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Chamba of Uttranchal in Apr 2007

Another long weekend for most of the folks on account of Good Friday was good enough reason for some of us to pack our bags and head towards Chamba. Its a different matter that none of us had an off but how does that matter as long as the desire to drive and the tire of travel are strong enough motivators.

We stayed at ‘Classic Hill top’ and I will try to write a separate blog on that. Apart from Classic, we also checked out the properties of “The Hermitage”, Kanatal and “Terraces” and I will cover a real tiny quick review about them. Small but good enough to decided whether you would want them or not.

So we started early morning on Apr 6 and got on to G T Road or Delhi-Haridwar road.

Day 1 - Apr 6, 2007
We started at around 6 from Preet Vihar, Delhi which was the meeting point for all the folks, other people parked their cars and I pushed the pedal. We crossed Cheetal Grand which is about 110 KM from Delhi in two+ hours and since we had early morning tea + snacks, we didn’t stop for breakfast. By 1230 we were in Haridwar.

On the way we passed Ghaziabad, Meerut, Khatauli, Muzzafarnagar, Chhapar and Roorkee. Thats the route you typically take to reach Haridwar. (but on the way back we tried a different route and it was much worth it). This road is a highway but it has no laurels to be called one.

First and foremost is that this highway is really really a big constricted alley which passes through numerous towns and at any point of time you can’t drive at more than 80 KMPH for more then 5 KMs.

Second is that its not well kept. There are stretches which are not re-tarred for years. The patchwork can’t missed.

And finally, you can get into a real jam, especially at places like Khatauli, more so in Sugarcane season. And if not Khatauli, then on the railway fatak on Muzaffarnagar highway.

But there is no other way or at least thats most of the folks think. And its not true at all, we will cover that separately. So we had lunch at some place in Haridwar, very bad food and we started the upward journey. Chamba is about 90 Kms from Haridwar via Rishikesh, Narendranagar, Nagani and it takes about 3 hours since its real steep uphill drive.

We checked-in at around 2, and time to get some fresh mountain air, some sun and of course some beer. Classic Hilltop is a beautiful property and its really hard to believe that such a vast expanse of beautifully done property is still not labeled as 5 star and is accessible to budget-semi/permium travellers. I will try to compile another blog dedicated to this property since it has lot of things.

The rest of day was spent eating and drinking. Some of us took a game of billiards in the evening, rest decided to rest and we all gathered again in late evening. There was a definitive nip in the air and after a few round of more throat-wetting we called quits. After all, the 9 hour odd drive from Delhi was still taking some toll.

Day 2, Apr 7 2007

We decided to drive towards Dhanaulti. Essentially if you are in Chamba, you can either go towards Dhanaulti and then to Mussorrie or you can go towards Tehri. Now the dam is done, Tehri Jheel (Lake) attracts lots of visitors, beyond Tehri lies Uttarkashi and then if you are one of those real initiated ones, you can actually go to Gangotri (mouth of Ganges) and then Yamnotri (mouth of Yamuna). Anyway, after sloping down from the hotel we noticed a bunch of tents aside fields. They are just a yard away from the road but you need to climb up so sort of secluded. In any case you dont get to see many people.

“Whispering Pines” - Just 4 odd KM from Chamba on Chamba-Dhanaulti road, a collection of standard A tents, each having two folding ply top beds, common loo and a very humble kitchen. For Rs 500 a night for a double, its the best you can get to have a camping experience. The booking office is in Chamba town but I ams sure you can convince the property-keepers to allow you to come in.

Beyond ‘Whispering Pines’, we passed few small town and then we hit upon “The Hermitage”. It would be about 7-8 KM from Chamba on Chamba-Dhanaulti road, and is actually a 500 odd sq yard structure which has lot of old wood. A very small parking, a ping-pong table laid in open, a small restaurant and thats about it. They also have a website http://www.kanatal.net/, incidentally the only link that doesn’t work there is ’snaps’. We had high hopes from this hotel since the site boasts of real big things but it was even a bigger damp-squib. We did see two Honda Civics parked there and a travel operator bus so I guess a good travel network is keeping them alive. But this is our feedback based out of 20 minutes of property seeing and may be we were expecting too much so do read at other places before taking our word granted for this.

After about 1-2 KMs, we hit another popular hotel on this road, called ‘The Terraces’. Its a little away from main road and you need to do some first-gear travel on a non-tar road. So we got in thinking that we will have a cup of tea. The guy, Pali, greeted us and requested us to take a small tour and to show around things. And boy, we were impressed. Terraces is going to be one sought after thing in time to come. They have a concept of cottages where each cottage has four doubles. Each room is modernly equipped with a Satellite TV, tea-cofee maker, mini-bar (though they dont yet have a liquor license), wooden floor etc. There is a restaurant, a recreation area which has a mini theatre, a micro mini discotheque, billiards table, other table games (scrabble, pictionary), carrom etc. They have a provision to setup couple of tents on the roof so as to give you a camping experience but it get real chilly in the night so not suitable for overnight stay. We had complimentary tea and we all left with good memories. I would recommend this hotel but it falls in premium category so you will have to shell out more money. The going rates for a double in season is 5K+ per night.

By that time, we had a good drive and some of us were more keen to go back to Classic for a round of beers in Pool so we headed back. We were back at the hotel by 2 only to realize that Pool is still not clean. After getting an assurance that Pool will be done in an hour, we had some beer and had a late big lunch.

Post lunch, some of us went to take some rest and rest of us headed for a game of Billiards. Evening was spent looking around the property and generally having a chill time. By night it grew very very cold so we stayed indoors and indulged in our standard theatre games like Back-to-Back improvisations, a few rounds of dumb-charades, more whisky and rum, some tandoori chicken (I think it was some other bird), some more rum and after a late dinner, we all crashed.

Day 3, Apr 8 2007
Time to go back. We started at 1100 hrs and reached Haridwar in 2+ hours. It takes less to climb down and all the while we were thinking on how best to avoid the tradition Delhi-Haridwar highway. I knew that there is another route which connects to Moradabad via Bijnaur.

I carry a very good book called ‘Lonely Planet India and Bangladesh Road Atlas’ and after doing some calcuations, we decided to try a new route. We had time at our hand and what better time to try new thing then now.

The new route will be
Haridwar - Najibabad - Bijnaur - Mirapur - Mawana - Meerut and then we meet the more common Delhi-Haridwar road.

Contrary to our expectations this is one terrific road to drive. So much so that I am inclined to write another small blog just for this new route. So come back for this. Also we spotted barasingha somewhere before Bijnaur in fields. They were very very close.

We reached Delhi before 9. Thats the photo of the whole gang. Clockwise from left - Vijayant , Reena, Smita, Pihu, Nandan, Preethi and Vinod. You see the Scorpio as the dial of this clock.

A weekend well spent.