Umaid Bhawan Palace is one of the worlds largest private residences.  Half of the palace has been converted into a very exclusive 5 star hotel and the other half is still the private residence of the Royal family of Jodhpur. I have read so many amazing things about the palace and was desperate to find a way to check it out. But with room rates of over $10,000 per night there was no way we were going to be overnight guests.

My plan B was to book reservations in the palace hotel restaurant Risala. When I called to make a booking I was initially given a tentative reservation but we then received an immediate call back saying that the restaurant was reserved for hotel guests only and was fully booked. At that point I was disappointed but ready to give up on the idea of checking out the palace. But it was Christmas Eve and Kingsley was determined to get us there.  So we had the driver drop us off near the front security entrance gate of the hotel.  I think the security guards were a little shocked to see us walking up to the grand entrance claiming to have reservations in the hotel restaurant as fancy chauffeured rolls royces with tinted windows glided by.  There was a few frantic calls to management and a detailed inspection of Kingsley's Singapore ID card but in the end, I suspect with no better idea of what to do with us, they let us proceed to the restaurant.


The inside of the hotel was as spectacular as I had imagined it to be.  And the meal we had at Risala restaurant (in which we were one of the ONLY guests) was one of our top 10 best meals ever and our #1 best Indian meal ever.


Never mind that Kingsley was wearing his old ragged paragliding jeans and a bright blue Hawaiian crazy shirt and I was wearing long johns under my Lucy cargo pants...we felt like Royalty!