Chandigarh A one day trip with Wife

I had booked 2 tickets to Chandigarh with my wife, to attend a friend’s wedding. Since I had 1 day time to visit the City, we had to pace ourselves and cover all the places in a day. We arrived at the Airport and went straight to the restaurant in the airport compound right across the domestic exit. After breakfast we took a cab to sector 42’s Hotel Amar Palace, a good hotel that was booked via Make my Trip. On our way to the hotel, our cabdriver informed us that, the buildings on either side of the road were painted red because government buildings are painted red in Chandigarh. We passed by the famous Mohali cricket stadium.

Chandigarh has cycle path in addition to the main road which makes it convenient for people to travel form place to place on cycle or cycle-rickshaw.

Chandigarh is a well-planned city planned by Mr. Le Corbusier, whose monuments such as the Open Hand Monuments, Assembly building and secretariats are all located in Sector 1 of Chandigarh. 

We took an auto from our hotel and went by the monuments for all of which we were charged 150 Rs, to finally drop us at the Bougainvillea Garden. In the Garden we went to the War Monument which has spirals leading to a centre. The walls of the spiral on either side have the names of soldiers who have lost their lives in various wars. The center of the spiral has a 3D Nib shaped monument which is named Martyr’s Monument. After a leisure stroll across the garden, we went to Leisure Valley. As a tourist, it was nice to learn that the entries to most parks in Chandigarh are free.

Upon crossing Leisure Valley, we walked to the Eiffel Tower Replica that is right next to the Tank Monument. The Tank Monument is also adjacent to a nice little cafeteria which has wonderful butter parathas served at nominal prices. We had breakfast here and entered the Art complex. The Complex has Government Art Museum, Modern Art Gallery, Architecture Museum, Natural History Museum all side by side.

One after another, we saw all these museums. It took us a long time to cover the Government Art Museum because it has different sections each dedicated to a theme such as Ancient Indian Art, Mughal Paintings, Indian Kings Paintings, Buddhist ruins, Japanese Cutlery, Ashoka’s ruins, Indian Mythological depictions. After this we went to Architecture museum which tells us how the city is planned. The museum also tells us how the city came to be the home of refugees of India’s partition story when Punjab needed a new capital. It also tells us the importance of the French rooster displayed in the Sector 17’s market water falls. And also the math behind various Landmarks located in various parts of the city. Also furniture from the past, design of the city’s plan which was printed on the manhole sanitary covers line were displayed in the museum.

From here we went to the Natural History Museum which depicts the Evolution of Earth, Life, Humans and Different realistic dinosaur fossil replicas which were fascinating to look at. The museum also has tools used by early man along with life like Lion and Black Panther at the entry. We went from here to the Modern Arts museum which had pictures and Modern art items made by the students studying there.

After having lunch at the cafeteria, we set out to the Rose Garden. Outside the rose garden we enjoyed a Camel ride. Even though the Rose bushes were prunned, we spotted a rose here and there. The garden has water fountains of various styles and the walk across the garden seemed worth it. We walked from the rose garden to the International Dolls Museum. The Museum is located in a shared compound along with Bal Bhavan and Working Woman’s Hostel. It has dolls from around the world. In the center of the building, there are dolls depicting Ramayana, Mahabharatha, Arabian Nights (Alibaba and the 40 thieves, Alladin), Cinderella, Snow White and similar depictions form Fiction and Mythology.

We then took an auto to Nek Chand’s Rock Garden. The Rock Garden is a garden created from industrial waste. It takes about 3 hours to see everthing in the Rock Garden. It has Artificially created Waterfalls, depiction of nek Chand’s Village, Depiction of a temple, a fort and several Indian Rangoli Designs engrained in the walls, an aquarium, hall of mirrors, meandering wall with Swings having cement horses on the top, a doll house depicting life of rural punjab. It is a cement jungle with cement dolls covered in porcelain shards, bangle shards and shaped differently in different sections. One sections has different animals in groups such as Dogs, cats, deers, horses. Another section has men and women in different postures. Along the path, there is a section where the walls seem to be from thermocol like rock material. There is even an open house theater with a large cinema like screen made of LED which plays a video of the features and history of the place.

After spending time in the Rock Garden, we went to the adjacent Sukna Lake. At the entrance, we ate the Famous Raj Kachori. We then walked along the 3 Km long stroll along the lake that lead us to the Silence Park. As we had walked all day, this walk seemed somewhat straining. As the boating charge there was 300 Rs per head we decided to skip the attraction. Once we reached the Silence park, seeing the Large Buddha seated in the center of the park gave us great joy. The park is shaped like a contour with the Buddha seated in the center of one of the contours. When we reached the park, it was empty and we enjoyed our time there. From there we walked along the Golf course to reach the main road. From there we took an Auto to the Sector 17 Market Place.

The sector 17 Market has a large open square, which a fountain. When we arrived we saw the Musical fountain began. Then we sat along the Waterfalls with the French rooster and reminisced the journey we had that day. After going along window shopping, we had dinner at Hot Millions Restaurant.

From here we took a cycle rickshaw to our hotel which cost us 80 Rs. We then went to bed early as we had to leave to Bangalore early in the morning. 

Overall, it was a fantastic trip. We travelled to North India and explored the beautiful city of Chandigarh on our own. Spent a day exploring the city hurrying from one place to another covering all the nearby tourist spots and returned home. From here we took an auto to Chandigarh Airport at 4:45 in the Morning and had a hurried tour of Delhi, which will be covered in the next blog post.