I had no prior booking in Samode Palace Hotel. I just wanted to take photographs of inside and outside the palace. But going in an off-season, I was hopeful that if I want, maybe I’ll get rooms; if not, then I will come back.
So with that hope, on 17/06/13 morning I made a phone-call at Samode.
The first surprise in store for me was a reply from Samode which informed me that there is a cover charge of INR 1000 for those who are guests or tourists not staying in the Palace Hotel but just want to visit it, see the palace and take photographs). This cover charge also includes lunch.
That means whether you want to have the lunch there or not, but you have to shell out this cover charge of INR 1000 if you want to take a single click!!
My wife was forbidding me to visit Samode; somehow something was pinching her mind. It was me who still insisted in visiting Samode.
On 18/06/13 we started. To our surprise, we found that Samode is not at all a part of Jaipur city. It’s located around 40 Kms away from Jaipur!! You have to travel via Sikar Road (better known as NH-11 i.e. the Agra-Bikaner Highway), come down to Chomu (around 32 Kms from Jaipur), now go down from the highway, turn right under a flyover of the highway, travel 9kms further to your right via a state-highway (also called Ajitgarh road), and then reach a dilapidated, old ancient gate situated on left side of Ajitgarh road. There you need to leave the state highway and enter this gate.
Do also note that this last 9 kms stretch is quite desolate (of course condition of this state highway is nice), only one petrol pump of BPCL close to the gate, no shop for car-tyre-puncture repair, not even any shop to purchase a bottle of water. How this road will look like in evening or night is anybody’s guess.
We took petrol in the BPCL pump. The owner of the pump asked where we are heading to. We replied Samode Palace. He asked whether we have any prior booking there. We replied in negative. He smiled sarcastically and said “Sir then be also prepared to come back immediately. This palace nowadays host lots of huge marriage ceremonies and parties. In case if one such party is scheduled today, there is a possibility the door of the palace will be closed. They do not allow external visitors (unless they have booking) to visit the palace during any of these parties when the entire palace is booked by the wedding party; as the same will invade the privacy of the marriage party.”
This is the second surprise. Then why the cover-charge??
Now comes the third surprise. Once we leave the road and enter the dilapidated, old ancient gate, we land up in a cobbled, brick-lines, potholed, undeveloped road lined up on both sides with extremely dirty, poor village-like set-ups. Signs of poverty and listlessness stamped everywhere. Is this Samode Village? Graffitis and Signboards written on the entrance of some houses like “Real Gamstones sold here”, “All Cradit / Dabit Card Avalable” (I replicated it, note the spellings, what quality of shopping will you expect here?); but the surrounding and the set-ups is a complete mismatch with those proclamations; it resembles a surreal scene taken straight-out of any other ordinary Indian villages woefully short of development and nourishment…is this what we meant by Samode??
We thought we have landed in wrong place, that’s why we asked at least 4 people inside the first gate, they all confirmed “yes this is Samode village, move ahead further, Samode Palace will come.”
Listless gatherings of people crowding the roads hampering our drive further, even I started feeling nervous. Anyhow, stubbornly I drove up the road which now takes a steep upward turn. We crossed a second dilapidated, old gate, the road turns narrowed, worse, it seemed we are entering a narrow dirty village-path which resembles more of a backward village in western UP (I am posted in this region right now and travelled the interiors extensively) than a so-called “traditional, ethnic Rajasthani village.”
We decided enough is enough, we have already travelled enough-interior, and I turned back my car from the next nearest turn where I got some space to maneuver my vehicle and moved in reverse direction towards Jaipur.
I have seen wonderful, beautiful pictures and photographs of Samode Palace Sheeshmahal in the beautiful book “Forts and Palaces of Rajasthan” which inspired me to go there. I do agree that the Palace, once reached, will be a nice place to stay. It’s located on a hill-top and may command a nice view of the hills and the nature surrounding it. It will definitely have nice frescos and pictures inside and will be a photographer’s paradise. But reaching the destination itself is such a daunting task, that half of your enthusiasm will get dampened there itself. And the sight of the surroundings that dots the approach road gives an impression that Samode may be earning a lot thru’ tourism, but whether any portion of this earning is getting percolated for development of the local region is very doubtful. Its pretty depressing to note that one leaves in a luxurious at the top of the hill in the palace but just down below, in the shadow of the same palace there is so much poverty and dirtiness. Does tourism really encourages local development?? Or all the money gets hidden under a false veil of poverty?
May be majority of the tourists and guests who come for hosting the big Indian weddings here (which seems to be a major source of revenue for Samode) all comes in cushy SUVs and they hardly feel or look at this surrounding. For them what matters is reaching the destination, have fun, then go down again pulling up the black glass of their chauffeur-driven SUVs, so you don’t get the feel of the surrounding locales.
Or is to so that we are deliberately keeping our villages near heritage palaces poor, so that the tourists in season will visit as “ethnic Indian villages” and shoot photographs of their daily grind of life as ethnic photo-shoots?”
For the first time in my road-travels in Rajasthan I felt uneasy here. I’ve drove to Kumbhalgarh and reached there in midnight in peak-monsoon; but never felt so down there. Even villages and settlements lining up the approach of Deeg Fort near Bharatpur did not portray such a pathetic site. And nowhere did I hear of any cover-charge of INR 1000/- for taking photos with compulsory lunch. And will you turn back a guest who travels a long-distance to see a palace just for the sake of saving the privacy of other guests? Anyway this may be the hotel-policy and after all it’s a hearsay.
Do remember Samode is a remote location, where once you are in, nothing much to do except the palace only, and the approach road is remote, with only one petrol pump, no car-repair mechanic shop, no tyre repair shop, no market and not even any medicine shop nearby (I think all these will be available 9 – 10 Kms away in opposite direction all the way back to Chomu).
I again reiterate that this review is not to criticize or belittle the Samode Palace which may very well be a beautiful palace, a gorgeous place to stay once you reach there, once you are in. But as a tourist, whenever you visit a place, you must beforehand be aware of the pros and cons of the surroundings as well. In case if one suddenly feels unwell in night or evening, you may have some options if you are staying in or near a city. But in a remote location as this, options will be limited. Most of the times, travel-brochures will not highlight these minute issues for obvious reasons. But for tourists, such small relevant details are very important. Hence I put up my experience up here for benefit of all. The final call is of course yours.
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