Weekend Trip to Chandigarh

I spent this past weekend in Chandigarh, a city located 250km north of Delhi. It serves as the capital of Haryana state and Punjab state. But it's a "union territory," so it doesn't actually fall under the jurisdiction of either state. It's also the first planned city in India and was designed by Le Corbusier. The streets were all very wide and connected by large traffic circles. Of course, there were no less car horns in Chandigarh. You could still hear them almost everywhere. I was really impressed by the cleaniness of the city, especially when compared to other Indian cities and towns I've visited. Of course, there were parts that weren't as clean, but on a whole, Chandigarh was incredibly clean.

Chandigarh is home to the largest rose garden in Asia, as well as the Rock Garden. On Saturday afternoon, I visited the Rock Garden, which was designed by Nek Chand. It contains hundreds of rock sculptures and other sculptures made of recycled materials. My favorites were the sculptures of women made of the bangle bracelets that are found on the wrists of every Indian woman. Paths wind through the garden and past several scenic waterfalls and more rocks.

The last night, we stayed at The Fort at Ramgarh, a hertitage hotel, located just outside of Chandigarh. The Fort was built over 350 years ago by the Chandel Rajputs and was recently converted into a hotel. Two huge 37-ft high wooden doors serve as the entrance to the hotel and they are allegedly the largest wooden doors in India, as certified by Limca (India's version of the Guiness Book of World Records). Despite the all-vegetarian, no-alcohol restaurant, the food was very good. The rooms were great too and ours had the largest bathroom I've ever seen in India!