As you enter The Elgin – warmth hugs you and makes you feel at home with a glass of sparkling cherry liquor and a silken Khada draped around your neck. Snug and cozy in an interior decked with etchings of G.Douglas, lithographs of Daniell, period Burma teak furniture, oak floor boards and panelling, crackling fireplaces, candle-lit tables and strains of music from the grand piano, you realize the meaning of palpable ‘old world charm’ which has played host to dignitaries like the US Ambassador and the Crown Prince of Sikkim to Dominique Lapierre and Mark Tully. The hotel has stories to tell from the time of its first owner the Maharaja of Cooch Behar to Nancy Oakley in the 1950s.