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| (From top) The quaint Peacock Bar; A view of the pool by night; One of the treehouses at the resort |
The story behind the Treehouse Resort is that its owner, Sunil Mehta, a Jaipur businessman, wanted to buy some fertile agricultural land outside the Pink City but didn’t have enough money for it.
He ended up scouting around, looking at a huge tract of land about 30km outside the city, just off National Highway No.8. It was unappealing: dry and arid, though its location, surrounded by the Aravalli hills, was lovely. Apart from a few keekar trees and some shrubs, nothing grew on it. Local villagers thought Mehta was mad to buy it.
But he went ahead and bought it — all 500 acres of it. Driven by his passion for trees and wildlife, Mehta set about transforming it, using water-harvesting techniques and built water catchments to turn it into a stunningly green landscape.
Mehta called his ecological project Nature Farms. As the trees and plants grew — he planted hundreds and thousands of them — he built a little machan for himself. Friends started coming and insisted on staying in the machan and that’s how the Treehouse Resort, a part of Nature Farms, came about.
Now there are 18 treehouses, mostly built on more than one keekar tree for added stability. They are surrounded by a wild and exuberant profusion of trees, plants, shrubs and creepers. For my 14-year-old son, it was the first time he had been high up in a tree, on the same level as the other tree tops, with birds and chipmunks perched on the branches just inches away.
The treehouses are well equipped with all the usual comforts and below them you have your own private lawn where you can sit and read, bird-watch or look at the ducks.
We went on a jeep safari in the jungle surrounding the resort. The wildlife isn’t abundant — some leopards, hyenas, jackals, foxes and wolves — but it’s a great drive and the night safari is fun too.
There is plenty to do and there wasn’t time, in two nights, to do everything but my son and I played tennis on a beautifully located court and billiards, tried our hands at archery (which, as my calluses will testify, is harder than it looks) and went cycling in the beautiful surroundings where the only person you run into is the occasional villager.
A lot of the guests seemed to enjoy lounging in the gorgeous Peacock Bar, a 400-year-old wooden, carved structure that Mehta found in Jodhpur and transported back to the resort to turn into a heritage bar. The barman is a shy but smiling Kullu who used to be a local goatherd but now makes a mean Bloody Mary.
The food, traditional Rajasthani fare, is excellent. The lal maas and junglee maas were absolutely superb according to the mutton junkie and gourmand who accompanied me. He knows his stuff and he pronounced them to be the best he had had in a very long time.
Although there’s plenty to do in the resort, you can always go to Nahargarh, Ramgarh and Sariska, which are all within a 30km-40km radius. We drove to Nahargarh where we saw the famous liger — a cross between a tigress and a male lion, which thrilled my son.
A four-hour-drive from Delhi, the Treehouse Resort is the perfect weekend getaway. Or it’s a great stop on your way to, or from, Jaipur.
Tariff
- A deluxe treehouse costs Rs 13,500 per night plus taxes and all meals.
- A luxury treehouse is tagged at Rs 15,000 per night plus taxes and all meals.
- A cottage will cost Rs 8,000 per night plus taxes and all meals.