“Nirvana”

Date-24/06/19

I woke up even before the alarm went off today, which was set for 7:00 am. This all happened because I am so excited about our last day of this trip. Since the day 1 of the trip it has been an amazing journey till now, with so much of new places discovered, trying out different foods, knowing the local culture and getting a step closer to the Mother Nature. This has been nothing short of a blessing. With so much things done already, this trip can’t come to an end without visiting- Chail. This place is absolutely a bliss, especially during the monsoons which arrive in the months from June to September. We are at the right time and moving to the right place. So here it is the final chapter of our journey to Solan.

~8:30 am~

We all are ready on time today, without any delays. This might be because of 2 Reasons particularly because, one that is it’s last day here and everyone wants to enjoy every moment of it and secondly, today we are going in a bus, no cab. So we need to be on time at least today. The bust stop is few kilometers from our hotel, so we pulled into an auto rickshaw till there. It took us around 20 minutes to reach the bust stop and another 10 minutes to wait for the arrival of the bus. The weather is pleasant today, one thing that has been on our side constantly is weather. It’s the monsoon month here but still the weather hasn’t disturbed any of our journeys till date. Fingers cross for today’s weather also.  It’s exactly 9:05 by the time our bus arrives, the passengers are only in few numbers so don’t have to worry much about our seats. The bus starts moving and still some people trying to catch the bus, passengers settling down. Chail is around 39 kilometers from Solan which will take us around 1hour 30 minutes to reach there.  We are on our way, seeing the breathtaking views outside while the passengers keep on loading and unloading from the bus. The way to the Chail is so beautiful, the road curves in and out of the forest, moving through some small villages and crossing over a river bridge. The little rainfall along it works as a glitter for the beautiful scene outside. After completing the journey of one and half hours, we are here in Chail. It has a small market, and if you look closely you can even count the number of shops which were I guess around 15 and about 3 or 4 Hotels. It is only a small town but it has a sublime atmosphere around it.

Clouds almost touching the ground and the fluency of the cool breeze making you believe that you are in the right place. The top three spots to visit in Chail are Kali ka Tibba, Chail palace and its local area. We haven’t done our breakfast in the morning, so now are moving to a food shop in front of us to full our stomachs before we begin our journey to fill our souls. We entered the shop and ordered pakoras, maggi along with the tea. The food was very delicious, we have been eating a lot from different places but I haven’t had this much good food in days. Ate the food, payed the bill and now are heading to our first destination of the day and that is Chail palace. Chail palace is around 4 kilometers from the main market and you can go there in a taxi if you haven’t come on any private vehicle. Taxi will charge around Rs100 per person, back and forth both ways. We booked a cab and reached the palace within 15 minutes.

The palace looks so beautiful and the palace has been well maintained. The surroundings has also been well maintained and kept clean despite of so much crowd that comes on regular basis. We entered through the check point of the palace, the entry fare is Rs100 for the public. From the very first impression the palace looks really impressive, it is the fusion of modern and classical architecture.  Built back in 1891 to till date, the monument looks absolutely astonishing. The palace is surrounded by lush green fields that have been kept well maintained, every inch of grass trimmed exactly to one level. Inside the palace has now been transformed into a Hotel, but you can still see the things used by the king. A specific area has been kept for tourists only. We explored different floors of the palace, viewed some exclusive stuff of the king. After spending around 30 minutes inside we came out clicked some pictures and walked around the palace to get the view from all four corners around. There is an open café in the palace, we ordered coffee there before we move on to our next spot. 20 minutes pass by and we head out of the palace. The rain in the morning still has its droplets covering the grass. So, the next stop for us today is Kali ka Tibba or Maa kali Temple. It is situated at the highest point of the mountain and it is the best place to visit in Chail. It is around 7 kilometers from Chail local market and will take around 25 minutes to get there in a car. No buses go there so either you have to book a cab or go in your private vehicle. We settled down in our cab and head towards to kali ka tibba. Some people also trek from Chail market to the kali ka tibba. We couldn’t do that because of two reasons- Firstly the weather is cloudy today, so you never know when the rain starts pouring and secondly the last bus from Chail to Solan departures at 5:00 in the evening so we need to come back by 4:40 positively. After that there are no buses until tomorrow. While in our journey we saw beautiful birds chirping around the road sides which you don’t see in cities. The road is covered from trees of various species, just a like a jungle. But the scenarios are absolutely breathtaking.

 I have never seen such a clear sky in my whole life.

After a 25 minute of drive we have entered the temple, it is so beautiful that words can’t express the real emotions. The whole temple boundary wall is made up of the white Marble that shines so bright when the sun rays fall onto it. The entrance truly makes you believe that you are entering into the heaven now. The driver pulled the car in the parking lot, we removed our shoes inside the car only.

We climbed the stairs and entered the temple and prayed the lord. As soon as we get to side and back of the temple, I almost couldn’t believe my eyes. I have never seen such a beautiful place in my life till now.

 The surroundings were absolutely beautiful but at the same time unreal too. Clouds touched the ground and the mountains rising high from the clouds. We can literally see everything around us, we stood at such a high altitude that even the bigger buildings downwards looks just the size of a fingernail. We saw a small village up from there built up at a mountain, only a few homes there and by the looks farming looked their only occupation. So little yet so bigger.

I took a round of the whole place and tried to cover every scenario in my camera lens. We spent around 2 hours here. The temple is built beautifully and the surroundings adjoining the temple adorn it. My body has never felt this relax in ages. So purified- A bliss. I am so happy that I am taking so much of positive vibes along with me back home.

We decided to get moving now because it was 4:00 at my clock and it will take around 25 minutes to get back to the bus stop. We loaded in our cab and went back to the market where will get our bus to go back. We arrived at the bus stop and got in our bus, At 5:15 the bus started moving and for one last time I looked back through the glass of the bus. I am taking a lot of memories back with me from the trip. On our way back, the rain started heavily with thunderstorms. It took us around 2 hours and 15 minutes to get back to Solan. By 7:30 we checked in at our hotel for the final night of trip. We rested for around 30 minutes and freshen up. We went out for the dinner, as it was our last night here so we went to a fancy restaurant today. Ate the best food. After that we walked in the market which was now closing down and stood beside a grill to catch a last glimpse of this beautiful town. Every day, every moment of this trip has been special to me in many ways. Tomorrow we will head back to our homes in Ludhiana.

This was much of my trip and I Tried to share most of its memories with you. I hope you all liked it and would definitely love to visit here again.

Thank you.