NARENDRA SINGH, who ascended the gaddi of Bikaner state and became its titular maharaja after his illustrious father, the ace shooter, Arjuna Award winner and Member of Parliament, Karni Singh, passed away in 1988, is a somewhat shadowy figure in the contemporary history of the old royal family.

A Mayo College-Shri Ram College of Commerce alumnus, Narendra Singh was described to me as "a global bon vivant who turned his back on royal privileges and lived like a commoner" in the company of dogs and cows. Such was his love for animals, that he donated a palace to Bikaner's now-famous Rajasthan University of Veterninary and Animal Sciences. Survived by his wife (Padma Kanwarji Sahiba) and two daughters (one of them being the Bikaner East MLA and founder of the Pracheena Museum at Junagadh Fort, Siddhi Kumari), he passed away in 2003 at the age of 57.

The forgotten maharaja has just got posthumous immortality with the opening of Narendra Bhawan, an 82-keys boutique hotel, at the site of his old bungalow at a distance from the royal palace. A brainchild of the model-turned-hotelier Manvendra Singh Shekhawat, the young man behind Suryagarh, the fort-hotel that put Jaisalmer on the tourist map, Narendra Bhawan is a design statement, where Bombay Art Deco meets Raj Mandir, Jaipur, and the Chevron Weave meet Rajputana architecture dramatically highlighted by latticed screens -- all pieced together by the hugely talented Ayush Kasliwal. And the man conducting this creative symphony is the consummate host and raconteur, the lungi-clad Karan Singh, formerly of The Fullerton Hotel, Singapore, whose unusual choice of dress for a hotelier belies his sophistication and hawk-like eye for detail.

The grand plan for Rajasthan is to create a second Golden Triangle consisting of Jaisalmer, Bikaner and Nagaur. I looked up the locations of the three districts on the Rajasthan map and they form an inverted V, like the Chevron patterns that are all over Narendra Bhawan, and there's also Jodhpur that you can add to this triumvirate, although, with Jaipur and Udaipur, it is part of the original Golden Triangle. Jaipur, too, is not outside Shekhawat's line of vision. He is developing a sprawling residential neighbourhood on its outskirts, which he proposes to turn into a food and events destination.

Shekhawat and Singh believe that a hotel can create a destination by offering experiences that are unique to the location. At Bikaner's Laxmi Niwas Palace, a 114-year-old architectural spectacle designed by Samuel Swinton Jacob, builder of Jaipur and creator of the Indo-Saracenic style, and managed by Shekhawat's MRS Group, guests are invited to discover the town with knowledgeable people hired by the company. You could have camel milk ice-cream at the National Research Centre on Camel (NRCC), or buy camel leather bags embellished with Utsa work, along with the original Bikaneri bhujiya, or book a session with the redoubtable astrologer, Munna Maharaj, or visit the Junagadh Fort, or check out the rats nibbling away the evening prasad at the Karni Mata temple in Deshnoke.

Silver Heritage Group, which operates casinos in Vietnam and Nepal, has announced that it is planning a soft opening of its new hotel in Nepal in February 2017, according to a filing on the Australian Securities Exchange.

The foundations for the casino, hotel function rooms and F&B areas are 100 per cent complete, notes the filing, and the first phase of the property – with a 100-room 5-star hotel, 52 gaming tables, and 200 electronic gaming machines - is set to cost the group about US$40 million (MOP320 million).

The property, with a gross gaming floor area of nearly 2,500 square meters, constitutes the third phase of the group’s ‘India-facing strategy’, encompassing three hotel and casino properties in Nepal near the Indian border.

The first phase, the 41-room Hotel Devotee with 3 tables and 20 gaming machines, opened in Dhangadhi in 2013, while the second phase – opened in 2015 – added the 120-room Shangri-la Hotel, with 22 tables and 38 gaming machines. The newest addition intends to further cement the group’s position and take advantage of neighbouring India’s legislation that only allows casino gaming in two states.