Photo Gallery: Chail Day Trip

Don't miss the 'CATS ON THE MOVE' car labels especially made by
CAT Aman and CAT Amanat the night before...

17 CATS left the tricity by 8am to head towards the hills before the kids
went back to school... This trip was organised, 'on request' by CAT Jyoti :)

But not before we had had some food in our bellies

Paranthas galore with an odd sandwich thrown in.. healthy CATS!!

What is travelling without some good music?
Fixing the CD stuck in CAT Rachna's music system was the priority after breakfast

Read on if you want to know the reason behind the giggles of these two lovely CATS...

We were really looking forward to having a little tea break whilst sitting in the river flowing underneath the Sadhu Pul, made by the British in 1904... There was hardly any water in the river and that too was filthy... After the laughter died, a sane decision was made to skip Sadhu Pul break altogether and move to Chail instead...

CAT AR maintained his record by reaching Chail first!
This father and daughter duo posing whilst waiting
for the rest to arrive at the highest cricket ground of the world...

The cricket ground has been taken over by the Army School at Chail and the gates were locked!

This is what greeted us at the celebrated and much talked about
highest cricket ground built by the Maharaja Patiala..
A desolate looking lone tree stood cemented to the ground with a board which read,
'HISTORIC TREE - do not climb'.

There was no one who could give us the any information behind the grounds
or even this tree unfortunately.

All we could see by peering through the fence was running track, basketball court
instead of the lush greens and well kept pitch.

Aaah... a nice meowy shot in front of the locked gates to the stadium :)

Another one for the records... underneath the official board!

and then it was a short hike to reach Sidh Baba Mandir;

CATS were gleefully greeted by our 'bhai bandhu' ;-)

CATS dutifully taking their shoes off to enter the temple premises

the place where the Palace was originally was to be built
when Baba appeared in his dream and asked him
to shift the Palace to another location...

Welcome to the temple!

The well kept outer hall was lined with deities...

The inner sanctum had the idol of Sidh Baba...
with the photograph of Maharaja Patiala hanging outside on the pillar

a make-shift Shiv Temple outside underneath the tree...

Lovely walk through the tree lined path...

There's always something which manages to distract our CATS from the path ahead!

Everyone got around CAT Kulwant after the visit to the temple,
who was recovering from a bad bout of travel sickness
even with CAT Paramjeet driving the car at 40kms an hour!

CAT Om took really good care of CAT Kulwant who eventually needed a jab to stop the nausea...

No matter how difficult the times, smiles can never be far from us :)

which soon turns into peeling laughters ;-)

CAT Aditi had lovingly made delicious chocolates at home, as CAT AP had declared on the biking trip to Jayanti Devi a few months ago... With every piece of chocolate equally divided amungst 17 of us, it was time to reach the Palace for lunch.

CATS in various modes of rest, whilst waiting for lunch to arrive...

and then we pounced upon the food ;-)

The PURRfect Pose of The Chail CATS

I am saying nothing!

With food inside, CATS were really charged up for some super fun...
Since CAT AR, CAT Arti, CAT Anu and CAT Chat were leaving soon,
we decided that they should have the first attempt at 'Helium Sticks'

If only they knew what was in store... watch the video if you dont believe me ;-)

The first lot abandoned half way through,
this is the second lot with not much better luck ;-)

Their task was to bring the stick down without any finger loosing touch with the stick.. but the harder they tried, the higher the stick rose instead of coming down ;-)

Eventually CAT Om worked out a process in this team game
whereby instead of 6, only 2 should hold the stick at a time...

it was actually not very difficult to do... a very frustrated CAT Ansh had worked out his own method and was openly demonstrating to CAT Kulwant but no one was listening to him ;-)

In order to have some success in the game, CAT Jyoti said to CAT Om,
'Face Me', to which he immediately responded, 'But how can I ever do that!!'

it was getting sillier by the minute ;-)

But with determination and grit, practically everyone managed
to bring the stick down, if not in a team then atleast in pairs...

and then came the turn of toungue twisters.. the least said, the better!

Bagga Daddu Wadda Daddu Watt Tappe Daddua.... now say it 10 times... if you do not succeed, then watch CAT Gurneet in our videos for a free lesson ;-)

a very old historic Cedar Tree in the lawns of the Chail Palace...

By the way... this is Chail Palace!!!
we had a little tour of the palace before heading back to Chandigarh, reluctantly so :)

CATS going beserk in the first rain of this summer's monsoons..
we were merrily dancing on the highway itself in Sanwara

Please meet our glamorous waitress Rachna :)

Jokes aside, had it not been for our efficient CAT Rachna,
it would have taken us much longer to get recharged...
After a lovely and much needed coffee break at CCD in Sanwara,
we climbed into our cars for the final stretch of the journey home

The most unexpected and sad part of the day was this forest fire around Parwanoo...
We still dont know the origin and the reason behind this fire... but the view was imprinted in the minds of each one of us.

It's our environment CATS, our Mother Earth.
Let us all protect it.

- CAT Supreet