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.
This was not the first time that we(Priyam and myself) visited mysore. Infact, over the last 4 years , there had been umpteen number of times when we would have passed through Mysore. So, what is it that made this visit particularly special? Hmm.. Warrants a thought …
Most of the earlier trips were places which were beyond Mysore and Mysoremysore if one is coming from Bangalore). This is how it all started. merely used to be a milestone during the course of the journey. This time, it was totally unplanned. We had started out with an intention of going to Srirangapatna (10kms beforemysore if one is coming from Bangalore). Here’s how it all started.
A casual thought of getting out for a long drive was just the beginning. We started out pretty late , around 11 AM and drove along the mysore road passing the familiar towns/villages en route. Our first stop was at Maddur (Tiffany’s) after an hour of driving, for a quick lunch. As it turned out, the lunch was anything but quick, so by the time we got back on the road it was over an hour of halt (I hate long halts in between). By the time we hit Ranganathittu, it was close to 2PM, a bit too hot to get out from the coziness of the car. Hence, we decided to move on further till Mysore and then come back to Ranganathittu after 2 hrs or so.
A Hot Summer Day in Sariska - Ankur Agrawal
I warn you about the lunch table discussions at Adobe. Never take them LIGHTLY. They can take any course like the one which took a group of 9 adventurous engineers to Sariska National Park- the Tiger Paradise, near Alwar in Rajasthan, around 220 km from Delhi. For me, the day started at 4:30 am with my mom and friend calling; trying to wake me up from my sleep. Five calls down the phone, I became fully awake although the booze’s effect (though I didn’t drink), from last night party, was still on me.
Before continuing, I just wanna make a point that I am not covering any technical details of this journey as they are beautifully covered in Nandan’s blog. Here, I am just adding some nutty things that will always make me remember this trip. These things may make no sense to you; just ignore them. So, there I was standing outside my office building at 5:25 am; enjoying the freshness of the morning and waiting for the other group members to pick me up. We cruised on NH8 to reach Dharuhera, from there we took a left towards Bhiwari and then took a right towards Alwar. One thing, if you are visiting this place in summers, don’t take too many readymade spicy snacks, chips etc rather take some fruits and juicy stuffs. Also, take something for breakfast, as you will not find any proper breakfast dhaba in the way.
Continuing further, my journey till SariskaPark was fun as I enjoyedthe movie quiz, and some nice dancing and singing performances in the way. After reaching Sariska at 11:00 am, we registered ourselves at the gate and entered the park. No entry charges are taken on Saturday and Tuesday, because of the devotees that come to park to visit the ancient HanumanTemple located in the interior of the park. Now days, not many animals can be seen in Sariska but the beauty of the forest is really soul soothing. There are two important things about animals that you should take care of; firstly, never take panga from monkeys and langoors present there else you can land yourself in a big trouble and secondly, whenever you meet a fox never try to act smarter than her.
After enjoying SariskaPark’s natural beauty and lunch at RTDC hotel, we decided to head towards SilisedhLake. What a wonderful andravishing it is….I feel that boating in this lake on a pleasant evening can be a wonderful idea. And yaa do enjoy some Fresh Lime Soda at the small restaurant present at RTDCSilisedhLake resort.
Last tip from my side is; just before the journey, don’t bother yourself to find the bed sheets at your home after 10 pm as you will see that they are of no use to you throughout the journey.
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