Made our second trip to Hills on the occasion of our 2nd anniversary(second week of December).
The way for Dhanaulti cuts around 4-5 kms before Mussourie and the road from there till Dhanaulti is beautiful to say the least.
I'll let the images do the talking about the road:
There were clouds to the side of the mountain. Just the road was clear.
Need i say more
I call this a wandering trip coz all three nights we stayed at different places, that is when we wanted it to be a relaxing trip.
First day we stayed at GMVN's Hotel Dhanaulti heights. It was nice clean and very cold. The rooms were not exactly insulated and we could feel the cold air inside the room even with doors and windows closed. The food was above average and nominally charged. Overall the experience was nice.
Next day the plan was to go to Tehri and find another place to stay at. While leaving Dhanaulti we spent some time at the shop inside the Eco Park and got some really good woolens.
On the way to Tehri:
A nice view-point on the way to Chamba
Between Chamba and Tehri
The Tehri Reservoir from a distance
We were a bit hungry by the time we reached Tehri, so in search of a restaurant we moved towards New tehri and found a Chaat stall from heaven. We started it as appetizer for lunch and by the time we finished we had eaten 14 Aloo Tikki Plates, 4 Plate Gol Gappas and 2 Papadi Plates among 7 of us. All within 200 bucks :)
So after this sumptuous lunch, we headed towards the dam reservoir. There is a way to reach almost till the waters edge with a car. I didn't take the car to the edge coz the way was damp and i didn't want to risk it. Still we went near the lake and it was very serene and calm seeing such huge expanse of water. Although i must warn that it is also a makeshift cremation place, something we realized after sometime(didn't stay there very long after that).
The water:
Left Tehri in search for a place to stay, we had planned to look for places to stay on our way to Dhanaulti and in case of nothing on the way we planned to try the Apple Orchard Resort in Dhanaulti. Fortunately (or Unfortunately as we later found out) we found The Hermitage in kannatal. Its a cozy little 10 room hotel with a beautiful setting reasonable room charges. Since it was sunday evening and no rush was expected we were able to bargain for the rooms. Also as there were no other places around we had to have food there itself.
The place was great and to be frank the best part of our trip only spoiled by the exorbitant food bill we got in the end. We were in fact planning to stay another day if it weren't for the 5000 that we were charged for two meals. We paid more for food during a single night stay than what we paid for stay(3 deluxe rooms) itself.
Few pics of the hotel:
The small hut in left side of the above pic is the dining room. We had loads of fun singing songs during the night and since it was the eve of anniversary we sang till 12 in the night and it was the probably the best evening of the trip.
I would still recommend the place to anyone wanting to have a good time, but the only advice would be, get a package that includes the meals or order carefully and ask if anything extra is served :D
Monday morning we got up, had a great breakfast, paid an even greater food bill and left for Surkanda Devi. It is indeed a strenuous climb till the temple and one advice i would give is, take the short cuts to climb up wherever possible, it would save you a lot of distance and effort.
A few pics:
Still a long way to the top
The view from the top
Saw the only kind of snow at that time in the region, frozen dew. It was in the shadow of temple where sunlight could not reach.
Came down and moved towards Kempty village, our cost effective stay(complimentary actually, thanks to my bro in law). The place had a great view of the kempty falls and delicious food.
View from the balcony of our guest house
Stayed up late into the night talking about ghosts and mythology. Got up early in the morning and left for Delhi by 6:30 AM.
Another little trip completed. thanks for your time :)
