Chandigarh situated near Shivalik foothills of the Himalayas in northwest India, is at a distance of 270km from The National Capital – Delhi. It was the first planned city built after India’s Independence, with its master plan by the renowned Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier.
Chandigarh, the twin Capital of Haryana and Punjab, has tourist traffic most of the year and frequent enough it plays the role of host to travellers on the Delhi-Manali, Delhi-Shimla course.
Visitors in vehicles have the option to ride along the notorious Geri route(nothing but a few streets where young men ride their motorbikes and cars).
In the beautiful city, we first started with the famous Rock Garden located at Uttar Marg, in sector 1. Absolutely a fantastical place, was founded by Nek Chand as it attracts over 6000 visitors daily, yes you read it right – DAILY. Collections of large rocks with a graffiti-like welcome signboard in front of a wall made from a bunch of drums.
The visuals bring back the memories of old times, as we visited this place a decade ago.The small passages made of stones, the collections of clay pots, walls textured with unused tiles were the same.Troops of models made up of shattered cups as they stand in front of a wall made of fused tube lights and dolls made up of broken glasses.The garden is completely a cut off from the busy life. The labyrinthine ways might surprise people who are visiting for the first time.Phase III of the rock garden was new to us. However, this space is used for all commercial purpose like events, weddings etc
After spending a good quality of time @Rock Garden, we went to Sukhna Lake which is again located in Sector 1 Chandigarh. It is an artificial lake which is declared as a protected national wetland by the Government of India. Sukhna lake is a trendy tourist destination. There are few restaurants and a souvenir shop which is few steps away from the entrance.
Now after visiting these two beautiful destinations, our stomach shouted at us what are you guys doing just roaming here and there ????Don’t forget you all are at Chandigarh, which means food and only food.
Therefore we’ve managed to find one that Chandigarians say is number one in the city, i.e. Pal Dhaba
So readers !!!! Sector 28 D of Chandigarh this is where you all gonna go to eat.
We ate :
Butter Chicken(Rs.190) – which had a tremendous amount of flavour, lots and lots of spice and tons & tons of desi ghee. That was quite fantastic.
Dal fry(Rs.100) and Channa Masala(Rs.160) were pretty heavily spiced.
Overall this was value for money and the one thing that one might feel while having the food is the unconditional love towards the tourists.
How to ReachÂ
Via Air – The city is connected to Delhi by Indian Airlines
Via Rail- Chandigarh is connected to Delhi by the Kalka Shatabdi, to Kolkata by the Kalka Mail and also to Mumbai by Paschim Express.
Via Bus – Haryana Roadways and Himachal Roadways have excellent bus connections from ISBT Kashmere Gate.Â