Suryagarh,Jaisalmer:Photos,Experience

I woke up early next morning to be able to witness the outside view through which the little sunshine of dawn was trying to peek in through my room window. Off I went in search of the little unknown to me territory- I have had heard in the introductory speech that we have a pool and a spa and now I was the one waiting to avail one of those. 

The Masakali and Her dove @ Suryagarh To know what accessories I wore,click here For previous posts on Suryagarh,click here 
Just then I saw a gate by the center open, and I saw the peacocks were been directed to the dramatic stairs which paved way to the courtyard. There I was in the open space where the Shehnai reverberated with a sweet melody of Bhajans, in what seemed like a rhythmic wake up call. The beauty with which Suryagarh imbibes your needs and adds up their own flavors is personal which is unlike the usual Check - in Check out we do at many places.

The Shortcut from my room backdoor to the courtyard-  Those drama stairs

Suryagarh - Kaki and Turtles and White Pigeons

Wake me up!
What started as a Shehnai, never ceased to end. Then came 'Kaki' - the melodious singer whose voice echoed in every corner of Suryagarh, behind the veil on her face which no body has seen yet. On being asked she said she sings for herself and with the money that she gets, she goes on shopping for herself.

                                           The Talented Kaki in the Suryagarh Premises

Then came Turtle by chance. Nisha who had picked up a Turtle before in one of her travels, told me to hold it calmly, the turtles have sharp teeth. Well I didn't know that the Turtles had such big teeth. Good lord if they had bitten me ! And then were the friendly white dove - The Masakali style. We all turn by turn got ourselves or rather gave our head her resting ground for a while. And she was happy to co-operate.

Someones got big sharp teeth...

Suryagarh - The Luxury of Timelessness
/*On a candid chat with Karan*/

The ever so eternal entry @ Suryagarh

All of us have a different way of defining Luxury.For some, luxury has connotations of a big screen plasma TV, but as for them luxury is the way you want it to be. Like your Chai in the morning. Like your cuppa Coffee which gives you peace. This is might not be what you always get at your home, but what you always wanted. As they talked to their guests - they understood that there are two important things people look generally in a vacation - the luxury of timelessness and experience of a place .So even if you would want your breakfast at 4 in the morning or by midnight, the time is precious to everyone and it is to their happiness that they serve you with much delight skipping on all together the constraint called time. Our day began with the very elaborate Halwai breakfast at ‘Nosh’ where we had the Samosas and the Pakodas and the Chat. The Chat specially is very popular with the Indians as well as people who come from abroad because we Indians, let’s admit it we love our Paranthas, Pakodas and Chat. And for those who come from overseas, that is a delectable new taste that grows on them. However, they do have other continental options as part of menu if you feel like having them.

Suryagarh - Offbeat Jaisalmer

The cows stare at us,as we explore the unmapped.

To be able to breathe into deep and then to be able to take into a little bit of not just the hotel experience but tied into the reality of land on which the place is set is what Suryagarh is all about. They understand that people come here for the fort and the dunes, it’s been spoken and talked about, they might as well do it. But they also want for the people who stay with them to be able to witness the unexplored part of Jaisalmer which they are primarily passionate about. This may not last forever - the culture, the traditions, the legends and they are beautiful. And Suryagarh preserves it and think good of the community which gave Jaisalmer so much. Their sequence of experience start by the sunrise where they take you to the forgotten part of the desert, to desert pastures and oasis, to settings which are biblical to the food which is off the charcoal grill to interaction with herdsmen ,to the vantage point of Sundowners ,to the celebratory dinner at the dunes at night ,to morning sunrise with 100 around peacocks, to the remote temple trails and Chudail trails and the people because of which Jaisalmer would be incomplete.

Suryagarh - The Start and the No-Struggle

                                        With Manvendra Singh Shekhawat, the former model
                                                To know what accessories I wore,click here

Manvendra Singh Shekhawat,the former Gladrags model and now the owner of Suryagarh, was an interesting subject to me. Why? Because why would anyone leave a glam life to live a life which meant being a owner of a resort - it must be a responsibility. Out of this curiosity, I asked him to which his reply was

The piece of land turned into a resort of choice

“We had this piece of land and in one of my crazy socialite parties, someone said very nasty about this project, so I came in to this place to explore. The initial plan was to build up a city hotel with a capacity of 170-180 rooms. Then we thought of fort style resort which would make more sense. This initiative at that time was a huge risk because Jaisalmer didn't have an airport. But at 23 ,you do not think much if it’s okay to do it. I was able to use a lot of my earlier contacts to get the word out. I was also lucky to get the right people. And this project is how I wanted it to be , now”. He looked quite happy and content with the progress and so were we with the experiences.

He also opened up to me to his stories of being able to wander in the wilderness with his friends, sleeping on a mattress on top of a car under canopies of stars. He smiled and said to many it might look lunatic, but here, it’s all safe. And we believed.

Another brainchild of Manvendra Singh Shekhawat,is I love Jaisalmer which has an aim of encouraging people to bring back belonging and responsibility for their own community and heritage. The NGO is also considering pilot projects wherein people would be at the forefront.The details are yet to release,but we are sure all ears to listen.

Suryagarh - The Personal Touch and Award Winning Spa

Beautiful means inside out at Rait.

They engage with their guests in a very similar way in their Asian Award Winning spa in the middle of Jaisalmer in the Suryagarh premises called 'Rait' (meaning Sand in English).The concept emerging from the Silk Route stories.

They believe that in those days, travelers/traders would go far in the wild and the ladies would stay at home. They were madly in love with each other and they would terribly miss each other and wait for the time when they would meet again .As the ladies stayed and the merchants came back to their loved ones who were famed for their beauty and men were very handsome, these gentlemen would bring back for their ladies the most beautiful elixirs they could find during their travel - whether it was dead sea mud or salt or frankincense. Similarly these ladies would smear themselves in what was traditionally and locally found such as Tulsi and Khuskhus and Rait which had silica and the healing powers of the sun. These therapies which are indigenous to the merchant and to that era are still being practiced in the spa with the elixirs and the frankincense.

The foundation of this spa ,is not just beauty but beyond beauty and that is why Rickie specialists have been trained and hired. I went through one of the Swedish message in the spa with the mildest of oil, because I am very sensitive to perfumes and I was happy to be the refreshed me again :)

Suryagarh - iMRS

Now this word as intelligent as it may sound, as intelligent it is. I didn't know if my constant wassapping or holding my phone can do damage to my veins .But certain things are proven like this one. IMRS is Intelligent Metallic Resonance System and what it does is aligns the flow of blood to how it must be - that is aligned to magnetic field of earth.

What is going on in today’s world is with all the radiation of cellular activity, the blood in not flowing as it must, rather sluggishly as proven by medicals. The blood in earlier days used to flow according to the magnetic axis of the earth.10 minutes in iMRS, aligns the blood flow, and its frequent application can make you feel all rejuvenated. To provide more nutrition to the body in the spa, they use nano-technology which is about 100 traces of minerals in the essential oil which changes the composition for deeper penetration.

Now, we had our breakfast and small little plays with the dove and the peacocks in the courtyard, lets move around Jaisalmer, shall we?The short video is ready and so are the stories...There we go.Next :)