The everyday driving to office was taking a toll on my back, but the urge to travel was even more strong. So as another long weekend dawned upon us, we decided to go to some place nearer. After much searching on the net we zeroed upon Nahan a small hill station in Himachal just five hours from Delhi. Since our main objective was relaxation, we chose a resort which had a spa – Grand View Resort.
lytton-memorial-nahanThis time we were however not traveling alone. Tanmoy my cousin who was staying with us accompanied us and my brother was to join us in Nahan from Dehradun. Since it was just five hours journey we started a little late. It was pretty warm in Delhi and we just hoped that the weather would be better in Nahan. As we always do, we made our first halt at Gulshan ka Dhaba in Murthal for tea. Since we had brought sandwiches and snacks along, we just filled our flask with tea and proceeded. My hyper cousin did much of the driving from the back-seat giving instructions to Deepa in the driver’s seat.
With the radio going off signal we stopped at Oasis, a Haryana Govt. resort with shops and restaurants, in Karnal. I bought a couple of music CDs and we had our breakfast in the car itself. From Ambala we had to turn right from Shahzadpur and take the state highway towards Kala Aam. The highway was OK, although not like NH1, and after missing a couple of turns due to lack of any signage, we ultimately reached Nahan town, where we had to wait for my brother at the bus terminus as he had his lunch in a dhaba nearby. The resort was about an hour’s drive from the town in Jamta and after a couple of phone calls to the reception we ultimately reached our destination.
Considering the size of the town, I was quite surprised to see a lot of guests, mostly from Chandigarh and Delhi in the reception area. The rooms were clean and overlooking the mountains far off and the swimming pool below. Since we didn’t have lunch, we decided to try out the restaurant of the resort for a simple meal of daal, rice and roti, to which we added butter chicken later on when we found it was readily available.
The weather was little cooler than Delhi and after a stroll in the lawn we decided to give our busy Delhi bones a rest and go on an afternoon nap…which was however never to be. We found out that they had a recreation room fitted with a TT board and pool table amongst other indoor games and a gym. So I along with Pranjal, my brother and Tanmoy, my cousin decided to play a couple of rounds, while Deepa decided to sleep.
After exhausting ourselves with table tennis we decided to settle down in our rooms and prepare for the evening. Deepa found out that the spa (a basic one) was open and after half-an-hour’s wait for the masseurs to arrive, we both had a good body massage, steam bath and some time in the jacuzzi. The entire thing was wonderful…my every aching bone and muscle were relaxed and I felt as if I was ready to take on the entire world head-on again.
Since there was nothing much to do, the management of the resort made sure that the guests are entertained well in the evening. So there would be tambola in the conference hall at 7 and movie at the lawns at 8.30.
The game of tambola was fun and I won a couple of bucks only to share with another lady who was also declared joint winner of the round. At the lawns the movie had already started, but at the request of a majority of the guests, it was played from the beginning again. The movie was ’3 Idiots,’ which I had not seen. Deepa insisted that I should watch it and assured me that I would love it. It indeed was a good movie. Between the movie we went for drinks and dinner which was also served in the lawns. Since it was getting chilly now, we decided to call it a day.
After our breakfast we decided to go to the Renukaji lake and a much-talked-about lion safari (!!) It was about 22 kms from the resort. The water of the lake was crystal clear and one could see fishes swimming around. There were tourists taking boat rides in the lake but we decided not to. Instead we wanted to see what the lion safari was. Besides the lake is a mini zoo where one can see the spotted deer, lion tailed macaques, ‘Nilgai’ Methuen, barking deer and the Himalayan black bears. Nothing much to excite an wildlife enthusiast, the only best part of the zoo is that you can take your car along paying a nominal entry fee. We saw a small canteen within the zoo where we had tea and biscuits. As for the lion safari, there were two enclosures one for the lion and another for the lionesses. We had heard that an armored van enters the large enclosure allowing for a close glimpse of the lions and lionesses within, but we were told that the vehicle for the safari was not available. We clicked a couple of photographs of the cats feeding on skinned chickens and left the place much to the disappointment of Tanmoy who wanted to stay on. His volley of questions already had us all running for cover.
In Nahan, we felt we had nothing to do so we thought of having a cup of tea in a tea-stall near the resort. Since we didn’t have lunch, we had maggi which was really tasty, probably because we were famished. Back in the the resort we lazed around, played TT or pool. After dinner Deepa and I went for a walk outside the resort and the cool fresh breeze took away with it all our fatigue (whatsoever was left). We sat on the concrete bench and watched and admired the flickering lights of the town below. We sat there for quite some time enjoying the moment before we hit the shack. Well, our motive of going to Nahan to relax and take our minds off our daily chores back home was complete.
Next day, after a good breakfast we were again on our way back. After two days of perfect relaxation, we were ready to face the consequences of a city life yet again!
