Vanyavilas Vantage Point
#1 in the world?
12.03.2019 - 12.03.2019 80 °F
After an abbreviated stay at the Rambagh Palace we are collected by Vanyavilas' driver for the three-hour, 150 mile trip to Ranthambhore.
Bunty, proud smartly turbaned driver of an Oberoi Audi Q7, collects us at 8:30am to deliver us from the Jaipur Rambagh Palace to our Ranthambhore home for three nights: The Vanyavilas. A driver of both luxury cars to shuttle guests from one venue to another, Bunty also drives on tiger safaris and I hope he is assigned to us on our game drives to come.
The affable Bunty’s English skills are admirable, and his accent is minimal, enough that even B4 gets most of what he is saying. He must be skilled because driving here is an adventure. Lanes are marked but ignored. Rules of the road are mere suggestions of the road. Cows in the street or on the median dare you to hit them. Camels pull carts across bridges. Tractors festooned with garlands and tinsel adornments of every sort tow carts loaded with whatever you like. Trucks overflow with silage or cement or equipment; many sporting signage on tailgates that says, simply, “blow horn.” Women in colorful and flowing fabric stand or walk or dart across lanes of traffic their meager lives in their hands—or ours as we speed by. Vehicles of every sort overload with human cargo taking men and women from point A to point B stuffed together like kernels of corn on a cob. Three’s a crowd elsewhere but not aboard motorbikes in Jaipur. Indian music blares loudly from some transports, exhaust smoke billows from most. The proudest of drivers equip their vehicles with horns that are more musical instrument than beeper or honker, reminding me of an “oogah” horn I once owned as a teenager and later passed on to my son Cianán. More than “make way for me” they play a song of “Look at me. My rig is more colorful, more beautiful, more outrageously adorned than yours and it plays a tune to boot. “
Motorbikes flit about like mosquitoes competing with Tuk Tuks for the right of way. The road may be smooth, or it may not be, trash lies in piles uncollected now and forever and the occasional brick in the road presents a hazard that no one removes but all try their best to avoid. Nothing is new and nothing is finished but perplexingly there are more people than there are things for them to do. Automation holds no appeal here as the cost of the machine would surely be vastly more than would be the cost of human labor. Roosters compete with pigs for what standing room there is outside open-air cafes, tire repair or barber shops. Mini-marts (with the emphasis on mini and many) dot the roadside and compete for the eye and ear of the tourist and native alike. Herders move donkeys with lambs on their backs up the road while tourists snap photographs of them. Women balance pots or bags or boxes on their heads, walking erect, oblivious to the hazards that race by near their elbows. Here, as everywhere in India, the women are colorful and brightly dressed while the men make a monochrome choice in their attire. Indians are, it seems, the opposite of birds where the male sports gaudy plumage. Chaos abounds, horns honk, speakers blare, herders yell and nobody pays much mind to any of it. It is important to remember here that it is the journey that accessorizes the destination and to make it all the more intriguing. You do not nap in the car as, if you do, you miss the show.
It is theater of transport. A foreigner who opts to drive himself in this part of India has a fool for a chauffeur. We have, I am certain, missed more than we have seen and we have seen a lot.
We stop for the washroom and shopping a bit more than half way to our destination (at the Gangour Palace Restourant). B4 overbuys while I fail to underpay.
After finally passing through the village of Sawai Madhopur, we turn into the gates of The Oberoi Vanyavilas, Ranthambhore. We are greeted by the concierge, Saikat Misra, with whom I have had prior contact while arranging transportation, game drives and the like. He treats us like valued old friends and explains the lay of the land for us.
Escorted to Room 203 by Shubham, we listened to his explanation of all its features and leisurely unpacked and sent a few pieces of clothing either for pressing or dry cleaning before heading back to the courtyard for a light lunch. B4 was taken by the way the chef sliced and paired the green zucchini and yellow squash. “I can do that at home,” she said, and I am certain that she will.
At lunch, our waiter, Jaysuria, tells us (when I inquire about tomorrow’s breakfast hours) that he remembers what his grandfather used to say to him, “Eat breakfast like a king, eat lunch like a worker and eat dinner like a poor man.” Wisdom from and respect for elders is an important part of the essence of India. Being an elder, I am in favor of that.
Oberoi’s boutique Vanyavilas isn’t really a hotel.
It is, instead, a tiger-safari-camp collection of twenty-five nearly 800 square-foot, air-conditioned tents atop polished wooden floors hosting four-poster beds beneath embroidered ceiling canopies. Each is privatized by individual gardens flanked by lemon and mango trees. A freestanding roll top bath brags in the center of a spacious en suite bath. Ursula-Terrasi-worthy linens, multiple cuisines on offer; what more could you ask?
In January, it was awarded the number 22 spot in a TripAdvisor ranking of the top 25 small hotels in the world. Vogue ranked it second in its "most isolated hotels in the world" ranking.
There is a spa partially set over a pond. Outside the Ranthambhore Tiger Park, this is an ideal place to commune with nature. During monsoon season (July to September) they close. We're here in March and the days are warm, the evenings cool. The forecast is Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday: 860 660 with patchy rain likely in the morning on Thursday, the day before we check out.
I am looking forward to meeting Lakshmi, for 18 years, Vanyavilas adopted/rescued pet elephant. You know, I do love elephants. Speaking of animals, the following is noted in our welcoming letter from General Manager Ratna Malhotra: "The hotel borders the Ranthambhore National Park. Leopards and sloth bears have been spotted on occasions. Please do not walk unaccompanied once it is dark. Our staff will drive up to and from the main building or to another tent." After dinner, which featured live entertainment, we are escorted.
