Thursday, January 17, 2013

FROM 'VANNAKKAM THANJAVUR' TO 'HI TANJORE' !

A recent road trip to Thanjavur with a friend saw me visiting its famous 'brihadesswara temple' and the Thanjore palace among others. As we were walking out of the main entrance of the thanjore palace, I saw a signage atop a building that said 'Hi Tanjore'. The name caught my attention and so did the building that it pointed towards ! 


Moving closer to the building, what greeted us was a traditional thanjavur home that seemed to have been recently refurbished.


 

The blue-glazed cement floor and the colourful poster on the wall immediately pulled me in. The building,as i discovered, was a heritage boutique hotel that was run by Sunil Verghese (who also runs the Dunes eco resort on Pondicherry) and designed by  Dimitri Klein (also its co-owner). The hotel had recently begun its operations. The next hour saw me explore different parts of this colourful blue heritage hotel thanks to its sweet staff. Here's a sneak peek...

The reception area ...


 

The back-lit spiral staircase that lead to the rooms upstairs and the cafe atop is impressive!



Across the hotel one could see glimpses of the traditional thanjore paintings re-interpreted smartly as mixed prints or as-is on the various seat-upholstery.


A 3-seater in the corridor outside the rooms

The hotel has 15 rooms packed inside, each with a unique design. A glimpse of one of the rooms...






The cafe upstairs was all in blue, however the glazed grey cement flooring nicely offset the powerful blues. The films of negative prints (seemed like sculptures from the thanjore temple) mounted on the cafe windows seemed like a genius of an idea!  








A few neat touches...



The open-air terrace...

 
The tariffs might seem steep as the hotel is obviously aimed at luxury/foreign travelers. However the same should not prevent you from having a nice cuppa coffee and some food at the cafe upstairs. 


HOTEL 'HI-TANJORE' - 464, East Main Road, opposite the Tanjore Palace main gate. Tel.: +91 9364455440. www.tanjorehihotel.com



2 comments:

  1. Very nice post. Located in the the southerly state of Tamil Nadu, Thanjavur (Tanjore) is an ancient city rich in cultural and historical heritage. The historical city boasts of many hotels in Thanjavur for travellers.

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