Getaway to the Mountains
Noida-Chail
It had been
almost four months since I went for my last road trip to Lansdowne. The ‘Rider’
inside me was itching to go for another road trip. But When, Where & with
whom? My usual road trip partner Sujit was not available this time, so I asked
Utkarsh aka CHAK. He agreed (as if he had any other option :P). So, the
toughest question among three was sorted out. Utkarsh was keen to go to
Kasauli. I was also ok with it. To spice up the affair in the hills, I added
Chail to the list. Initially, I was dicey about Chail but when I saw the pics
of “Kali ka Tibba”, my target shifted
to visit Chail.
I booked
the hotel “Chail Residency”. The bike was well serviced and everything was in
place. The twist in the tale came when I went to the petrol station for filling
up my tank. My debit card was not there in the wallet. I was like, what?? Anyways,
Utkarsh had some cash with him, so we did manage to get the fuel. We were all
set for Chail.
30th September 2015 03:00 hours:
I took a
quick nap of 3 hours and woke up at 2 AM. CHAK and I got ready quickly and we
were ready to roll. After some googling the route which was in my mind was:
Noida—Delhi—Karnal—Ambala—Chandigarh—Kasauli—Chail
Delhi
traffic was quite smooth as expected. There was a little traffic at Karnal
bypass as we took NH-1. I drove at an average speed of 80kmph. In an hour or so
we were crossing Panipat. I used to visit Panipat quite often last year. So,
the route till Panipat was very well known to me. I continued driving till
Karnal. We stopped for a tea break at road side dhaba near Karnal.
CHAK
and I switched seats and CHAK took the riding seat. This was the first instance
when I was sitting pillion while CHAK was driving. To be very frank, I was
nervous to the core. The driving of CHAK added woes to my nervousness. He thrives
on speed. He drove at 90kmph continuously. After half an hour, there was sun
light all around. We reached Ambala around 6:30AM. We again switched seats and
I was driving again. We touched Chandigarh around 7:30AM. I was little confused
about the route, so I preferred to ask some locals about the route to Kasauli.
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| Driving in the hills was never this easy! |
As
soon as we left Chandigarh, the beautiful view of hills welcomed us. The roads
were pitch perfect. Who would imagine a four lane road in hills? I continued
driving and was loving every bit of it. We crossed Pinjore and Parwanoo. After
crossing Parwanoo, we stopped for refueling. I asked the petrol pump vendor
that which is the way to Chail. He replied: -”Yaha
se 35km Dharampur aur phir waha se right turn me aage 35km Chail”. I was
like “screw you google maps”. Nevertheless, I continued driving as guided by
that gentleman. After few minutes, we were there in the beautiful city Solan.
In
Solan, the traffic was quite busy. After few ups and downs, we left Solan. The
condition of road started to deteriorate as soon as we left Solan. Then we
reached a T point. The left road led to Shimla and the the right one to Chail.
We took the right turn towards Chail. The road became narrower and worse. Sometimes
it was going downhill and sometimes it was going up. I was confused.
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| Kalka to Shimla narrow gauge line. |
I
was driving with full focus despite of having empty stomach. Then came a point
where a board was indicating that “for Chail take diversion”. I simply ignored
it because the condition of that diverted road was not convincing at all. We
kept moving forward and then out of nowhere the road came to a dead end. I
started laughing because of sheer frustration. We asked people around there and
they told we have to take “that diversion”. I drove back to that particular
diversion.
 |
| Trust me!! This is a freaking national highway. |
Without
any doubt, this has to be the worst road which I have driven upon till date!
Road made of sand and big stones. I prayed to the God for help and drove with
my full attention. CHAK had other ideas. He asked one of the workers there “Bhaiya surang khod rahe ho kya (Brother,
are you digging a tunnel). WTF! I
was out of humor at that time, but it made me smile. We crossed that pathetic
road and were back to track again. But, the God had other plans. We took a
wrong turn and drove almost 10kms on it.
 |
| Tunnel wale bhaiya :P |
After
realizing that we are on wrong track, we decided to ask some people around there.
But, guess what?? There was no sign of any living being. Finally, we saw some
people who were repairing road and asked them. They first laughed at us and
then they guided us properly.
 |
| Somewhere before Chail. |
And then, I
saw the board of “Hotel Chail residency”. I was like “Thank you God”. We
checked in at precisely 12:05PM. The hotel was fabulous.
For
me this has to be the best budget hotel in Chail. It is 4 Kms before the main
Chail city. The view from the balcony was sublime. Courteous staff, clean room,
tasty food, what else you can expect from a budget hotel. Highly recommended if
you are going to Chail.For
me this has to be the best budget hotel in Chail. It is 4 Kms before the main
Chail city. The view from the balcony was sublime. Courteous staff, clean room,
tasty food, what else you can expect from a budget hotel. Highly recommended if
you are going to Chail.
 |
| View from the balcony |
After
taking a quick nap, we were set to explore Chail. We first visited “Kali ka
Tibba”. One word “Awesome”. What view!! It is a temple atop a small hill dedicated
to goddess Kali. Effortlessly beautiful. I was intrigued by the architecture, so
I wanted to know when it was built and by whom. But, to my disappointment, the
locals had no idea about it. If you are in Chail and have missed this place
then you have missed everything.
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| Kali ka Tibba |
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| No caption needed |
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| This was some view!! |
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| Reaching Kali ka Tibba was no cake walk!! |
We then
visited “world highest cricket ground”. Nothing much special about this place, anyways stats are stats. We were late so we missed the opportunity to visit Chail Palace. We then decided
to go back to hotel and take rest and enjoy the serenity of this place.
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| Sunset |
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| You guys have no idea how much Chak & I waited to see this board :P |
P.S.: -
Next day we planned to go to Kasauli. I will try to write about it and our
journey in next blog.
