Chamba, belongs to Uttaranchal state and located at High up in the Tehri Hills at 6,500 ft, Chamba is a steep 59-km climb from Rishikesh, 55 km from Mussoorie and 283 km N of Delhi.
Route from Delhi NH58 to Rishikesh via Haridwar; state highway to Chamba via Narendranagar.
One moment we were on a hilltop, the next on a cloud. A wispy caravan lifted up almost from nowhere and all too suddenly, and then we were adrift in a world all our own, astride a cold cloud. The transport from the real to the magical was quite as sudden and startling as Harry Potter crashing into that brick wall on Platform 93/4 to enter the world of Hogwarts: the cloud swept up the hill and past the hilltop and transformed everything. Suddenly, the sky had vanished and the hills all around were gone.
The little town and its people and its twisting lanes and distant lights had all disappeared. And all there was was a translucent cotton-wool jungle drowning in its own silence.
Someone switched on the sodium vapour lamps on the winding drive up to the resort: they looked like blurred blossoms popping in a dream. Then Sadhuram emerged from the mists bearing a tray of cosied tea and said this is what Chamba is like most evenings and nights - the dominion of clouds.
We were inside the mammoth glasshouse they have erected on a promontory overlooking the merging valleys cut by the Bhagirathi and the Alaknanda. Suddenly, enveloped by nothing but floating cloud and sodium lights twinkling in thick dew, it was like being on deck chairs in a skyship. It is like no place you might expect within seven hours of Delhi.
Why isn't Uttaranchal's Chamba as celebrated or as well known as Himachal's? Perhaps only because this is a new state and they haven't worked too hard on publicising it. At times you are almost thankful they haven't. Lack of exposure has kept in Chamba what most hill stations have lost or are fast losing the air of remoteness, of being somewhere else, somewhere special.
Chamba is a getaway in a very real sense. When you get to Chamba, you have got away from most of the things that you want to get away from in a metropolis - crowds, traffic, pollution, decibels, treadmill pace, routine.
Related Links :
01. Museums and Art Gallaries of India : A Survey - 1
02. Museums of Jammu and Kashmir : Sri Pratap Singh Museum Srinagar - 2
03. Art Gallery Jammu :Dogra Art Gallery - 3
04. Himachal Pradesh : The Library of Tibetan Works and Archives Dharmshala - 4
05. Himachal Pradesh : Bhuri Singh Museum, Shimla - 5
06. Shimla State Museum - 6
07. The Nicholas Roerich Gallery, Shimla - 7
08. Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Summerhil, Shimla - 8
09. Uruswati Himalayan Folk Art Museum, Naggar - 9
10. Punjab and Haryana : Maharaja Ranjit Singh Museum, Amritsar - 10
11. Government Museum and Art Callery, Chandigarh - 11
12. The Chandigarh Architecture Museum - 12
13. The Natural History Museum, Chandigarh - 13
14. Anglo Sikh War Memorial Ferozeshah - 14
15. Art Gallery, Patiala - 15
16. Sanghol Museum, Chandigarh - 16
17. New Delhi : The National Museum - 17
18. The National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi - 18
19. The Rail Museum - 19
20. The Nehru Memorial Museum, New Delhi - 20
21. The Gandhi Memorial Museum (Rajghat) and the Gandhi Smriti Museum (Tees January Marg) - 21
22. Tibet House Museum, New Delhi - 22
23. The Archaeological Museum at the Red Fort, New Delhi - 23
24. International Dolls Museum, New Delhi - 24
25. The Crafts Museum at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi - 25
26. Museum of Natural History, New Delhi - 26
27. Allahabad Museum, Uttar Pradesh - 27
28. Sarnath Archaeological Museum, Varansi, Uttar Pradesh - 28
29. Government Museum Mathura, Uttar Pradesh - 29
30. Bharat Kala Bhawan, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh - 30
31. Lucknow State Museum - 31
32. Rajasthan Government Museum, Ajmer, Rajasthan - 32
33. Government Museum, Alwar, Rajasthan - 33
34. Archaeological Museum, Ajmer, Rajasthan - 34
35. Virat Nagar Museum, Bairat - 35
36. Ganga Golden Jubilee Museum, Bikaner - 36
37. Government Museum, Bharatpur - 37
38. Fort Museum, Bikaner - 38
39. Fateh Prakash Palace Museum, Chittorgarh - 39
40. The Maharaj Sawai Madho Singh Museum, Jaipur - 40
41. Government Central Museum, Jaipur - 41
42. Juneja Art Gallery, Jaipur - 42
43. Maharaja Sawai Man Singh (II) Museum, Jaipur (1) - 43
44. Maharaja Sawai Man Singh (II) Museum, Jaipur (2) - 44
45. Museum of Indology, Jaipur - 45
46. Hawa Mahal Museum, Jaipur - 46
47. Folklore Museum, Jaisalmer - 47
