Hello lovelies, welcome back! Here is the final part of the Jodhpur series. You can check out if you missed out on the earlier posts on Mehrangarh fort or Jaswant Thada. Here in the final part, I talk about Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur.
Now there are three things in Umaid Bhawan Palace. One, it is the current residence of the royal family of Jodhpur. Two, part of it is a resort managed by the Taj Group. (Remember the Priyanka Chopra- Nick Jonas wedding? Yes, that.) And three, it is also a museum.
So, obviously for the normal tourist, only the third part is open for viewing. The Umaid Bhawan Palace is one of the largest private residence in the world. How large? Well, it has 347 rooms! It is named after a previous king- Maharaja Umaid Singh.
Now, if you have visited the Mehrangarh fort, you will find Umaid Bhawan Palace a bit underwhelming. Only around 5 of the rooms of the palace are available for public viewing. So it is not as grand and will not take up a lot of your time. However, you can see a lot of artifacts and stuffed leopards. Also, a very large symbolic flag given to Maharaja Jaswant Singh by Queen Victoria in 1877, a collection of clocks in windmill and light house shapes, and photographs of the elegant art-deco interior of the palace.
However, if you are a fan of classic cars, Umaid Bhawan Palace is the place for you to be. All the classic cars of the Maharajas are on display. One can truly enjoy them in the front garden of the palace.
A lot of Bollywood movies are also shot inside the Umaid Bhawan Palace. But if you feel just 5 rooms are not worth your time, you can probably save your ticket entry and just checkout the place from the outside. Or you can simply wander outside and take Instagram worthy photos.
An entry ticket costs around 30 INR. It is located on a hilltop so the trip is probably worth the view.
–Mrinaal Datt
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