Tue 17 January 2012

The anniversary

January 16th was to be our second wedding anniversary. Since we didn't do much for our first one (except for a memorable meal at the Taj Krishna in Hyderabad), I wanted to make some efforts for this anniversary weekend. It was also a good occasion to plan a trip outside of New Delhi, considering that we had spent over a year in the city and had yet to take a proper vacation.

Planning the trip

One thing that I was sure of was that this had to be a trip up in the hills. While this might seem to be counter-intuitive, given how cold it would be (and how we are still trying to cope with our first Delhi winter), I knew that we would be able to avoid crowds and see the hills in a different light. Given this, the search for a suitable location started.

The wonderful thing about the hills in North India is that you're absolutely spoiled for choice. This however is also a big problem for people like me who have to do extensive cost-benefit analyses and weigh all the pros-cons before arriving at a decision. In short, I was quickly finding myself in a state of paralysis by analysis.

Thankfully, to cut through this confusion, came an email in my Inbox, informing me about the Two Chimneys, a homestay at a small village called Gethia, not very far away from Kathgodam and Nainital in Himachal Pradesh. A detailed look through their site showed that it ticked all the boxes that I needed for this weekend, namely:

• Small, intimate hotel to laze around with a book in
• Quiet location, away from tourist hotspots like Shimla, Nainital...
• Good places to walk around
• Relatively quick to reach from Delhi
• Fit a budget of INR4000-INR5000/night

A quick email to the staff at Two Chimneys and we were setup with a room and pickup and drop for the weekend of the 14th! This was booked as part of a winter package and came upto INR 8700 for weekend with all meals inclusive¹ and INR 600 one-way for a pickup (or drop) from Kathgodam Station². Once that was done, the next thing was to book the train tickets to Kathgodam for which the most convenient options were: To Gethia: the Ranikhet Express from Old Delhi Railway Station to Kathgodam, which came upto INR XXX (in 2AC) for the both of us³ From Gethia: the Uttarakhand Sampark Kranti from Kathgodam to Old Delhi Railway Station, which came upto INR 814 (in 3AC) for the both of us⁴

The first day at the Two Chimneys

We reached the Two Chimneys at around 6 in the morning and were quickly taken to our room by the caretaker. It's then that we realized the issue of being up in the hills in winter, because the room had little heating except for a small heater that barely worked. Let's just say we froze for the next hour under the covers till we warmed it a bit with our own body heat. Except for this slight hiccup, things went smoothly from there on.

There was a great homemade breakfast that was kept waiting for us despite the fact that we got up at 11AM like two redolent pigs. The remainder of the day went by in us reading the books and magazines that we had carted with us to Gethia, confident that we would be able to make up the backlog that had befallen us in Delhi. The only effort that we took that day was in following the sun, as it made its circuit across the sky. Being winter, the temperature dropped noticeably even in the lightest of shades.

The day ended with a great BBQ (where I had what must be the best seekh kebab ever), chatting with some of the other guests there and watching the night sky like it is never visible in Delhi. The bedroom was made much warmer that night thanks to loads of hot water bottles⁵. Suffice to say, the both of us slept like logs that night.

The second day at the Two Chimneys

After having another great breakfast, we decided to head up to Nainital to be tourists for the day, However, we decided to do it the local way - by taking a walking path that led from Gethia upto Nainital (technically upto the Cantonment Board in Nainital). A distance of less than 5KM and an altitude gain of over 400 meters, that we covered in less than 2 hours (which I thought was not bad for city-slickers like us).

We reached Nainital lake and seeing how the tourists were descending on the place, we decided to go instead to another lake around 23 kms from the Two Chimneys. This was the Saat Tal (or Seven Lakes) and the driver arranged by the Two Chimneys assured us that it would not be very crowded). A slightly nauseous drive later, we arrived and it was just as he said it would be.

Quiet, empty except for a handful of other families and just picturesque. We did the tourist then there - going boating to 4 of the 7 lakes and just soaking in the calm. We were lucky to be there when we were as our boatman told us that in the peak season, they each do around 100 trips/day (and there are around 20-30 boatmen!)

Back to the Two Chimneys, we did nothing that evening except sitting in front of a roaring fire and enjoying some cold beers and some great food⁶. We headed back to our rooms, armed with the hot water bottles and passed out blissfully till we had to wake up at 6AM, to get ready for the journey to Kathgodam and from there, back to Delhi, work and reality.

Conclusion

We were lucky in finding the Two Chimneys and having it meet most of our expectations. If it were not for the lack of proper heating in the rooms, this would be the best accommodation (even counting the 5-stars), that we've stayed in. On my unscientific 7A rating methodology (on a 1-5 scale for each parameter), I would mark the Two Chimneys as below:

• Ambience: 5*
• Amenities: 3.5*
• Affordability: 4*
• Attractions: 3*
• Aliments: 4*
• Accessibility: 4*

The Tejpals (of Tehelka fame) who own the property are building another property that is within driving distance of Gethia and is said to be remote and quieter. You bet that as soon as its up and running, the both of us will be making a beeline to enjoy the hospitality there as well!

Category: Travel

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