Dhanaulti Revisited (no more visit recommended)

My previous experience is given in this blog. click to read.

The worst experience we ever had. We planned 2 nights stay at Dhanaulti, a small hamlet of Garhwal. We came here before and was very much impressed then. A sweet small village with few villagers;  very clam evening and dark blue sky; dense forest with a smell of old and wild.
Last year also I went there. The place became a bit crowded and small village was expanded. People became bit less innocent. Till we never dreamed that what we faced this weekend.
raining
the hotel
We started from Roorkee in the morning around 10.30 or 11 am; reached Dehradun after driving through heavy rain for an hour or so. Roads were water logged in the city; Stopped for lunch @ Hotel Sidhharth Paradise. I had a good experience of staying here and the location is quite easy to locate for people like us who had almost no idea of Dehradun.
After having lunch we decided to stay there only for that night as till it was raining. The distance between Dehradun and Dhanaulti is around 56 km. So, thought not to take risk. Booked room in the same hotel. They charged ~1500/- per night for a good ac room. It is specious and well-maintained. But the room service was not at all upto the mark. They also have a tendency of cheating. The room they allotted had a non-working ac. They knew it. It took the chance. The TV was also faulty. Finally after several complain they changed our room and that one was fine. But as I already said, room service was horrible. No one even donot pickup phone at room service after 9 o’clock, though they supposed to take order till 10.30pm. Anyway, it was a sudden stay. We enjoyed in our own way, watching TV and doing chit-chat. One of our friends also visited us in the evening.
Next morning we started for Malsi Deer park at around 11 o’clock as it is just 10km from the city. We planned to stay there if any option available. But the park was impressive for us neither any stay option was available. After spending an hour or so, we started for Dhanaulti.

Mussourie road is quite good and easy to drive. But not the road for Dhanaulti. Before 4km of Mussourie one has to take a right turn to move to Dhanaulti. The road is very narrow for first few kilometers. Few patches are very good and wide enough but rest is not much.  The entire road is full of lawless curves and enhanced by greeneries. The beautiful drive ended at destination polluted with unexpected crowd. No rooms are vacant in government rest houses. Below average hotels were charging more than huge. For a room with bed, single bulb, very old and too small TV was charged 1600/-. After searching few, we decided to have lunch first and to think about hotel.
The best hotel in heart of the hamlet is Drive-Inn. It is one of the oldest too. We went there for lunch but the food quality was upsetting. After lunch thought to visit Apple Orchard but the private road is not at all good. So after driving few meters we gave up and drove back to the centre.




By that time we were almost decided to be back to Roorkee. The crowd was actually pushing us back and the illogical huge charge was really disgusting. It seems like selling a 10/-rupees product in Rs.1000/-.
Light rain we got on near Mussourie, but rest was eventless. At one place we spots monkeys on the road having fun in their own way.  The red setting sun was also visible behind a dense forest of big trees. So we stopped there for few minutes to catch the moments. Clicked few snaps too.
Driving back to Roorkee, having lassi in civil market, dinner in Prakash (the worst even dahi valla) has nothing special but Santanu’s surprised expression after seeing the length of his special paper masala dosa.
But the dead line is – no more trip to Dhanaulti. This place is no more advisable for those who love to spend weekend in silence on the lap of nature. Not advisable for those who love to mingle with innocent villagers during their vacation. The place becomes too commercialized and honesty is no more a part of Dhanaulti.
We are planning to find another destination in my next possible trip.

1 comment:

  1. very shameful on that people who charged 10 times extra.

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