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SIOLIM
HOUSE..............details
This is the real Goan experience. Sunrays filter through
the mother-of-pearl windows onto the draped, four-poster
bed. Above, the ceiling is crafted in wood and tile by
artisans who have carried their handwork through
generations. In the large room, your footsteps echo the
walls painted in local shell paint. Outside the window a
beautiful patio sparkles in the sunlight. Tiny birds
twitter a chorus alongside scampering squirrels. When I
move to the bathroom, it is large enough to waltz in. Am
I living a dream at the turn of the last century?
Welcome to Siolim House, a stately
manor in the best Goan tradition, beautifully and
lovingly restored by London-based Varun Sood who works
for Societe Generale Bank, and moonlights for pleasure at
Siolim House. Surely this hotel
should be featured in the French Relais et Chateaux
guide--it fits the bill perfectly. The Sood family have
my congratulations for having restored this magnificent,
seven-room extravaganza. When Captain Sood shows you
photographs of the estate before it was renovated, you
realise the enormous quantity of love, caring and respect
for Goan culture that has gone into the laterite and
plaster of this magnificent mansion. Here, life is as it
was in villages all over Goa 20 years ago. There is no
need for air-conditioning, no television and no minibar.
How wonderful! And wise! My grandmother, who hails from
Siolim, would have approved of Siolim House as heartily as I do.
In a 3,500-sq m-village setting, Siolim House is a 275-year-old property
that is open all year round. An old colonial Goan manor
house, it is one of the very few remaining in the 16-18th
century, Indo-Portuguese style of the casa de sobrado,
which preceded the casa de patio style. At one time the
house belonged to a governor of Macau, and still has the
porcelain china grills that the senhor brought from the
East. Later on, other members of the family were
administrators in Portuguese Mozambique, which is where
its other name 'Mosmimcar'--The Mozambican, comes
from.
Siolim House has seven bedrooms
(including two suites--Macao and Malabar with two large
bedrooms each) named after trading ports/areas of the
18th century. Each room or suite has attached, tastefully
designed, large bathrooms. There is a large garden with
bursting bougainvillea bushes and fragrant trees and a
pergola in what we call the ''secret garden'' and an
inner pillared courtyard with a mosaic fountain. There
are several large halls and a 12-m swimming pool.
It is well-priced, beautiful in its aesthetics, and
personal in its service. The restaurant is open only for
residents, and the Goan chef cooks only on order, thereby
ensuring the freshest produce of the land and sea around
the beautiful village of Siolim. You
can opt for an 'all meals' plan, whether on a full or
partial rental, or a bed-and-breakfast basis. If you
want, you can also travel along in the morning and
examine the catch from the sea. It is a place that would
be thoroughly enjoyed by that kind of person who knows
that luxury has nothing to do with hotel receptions,
glass atriums, piped music in hotel elevators, bell boys
with funny caps, coffee-shop menus, uniformed waiters,
check-out times and other such things, and has everything
to do with giving yourself the chance to really
relax.
From Siolim, you can visit some of
my favourite beaches: Mandrem, Morjim, Arambol, Keri
(with its secret coves) and Tirachol. Upriver, lie the
serene villages of Camurlim, Colvale and Revora. During
the day, play boule or badminton in the courtyard, go
cycling, or simply snuggle up with a book on Goan
history. If you want to experience a boatride with the
fishermen, a walk in the hills, have the true Goan
experience, you may have to know a blue-blooded Goan who
will open his home to you. Or, quite simply, you could
check into Siolim House and become a
part of a fast-disappearing lifestyle that exists only in
a typical Goan village. Siolim House
is what every hotel in Goa should be. It holds a very
special place in my all-Goan heart !
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Siolim
House
Waddi, Copp. Wadi Chapel, Siolim,
Bardez, Goa.
Tel: (0832) 2272138, 2272941
Room rate: US $65-155 for suites including a
sumptuous breakfast.
Rupee rate as per day's conversion rate, local taxes
extra.
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