Sawai Madhopur � the name always enticed me. All I knew was it was once the scene of royal hunting grounds for the Maharajas. I had passed through this railway junction with a team of girls innumerable times on sojourns in my hockey-playing days. Mainly on the Frontier Mail, a lovely name for a super train, and I always wondered what lay behind and beyond the limestone, rust-colour-painted railway station. And after all these years I created an opportunity to find out.

I set off with my friend of yore, Selma D�Silva, once India�s hockey captain, on the discovery trail. Sawai Madhopur is the railhead for Ranthambore, the Tiger Reserve of Rajasthan. And home for the next three days was Vanyavilas, the luxury camp hotel from Rai Bahadur Mohan Singh Oberoi�s cache of splendid properties.

I was on a train after 25 years. And this time I was not passing through Sawai, I was alighting and floating out of its gates to a gleaming Qualis, where a chauffeur from Vanyavilas was waiting with a steaming hot face towel, welcoming me with a broad smile. Thank you very much, said I, my smile even broader. My holiday, had begun.

Vanyavilas. Is Vanyavilas. A forest retreat that slowly takes your breath away, lulls your senses, relaxes you, soothes your nerves, makes you forget where you came from, in my case claustrophobic Bombay. The place is amazing. There is nothing ostentatious about it. It�s classy-rustic, it befits the setting, you know you are in Rajasthan, but it doesn�t shout at you. And the courteous staff, simple in their approach, let you be and yet are around magically when you need them. Can�t be easy when you consider how vast the area is and how laidout the tent rooms are: just 25 of them, in 20 acres of land which has over 1,500 trees, which includes orchards of mango, lemon, guava and gooseberry.

I loved our room. It was all glass, yet it offered privacy with the outer canopy of the tent coming down low, with the thick, uneven, mud-coated boundary wall 20 feet away doing the rest of the screening from the outside pathways. Some engineering. Rustic meets modernity. The tents are cool, with faultless air-conditioning, huge four poster beds you can sink into, slumber and dream. And the bath, separated just by a fabric curtain, is very charming. An open, old-fashioned tub dominates the room, there�s a shower cabinet and two vanities, one for her, one for him. From here you can walk out through the French window and lie on the chaise longue in your private garden space, in however daring an attire you choose to sunbathe in.

There was no way anyone or anything could drag me away from Vanyavilas on my first day there. Not even the majestic tigers I was dying to see, their natural habitat barely a few kilometres away. I just had to chill, absorb the silence, the surroundings, the peace, the quiet. I wanted to lie still, do nothing.

Well, after doing nothing the whole day, Selma was visibly relieved when I suggested we should dine. And why was she relieved? There�s a small story. Almost four years ago, for the inaugural issue of UpperCrust, we had shortlisted Rajvilas in Jaipur, then newly opened, as the destination for the UpperCrust Getaway. And I had accompanied my husband Behram to check it out. No sooner did we reach Rajvilas, we declined every offer of hospitality of the eager staff and got into bed for a shuteye. The sleep lasted straight 22 hours, 11 a.m. till 9 a.m. the next day. No eating, no drinking, no waking up. It�s a sleep I�ve never experienced since. Vanyavilas, the sister resort, had the same effect, but not quite. There was no Behram this time.

Dinner at such a place is a separate kind of experience altogether. It�s the sum total. The atmosphere, the architecture, the slow pace, the small daily changing menu, the local music. Supported by the fact that you don�t have to wake up early the next morning and rush to work. Ah, this is bliss I thought, sipping on my red wine, winking back at the twinkling stars overhead which I could see from the courtyard restaurant we were seated in. Time doesn�t just pass slowly here, it even goes backward.

Well, that�s how I felt when I saw the camel carts on the road the next morning on our way to the Tiger Reserve, a 10-minutes drive away. Quaintly enough, all these camels are even tattooed, one better than the other. It was very early in the morning that we had set off and couldn�t believe we were actually going into the forest, an area of 300 sq. km., in a completely open Gypsy. There was a sense of fear at our vulnerability, but we both pretended to be cool about it, �What�s there,� we laughed, as we entered into our allotted route F6.

The Reserve with 272 species of birds, was huge we discovered, and so also was our disappointment. We saw no tiger. We saw stags � chital, sambar, deer, chinkara, wild boars, and hare, langurs and peacocks, even a baby crocodile, but no tiger! Even though the better season to visit Ranthambore is between September and February, I had deliberately chosen the uncomfortable month of March, though hot as hell, for that is when major sightings are made. Tigers driven by heat and thirst, venture out in the day to drink water and lie in small pools of water. But luck did not favour us and we returned to our humble abode to drown our sorrows in good food and wine.

