In Bikaner, we stayed here:It's called Lallgarh Palace and it is the most amazing hotel I have ever been in. Why did we take such a sudden turn away from the usual shabby but ok budget guesthouses that we deserve? How did we get let in? Family connections don't you know. Stef's great-grandfather lived in India, he was an architect who was partly responsible for some pretty impressive landmarks (such as the Victoria Railway Station in Mumbai, for example). He was also good mates with the Maharaja of Bikaner at the time, whose granddaughter, pictured below, now runs the palace as a hotel.

Stef's dad Simon has a copy of a beautiful, signed book the Maharaja gifted his grandfather way back when. Simon very generously wrote to the Princess and offered to donate the book to her museum, if she was interested.

So we brought the beautiful book - which is even bigger than Shantaram - all the way to India. We were invited to the Princess' Delhi home, which is a lovely apartment in the diplomatic area, where we were fed tea and biscuits and tried very very hard to behave in an appropriate manner. We were really nervous, but the Princess, who has lived for many years in London as well as in the Palace in Bikaner, was an expert in small talk. It turns out she already has a copy of the book, so she told us we should hold onto it and that we should visit the palace.

So we did. We got an amazing discount so we spent two nights in one of the best 'historical' rooms, with a bathroom bigger than any I've had in a house, a couch set, a writing desk and a beautiful bed. We slept well.
The Princess with her pugs.
A less adored pet.
The pool.
One of many, many corridors in the epic palace.

My only disappointment was that I was a little ill in the belly department and couldn't take full advantage of the massive buffet breakfast.

We left for the overnight train back to Delhi wondering what had just happened, where we'd just spent three days, which of us had dreamed it?