48. Government Museum, Jaisalmer - 48
49. Government Museum, Jhalawar - 49
50. Government Museum, Jodhpur - 50
51. Umaid Bhawan Palace Museum, Jodhpur - 51
52. Government Museum, Kota - 52
53. Mehrangarh Fort Museum, Jodhpur - 53
54. City Palace Museum, Udaipur - 54
55. Shilp Gram, Udaipur - 55
56. Bhartiya Lok Kala Museum, Udaipur - 56
57. Calico Museum of Textile, Ahmedabad, Gujarat (1) - 57
58. Calico Museum of Textile, Ahmedabad, Gujarat (2) - 58
59. Archaeological Museum, Lothal - 59
60. Utensil Museum, Ahmedabad - 60
61. Vadodara Museum and Picture Gallery - 61
62. Government Archaeological Museum, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh - 62
63. The Gujari Mahal Museum, Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh - 63
64. Central Museum, Indore, Madhya Pradesh - 64
65. Sarod Ghar, Gwalior - 65
66. Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, Maharashtra - 66
67. National Gallery of Modern art, Mumbai - 67
68. Chhaptrapati Shivaji Vastu Sanghralaya, Mumbai - 68
69. Mani Bhawan Gandhi Sangralaya, Mumbai - 69
70. Bhau Daji Lad Museum (Victoria and Albert Museum), Mumbai - 70
71. The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), Mumbai - 71
72. Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum, Pune - 72
73. Sculpture Gallery, Goa - 73
74. Christian Art Gallery, Goa - 74
75. Banerji Art Gallery, Goa - 75
76. Religious Expression Gallery - 76
77. Cultural Anthropology Gallery, Goa - 77
78. Contemporary Art Gallery and Western Bronze Gallery, Goa - 78
79. Jalan Museum, Patna, Bihar - 79
80. Nalanda Archaeological Museum - 80
81. Patna Museum - 81
82. Assam State Museum, Gauhati - 82
83. Indian Museum, Kolkata, West Bengal - 83
84. Ashutosh Museum of Indian Art, Kolkata - 84
85. Victoria Memorial Museum, Kolkata - 85
86. Bangiya Sahita Parishad Chitrasala, Kolkata - 86
87. Birla Academy of Art and Culture Museum, Kolkata - 87
88. Crafts Museum, Kolkata - 88
89. Nehru Children’s Museum, Kolkata - 89
90. Rabindra Bharati Museum, Kolkata - 90
91. Birla Industrial and Technological Museum, Kolkata - 91
92. Asiatic Society Museum, Kolkata - 92
93. Kolkata Panorama at Town Hall - 93
94. Orissa State Museum, Bhubaneshwar - 94
95. Archaeological Museum, Konark - 95
96. Archaeological Museum, Amaravathi - 96
97. Bhagavan Mahavir Government Museum, Cuddapah - 97
98. Salarjung Museum, Hyderabad - 98
99. State Archaeological Museum, Hyderabad - 99
100. Kolanupaka Site Museum - 100
101. Nagarjunakonda Museum - 101
102. Victoria Jubilee Regional Museum, Vijaywada - 102
103. Sri Venketeswara Museum, Tirupati, Chittoor - 103
104. Archaeological Museum Badami and Aihole, Karnataka - 104
105. Archaeological Museum Halebid - 105
106. Karnataka Government Museum and Venkatappa Art Gallery, Bangalore - 106
107. Technical Museum (Vishweshwaraiah Museum), Bangalore - 107
108. Gandhi Bhavan, (Kumara Krupa Road), Bangalore - 108
109. Hal Heritage Centre and Aerospace Museum, Bangalore - 109
110. Archaeological Museum, Bijapur - 110
111. The Tipu Sultan Museum - 111
112. The Government Museum Ooty, Tamil Nadu - 112
113. The Government Museum, Vellore - 113
114. Silappathikara Art Gallery - 114
115. Government State Museum, Chennai - 115
116. Fort St. George Museum, Chennai - 116
117. Dakshinachitra, Chennai - 117
118. Sri Meenakshi Sundaresvara Temple Museum, Madurai - 118
119. Palace and Museum, Padmanabhapuram - 119
120. Pondicherry Museum - 120
121. The Government Museum, Padukkottai - 121
122. The Government Museum, Salem - 122
123. Hill Palace Museum, Kerala - 123
124. Priyadarshini Planetarium - 124
125. Science and Technology Museum - 125
126. Art Gallery and Krishna Menon Musuem, Calicut - 126
127. Kuthiramalika Palace Museum, Thiruvananthapuram - 127
128. Museum of Kerala History, Erunakulam - 128
129. Napier Museum, Thiruvananthapuram - 129
130. Sree Chitra Art Gallery, Thiruvananthapuram - 130
131. Anthropological Museum at Andaman and Nicobar Islands - 131
132. Samudrika (National Marine Museum) - 132
133. Forest Museum at Andman and Nicobar Island - 133
134. The Hills of Lansdowne : A Honeymoon Resort - 1
135. Things to see and do at Lansdowne : A Honeymoon Resort - 2
136. Where to stay and eat at Lansdowne : A Honeymoon Resort - 3
137. Pauri : An impressive welcome for Honeymoon Lovers - 1
138. Things to see and do at Pauri : A Honeymoon Place - 2
139. Where to stay and eat, Tourist Offices at Pauri : Honeymoon Place - 3
140. Auli : It is time to Ski - 1
141. Things to see and do at Auli - 2
142. Where to stay at Auli - 3
143. Where to eat at Auli - 4