The kitchens of Vanyavilas bring to your table some outstanding fare � traditional food of the Continent and a blend of modern Asian cuisine. While they pamper their guests rather equally, I just happen to get a little extra attention. And I love it. For I am interested in food beyond just tasting and eating it. Which is why Chef Sourav and I got into a buggy and went checking out the hotel�s herb garden and vegetable patch, all systematically and organically grown. While on this tour, I also noticed Vanya�s well-equipped gym and a 52-feet-high tower.

The tower is rather interesting. Meant to be a watch tower, a kind of viewing gallery, it can also be transformed into a restaurant -a- deux, in special cases. And if you happen to be honeymooning there in the cool climes of November, I recommend you request Kismet, the dashing F&B manager, to set a table up there for you, candles and flowers complete, not to forget the bottle of champagne. It may turn out to be the best al fresco dinner date of your life.

With such mushy and romantic thoughts churning in my mind, I walked to the lounge to hear tigerman Fateh Singh Rathore give a lecture on, what else, but the tiger. It�s a slide presentation he makes every evening, to an audience comprising the hotel guests. Fateh Singh, apart from being a walking, talking, encyclopedia on the subject, was also once the proud proprietor of the property that Vanyavilas stands on.

Selma and I made a total of three trips into the jungle, the most fruitful being the one where Fateh Singh accompanied us.

We actually saw a tigress and her two cubs at such close distance, our mouths went dry. And when at one point the majestic beast walked past our jeep, I froze. I could have just reached out and touched her. So mesmerising was the moment, I, a quick photographer with a great presence of mind, didn�t do it. I didn�t press the trigger. I couldn�t do it. Holding my breath, I just kept watching...

I was crestfallen, nay shattered at my dismal performance, only to be pacified by Fateh later over breakfast at his house, �It happens to the best of us, you are not the first, that is the magic of the tiger.� For the rest of the day all I could think was that I looked, actually looked, into the eye of the tiger. It�s a frame that will forever stay frozen in my mind�s eye, a moment in eternity.

The bump and the grind of driving in the forest gets you all sore, and the only thing we could logically do was repair ourselves at the spa. And in that tranquil ambience we surrendered ourselves to the gentle but deft hands of the Thai therapist, trained by the Banyan Tree of Thailand. After a Balinese massage, and a long, luxurious, soaking bath, my friend and I ambled to the courtyard restaurant sniffing deeply the heady nocturnal fragrance in the air.

So intoxicated were we by the smells and sounds of the place, so thrilled by the morning experience, we skipped the wine and went straight for the food. And there it was, the surprise.

Farzana�s Chukandar Gosht printed on the menu! I looked up and saw the kitchen and service staff peering from all around for my reaction! I couldn�t stop smiling. You see, the previous night over food discussions with Chef Saurav and Co., I had in passing mentioned about an awesome beetroot and mutton dish which I had first had in Lucknow 30 years ago made by Apa-Jaan, my Dad�s sister. The trick lay in the cutting of the vegetable and of course it was cooked slowly on a wood fire. The talented chefs of Vanya had actually attempted to make it and rather successfully at that! The rest of the guests, a lot of them foreigners, loved it, I was told.

It�s little things like these that endears you to places and I found Vanyavilas to be one such. The managing staff, young, vibrant, motivated, pleasing, and genuinely sincere, contributed vastly to a wonderful stay. The next morning when we finished saying goodbye at the reception and pushed open the huge solid wood door to leave, standing in the outer yard was the entire staff of Vanyavilas, along with the two inhouse elephants, waiting to say farewell. It was touching, that�s the last nice memory I have of a haven tucked away in the tiny hamlet of Sawai Madhopur, a must-visit destination sometime soon.

Vanyavilas can be accessed by air, rail or road. The nearest airport is at Jaipur, 180 km from Ranthambore. The nearest railhead, Sawai Madhopur, is well connected to Bombay, Delhi and Jaipur. Guests will be met with an air-conditioned limousine at Sawai Madhopur Railway Station or Jaipur Airport.

Vanyavilas, Ranthambore Road,
Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan-322 001, INDIA.Tel.: +91-7462-22-39999
Facsimile: +91-7462-22-3988
Reservations: 160011-2030 (Toll Free)
Email: [email protected]

For more information, please contact: Ragini Chopra, VP Business Development & Corporate Communications.
The Oberoi Group,
7 Sham Nath Marg,New Delhi.
Tel: +91-11-2389 0505
Fax: +91-11-2389 0568
Email: [email protected].