Trip to Chail

                                  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.

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.

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.

Kali ka Tibba

No caption needed

This was some view!!

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.

Sunset

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.