Friday, November 16, 2007

Ah Chail !

I have been taking driving holidays from Delhi for the last 10 years now. Agreed, the frequency has come down off late, but i still love to get out of the mad rush and get into the hills. Was recently thinking of which place i have liked the most and its an impossible choice when you are talking about comparing more than 60 locations visited over the last 10 years.

Chail (near Shimla in HP, India) stands out for me - not because it was the best, but because it has managed to stay in my memory and for some reason makes me want to go back again.

Chail is different from most hill stations in India, firstly it has no crowds, no crowded mall road, no rubbish strewn on the streets, no jam packed town centre with diesel fume being the primary odor. Secondly, it has at least 7-8 lovely walks and mild treks, it has the world's highest ground (its beautiful - I can only imagine how much the cherry would swing in those conditions) and it has the lovely Chail Palace Hotel where we stayed.

While the Palace hotel is quite nice, and we quite liked it, only after staying there for a night I realised that it has a gem ! About a 1 Km brisk walk from the main Hotel are a couple of log huts that the Hotel controls. Almost in the middle of no where with a fantastic view and a steep fall right in front of the log huts.

I think it is that log hut and the absolute beauty of the surroundings that they are set in have made a permanent imprint on my mind ! Will i go there again, undoubtedly!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dev, You as always SUPERB in communicating yourself whether in writing or verbal. All your bogs are great and meaningful and gives us a feeling that we must reveal ourself to a new world of our interest. Keep it up :)

Dev said...

thanks manoj - why dont u also start writing your blog

Anonymous said...

Dev,

I think I may be right on this one...but I think Chail has the distinction of having a cricket ground at the highest altitude in theworld...world's highest cricket ground...again, I can verify this on Google but if I have any iota of Indian trivia loaded in my brain, I ought to be accurate. Wonder what you think.

Sri

Dev said...

sri - u r absolutely right. it is also a very beautiful ground. i have seen it. i am told the cherry swings a really long way here.