🙂 Imperial Hotel
🙁 Crazy busy!
New Delhi – 2023
We have yet to explore Delhi – every visit has been overnight and a flight in and a flight out….but we have enjoyed one place:
The Imperial Hotel– the city’s most feted colonial-era hotel (circa 1931) – offers a tangible connection to its self-proclaimed ‘halcyon days of the Raj’. Which is at once comforting and discomfiting, depending on how ‘woke’ you are. If you enjoy nostalgic, old-fashioned elegance – vintage rattan furniture, wheeling fans, photographs and artworks of the city from the 20th century – this is certainly the most delightful hotel in Delhi, with a real sense of history, but it also feels disconnected from India’s current and future prospects as a burgeoning powerhouse and contemporary player on the world stage.
A seven-acre property in the heart of Delhi, The Imperial offers real respite, with a palm-lined entrance and an enormous pool that is a joy to wallow in after a day on the traffic-jammed streets. There is also a gym and a spa offering Ayurvedic treatments along with Western treatments. For a five-star Indian hotel, service can be somewhat patchy but overall intentions are sound, and niggles outweighed by positive praise.
There are four restaurants: all-day dining at multi-cuisine 1911 (breakfast here comprises an enormous buffet and a few made-to-order hot items, designed to satisfy both Western and Indian tastes), Daniell’s Tavern serves pan-Indian, and San Gimignano serves Italian fare, but top choice is The Spice Route. Aside from sampling the delicious coconut-based predominantly seafood dishes from Kerala and the Malabar Coast (sumptuous Kerala-style prawns, fried with coconut, curry leaves and black tamarind), there are offerings from Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand – an excellent pad thai, strips of lamb stir-fried with spinach, mint, oyster sauce and chillies. Early evening drinks are best imbibed in the colonnaded veranda; post-prandials in a quilted leather chair at 1911.
Strictly for the tasteful elite, Patiala Peg is a bespoke bar and the only one serving the giant peg which relives the spirit of the erstwhile Maharaja of Patiala. The peg born out of a friendly polo match in the early 1900s measures 120ml and is a symbol of bespoke Patialan hospitality, serving four times larger than the usual 30ml standard pour. The custom-made has a glorious, well-appointed environment ideal for whiskey lovers. Arguably the only bar in Delhi with a unique history and tradition, it takes one back to some of the fascinating views from the life of India’s greatest Maharaja in the 20th century. This is is where Nehru, Gandhi, Lord Mountbatten and Mohammad Ali Jinnah met to discuss the partition of India and where the notion of Pakistan was born!
New Delhi: 1995
Friday 17 November. 1995 – We departed Udaipur and were tremendously relieved to find that somehow we had managed to book a first class private coupe, all to ourselves! HOORAH! We woke up at 09h00 and a Thali brunch – not as nice as dinner but still good. Arrived in Delhi and fought our way through the bustle and aggressive rickshaws…the World Trade Fair was on in Delhi and there were very few budget options available so we were forced to stay at the more expensive Connaught Hotel. The lobby is opulent and gives you a false sense of ‘luxury’ but then you notice the damp walls and leaking toilets and poor service…. never the less we were completely exhausted so paid and had a hot bath. Had dinner in the restaurant. Went for a walk but soon headed back after we passed scores of people simply pooing in the road ….in 29C it stunk. GROSS. We couldn’t wait to take the complimentary bus to the airport in the morning!
Monday – 20 November, 1995 – Flight back to UK was fine – and amusing anecdote – the Pilot invited Trent to the cockpit and he was chatting away when Trent asked him how on earth the plane was flying if he was talking to us….the Pilot replied to say it was on ‘auto pilot’ and Trent replied to say …ahhhh, yes – just like the auto rickshaws in India – we all had a god laugh!! We were so excited to see the family and be met at the airport – we walked through Customs in heightened excitement to find … no one. We thought that they were hiding and playing a joke on us…but no one was there… We went to a call box but no one answered. We were about to take a taxi but tried one more time and Libby answered… they had the wrong return date! Andy picked us up – Ben adorable baby… so good to be back in the UK. By the end of the day I had found a house to rent in Twyford (Had to pay £5,500 deposit and rent £800 / mo), we had bought a (shit) car for £500 from a gypsy knife wielding traveller, confirmed Trent’s start date as the following Monday at Dolphin School, and Paul and I both had secured job interviews for the following week… not bad for a day’s work?! Welcome Home to England!! We had an odd situation that all bar one of five Ghurka knives that we had bought were no longer in our luggage and my rolling flash opal had disappeared… very strange.
Go to: India
