don't even really shade the walls properly , just thick canvas blinds which of course lend a lot more atmosphere to the palace but can be detrimental to the preservation of the artwork since parts of the walls are exposed to the sun.
I will really advise those who can to go and visit the Samode even if is just to see the halls.
We have the best of both worlds, Gagan. Aren't we lucky ?:)
Rosanna, we were upgraded to the Royal Suite because there was a group of American tourists who came and booked up the rest of the rooms :). Yay!
Amy, I think you will find India fascinating. It is difficult not to be affected and then influenced.
I saw in your dollhouse how you had decorated the bedroom with a traditional Indian toran (valance) :). If you work with fabric, India is a must see :).
:):):) Princess Piiko :):):) Good evening or is it good morning, Your Highness!
Ooh yes please...I want to be a princess!! (I don't suppose there's any age limit is there...?? :))Stunning photos - thanks so much for the experience!
Hahaha Contar! Thank you for the Hindi translation :):). I can't read it but the sentences sure look pretty :).
How wonderful too it will be if I can understand Sanskrit ! :) Then maybe I will understand the mysteries of one of the world's greatest civilisations :).
It's good to see you here, Contar!
Caterina :):). After travelling for a while, I have concluded that the most economical way to travel is to do it in a group of 3 and that we must share 1 room.
Our stay in the Samode is the most extravagant. This night in Samode is almost the same price as a week in the ashram. We figured that we have saved so much money living in the ashram for 1 week that we could splurge and live like queens for one night.
When we stayed in the other fancy hotel, Devi Ratna, we got it at 1/2 price because it was not officially opened yet ..teehee :).
This night in Samode came up to about Euro 150 per person (breakfast included)? It is cheaper than our stay in Venice, yes but Venice was not a palace and it was not a royal suite. Venice would have been way more expensive I believe if we had stayed in a really fancy palazzo :).
You know Caterina, Singaporeans love to get out of the country whenever we can because ours is such a tiny place. You live in a beautiful country , a dream destination for most people in the world. My sister for one, once dreamt of settling in St Gimignano :). If I live in Italy, I will spend all my holidays travelling within the country. You are lucky :).
Today I learnt a cute quote : They say the grass is always greener on the other side. But have you ever turned the grass on the other side to see what it's like? teeheehee :)
Hehe, Birgit, you are so sweet :):).
Have you ever heard of stream of consciousness writing? I usually start a blog post in the middle of the night because I spend ages sorting the photos. By the time I hit the ending, it's usually 3-4am. So I tend to start rambling and just typing what's in my head-often it's me talking to myself :):). There were occasions , many actually, when I thought my writing very contrived. Sometimes I left it because it was how I truly feel then :).
Today, I shall spend some time in the evening reading my friends' posts and discover gems myself :).
Victoria :) me too! Fairy tales and Kung Fu Panda 2..LOL!
no wonder you love the place so much HEE HEE :P
dear Sans, it's true!! the grass is always greener than ours, it is true, we say so, even in Italy! :))
but you know that I, while living in my beautiful country, I have not visited it all again??
the advantage of living in my land, south Italy, is that the sea is beautiful, maybe even better in the Maldives, so I console myself .. :))
Unfortunately, it takes a lot of money to travel, and the only way to save is to buy a camper .... but also costs a lot to my family .. so if one day I win the lottery, I would like to travel so much, all over the world, because there is so much art and beautiful scenery to be seen ...
I embrace you, and hope you still visit many countries, it is to fill your eyes and your heart, with these immense experiences.
and you, even if only in pictures, these emotions you gifts to us ... that's why I love you! :)))
kisses a lot, Caterina
Marajo, I love that saying too :) although it is easier said than done, no? :)
Betsy, I think you will love India. I don't say that to many people because India is a tough country. But yes, with you, I think I know what will captivate you :).
Thank you as always for being so generous with your compliments. And my dear,of course you can paint as well as any of the Indian artists, even better!
