Oct 21, 2004 02:59 PM
9809 Views
(Updated Apr 28, 2006 01:08 PM)
Going for your honeymoon? Searching for a place where there is just you, and no one around? Tired of the crass commercialization of the Shimlas, the Mussoories and the Nainitals?
Chail is the place for you.
To get to this haven of peace and tranquility, reach Chandigarh and drive towards Shimla. About 2 hours and 35 km before Shimla, you come to a place called Kandaghat. There, take a right.
It's a narrow, winding, beautiful road that takes you about 20 km to Chail - about 2 hours. It goes all the way down to the bridge (called Sadhupul) over the Aswani stream, and up, up and away to Chail. The roads are pretty steep, so caution is advised.
One can also take the toy train Kalka to get to Kandaghat - though not having taken that path, there is little I can say about the beauty, which I am sure must be eminently evident.
For stay, there are a few options available, but the one that gets my vote is the Palace hotel - the hotel converted from an original, authentic palace. There are a variety of rooms, including the princely Maharaja suite, which is almost like a hall, but my favorites are the log huts situated some half a kilometer away from the hotel. You have to forego room service for the romance of living in the wild, but that's a small price to pay. Of course, you have decently sized living space, and most necessities of modern living. The room rates range from about Rs 2000 to about Rs 6000 for the Maharaja suite (though I am not sure about the upper limit).
The hotel itself is a delightful place - the food is very good, and the service excellent. The staff goes out of its way to be helpful. There is a video games arcade for the digitally inclined and a library for old fashioned ones like me. There is a huge very well kept lawn where you can sit all day doing nothing but gazing at the beauty and reading.
It's the life outside the hotel that charms no end. Walk out of the log huts at in the morning, and you are immediately in the lap of nature in the truest sense of the word. Tall hills beckon you. Sit and watch the sun rise from atop a mountain, or walk into the dense forest which its tall trees.
One of the best ways of spending your day is to take the road towards Kufri - it's the kind of road which you always pass by on a bus or a train, fervently wishing you could get off and explore. Well, now you can!
On the way there are quaint old villages. Stop at a roadside dhaba and savor the aloo or gobhi ka paranthas with dollops of home-made butter. Add a glass of lassi, and you could not ask for a better breakfast.
Whenever you feel like it, get off the road and take small winding paths into the valleys. Sit besides an un-spoilt stream and rest your tired feet. Listen the birds chirping, the stream flowing - or just listen to the blessed silence. All of which you yearn for in the concrete jungles we call home.
When you get tired, all you have to do is get on a bus from Kufri, and you are back home in no time at all!
We also walked to the highest cricket ground in the world, and it is extremely beautiful. The gates to the ground are always closed, so you have to climb through a barbed wire to get in. On the way to the ground there is a small school, and we had a grand time talking to the kids on the way to their PT classes!
There is also a very old Gurudwara nestled in the middle of the city for the religiously inclined.
One jarring note in Chail - and this is especially true for the Palace hotel - is the presence of a multitude of very bold monkeys. So whenever you have a packet in you hands that remotely resembles an eatable, beware! The monkeys will sneak right up and make away with it.
