Our first view of Alipura Palace was very impressive - a 400-year-old building built by a Raj. There is a narrow entrance way with curving steps. Large and small balconies are all around the building. As we walked through the central courtyard and there was a strong fragrance of jasmine - beautiful! There was a huge tree  in the courtyard that resembled a white French lilac. There was also a small bush of jasmine as well as potted plants scattered all around.

We were taken into the dining room on one side of the courtyard and served cold cola. The descendent of the original Raj lives in a section of the palace, but we didn’t see him. There are 9 rooms scattered over 2 wings that are used for guests. We were given room 101, which turned out to be the biggest room -- a room formerly occupied by the Raj.

The room: a huge sitting area with 2 small and one large balcony that looked out onto hills, the village, and a small temple on top of a small hill. Very picturesque. Lovely old chairs were scattered around with glass coffee tables. There was also a small round marble table -- very heavy, covered with an inlaid wreath of flowers and topped with a glass.

After a rest, some of our group braved the 40 degree temperatures and went on a short village walk. One of the attractions was a local potter who let the newcomers try their hand at pottery. They also saw a stall where they could try their hand at rolling cigarettes. As she had done on the whole trip, Becky, our young friend from Norfolk, England volunteered for all these activities. She was game for anything and quite hilarious to spend time with. The group were hoping to play cricket with the village kids but there were no kids around. Even THEY thought it was too hot.

At 8 o'clock we gathered on the top terrace to visit before supper was served. Sue-On took the opportunity to go down to the second terrace and to do some Tai-chi. She took off here shoes and gathered energy for her work-out from the warm cement floor. Bill found the WiFi room, where he caught up with his mail and Web chores.

Parakrum cooked supper: chicken in a lovely sauce with many spices, a mixed vegetable dish in curry, naan and roti as well as steamed rice. It was very good -- a multi-talented CEO.

We retired to our palatial bedroom around 10 pm. The huge suite of rooms was comforable and cool with fans going and A/C running. We were quite amazed to finding that there were no power outages like we had experienced in many of the newer hotels.