Jollie, do you know you have been on my mind lately. Just this morning as I was walking to work, I thought of you again.:)
It's not creepy as it sounds.haha :)
Rosamagarita, yo soy "princesa Pretend ", una "Royal Pain" .. jajaja. Me pregunto cómo se traducirá ..:) Gracias por estar aquí, mi querido amigo. Montones de besos de usted!
Thank you Kathy O-O ")
Norma Soulet :):) I lay a "Welcome Mat" for you :)
Carol CM, you are a great travelling companion! I love our world too, the good and the bad :)
Alison, until you visit India , you will have to contend with Little India :). My house is just round the corner from there ;p
Kikka, spoken like a real princess ;). I have always thought "Kikka" is such a fairy tale name :)
You are too kind , Browny. The lighting is poor in some of the pics.
Announcing the arrival of Queen Ana Anselmo of Portugal...yes, you are still here :)
Now that I have posted the pictures, I will remember these moments , Drora :)
Some of these were very " I see the world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower" moments.
And talking about last and last, didn't William Blake then say, "you can hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour ?" :)
Really Helene? Never a princess? You know what? Except for that moment in the 1st pic, neither have I! Ok, maybe not, I think me and my sisters have played princesses in blankets before :).
When we were young, we all wanted to play the adults and old ladies (don't know how many times I had pretended to walk with a stick all hunched, as a child). Now that we are not so young, we fantasize about being young again . So Helene, will you dress up as a princess in your next costume party?
Speaking of costume party, I just won best dressed at a friend's "Rock Starz" birthday party. All because I wore a pair of boots with a short denim skirt ..haha :) The prize was a chain wristwatch (one end attached to the middle finger) with little skulls on the leather strap! LOL!
Flora, as you can see from the pictures , we were hardly princessly dressed. None of us brought cosmetics on this trip. And we wore old comfy clothes that did not take up luggage space. LOL
And though we have never met, I think you and I will make great travelling companions. Can you imagine us breaking into poetry every 2 sentences and then taking out our paint brushes every few minutes when inspired by our surrounding?? teeheeheee... actually, I swear like a sailor and dress like a hobo lady most of the time. But if you can live with that for just a few days, I bet you we will have a ball of a time ;p
Ascensión, en mi visita a España, nos encontraremos? Será "La reunión de las dos princesas":) jajaja. Nunca olvidaré mi experiencia en un castillo español. Creo que fue el castillo de la Alhambra. Había una habitación en el sótano con sólo una cama que aún tiene manchas de sangre del colchón. Tenía escalofríos visitando ese sitio. Pero aparte de eso, que el castillo es tan hermosa como cualquiera en la India:).
Janine, no age limit. In fact the older the better cos expectations are lower then ..hahaha :).
Ya lah...to each her own, Cindy :):). Mum was always curious why I was so fascinated with the Indian culture until she got influenced. Now we both go shopping for kurtas cos she finds them really comfortable to wear.
(((((((((((((((Caterina))))))))))))))))) :). Your words warm my heart and thanks to your encouragement, I will continue . I am reading Eat Pray Love now and going on Elizabeth Gilbert's journey in Rome. How I agree with her on the wonders of Italy, be it the language, the place or the people. I am a great admirer of the Italian people. I think all of my blog friends from Italy are cultured, witty, clever, talented, elegant and beautiful. And all of you have such personalities. There's never a dull moment with you.
I will be packing suitcases full of love and sending them your way :):) So much love that I need to take some time to make a couple of special suitcases. So bear with me while you wait! haha
Sans ¡Que lugares tan mágicos , maravillosos, increíbles,impresionantes!! Que fotos más buenas ( = ¡Gracias! por de una forma acercarme a eso lugares sorprendentes y tan hermosos.
Un abrazo
Flor
If I thought the nautch girl int eh previous post was beautiful- the red doorway in this post is gorgeous! Now I HAVE to put this place on my list of places to visit!
And if you are lucky, Divya, they may give you the Royal Suite. Plan to stay there for more than 1 night if they do to enjoy ALL the facilities if you can but it is a destination by itself with Jaipur City being a one hour ride away.
Flor me alegro de que os haya gustado las fotos:)
Abrazo :)
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