Padmanabhapuram Palace

It was a great experience to visit the Padmanabhapuram palace. I have grown up in Trivandrum, but never visited the palace, even though it was less than 100km from my place. Last year i went to the palace with my family. I was excited to c the palace.



It was the palace where the maharaja(king) of travancore lived and ruled the place. The palace is huge, if i am not wrong the structure is spread across 3 acres. Thats huge. There were three or more seperate buildings, it was all so confusing. The path were marked so we dint get lost. It would be a grt place to play hide and seek and i bet that u will never be able to seek here.



To start off, the whole palace is made of wood. You find get art everywhere. And the floor, oh it shines like mirror. To maintain the floor, the guards dont allow you to wear slippers inside the palace.


There is a building called uppirikka malika which has three floors. To think of having 3 floor back in maharaja times is some grt accomplishment. Due to some maintenance and security issues we where not allowed in the 2nd and third floors. But the view from the first floor itself is grt. The passages, i got to say, are very narrow. Most of them allow only one person at a time.


Then the grt kitchen, with big bowls made in stone to serve curd and pickle. There was a dining room where they served 2000 people. Thats a big crowd. But i guess a lot of people would be there in a palace.I was indeed surprised to c a bathroom in the first floor of the palace near the queen's room. I never knew that the palace had bathrooms. It was indian style toilet made in stone. Advanced people, I should say.



The European style guest rooms were really well built. The balcony was so cool and breezy, i guess the Europeans really enjoyed their stay at the palace. I was looking forward to c the king and queen bedroom. But they were not as big as i expected and there was seperate bedroom for the king and queen. I wonder why? Anyway i got some great pics of the cot. The king slept in a medicinal cot and the queen mother in a cot decorated with ivory.


Then there was a saraswati temple and near that was the dance floor and a well(There were lots of coin in that, may be someone had spread the rumour abt wishes coming true if u put coins..people). This palace has been the location for some great malayalam movies like 'Manichitrathazhu' and 'His Highness Abdulla'. The dance floor was wonderful. There was provision for ladies to view the floor either sitting, lying back or standing. Thats great thinking. I guess the ladies were worth the consideration. I really wanted to live there, but its government property nor do i have a time machine to go back in time and view it in its complete glory. It will be one unfulfilling dream.

It was worth an experience, the whole trip wont take more than 2 hrs, so if u r in tvm u can plan to visit any weekend. The route is not properly marked. We sorta got lost. And why wouldnt we, the palace board is kept abt 5inch from the ground. Ya you read it right, 5"inch". How r you supposed to read that from a vehicle, be it any vehicle. And the way is not you expect of the palace road, but the palace is worth a visit. I guess they could do something more abt the route. I am looking forward to visit the palace again.