Nick’s world tour

Well I did finally make it to Shimla. The bus was nicer than the public ones, but after 10 hours nothing is particularly comfortable. Though I felt and looked awful when I arrived, I think it was the trek catching up with me and I have a bit of a cold.

Shimla is a bit strange. Firstly it’s becase it’s a former summer capital from when the British ruled here, so all the buildings are mock tudor, and instead of the usual temples, the end of the main promenade is dominated by Christ Church. Secondly, there is nothing to do here! It’s really an Indian holiday resort, so just like you’d get at a British seaside town people wander around and sit and eat ice cream: but there’s no sea and little else to do. Strange. The city is on a hill top at about 2500m, and cascades down the side. The main street is called the Mall, and leads to Scandal point along from which the “Ridge” is the main area where people sit and watch people watching each other. It’s very “well to do”, with everyone in Sunday best suits and sarees (and then the occasional western tourists looking a bit scruffy), taking pony rides and eating ice cream. It’s a steep climb to the Jakhu Temple (shrine to the monkey god). The temple is nothing out of the ordinary (when you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all), but the main attraction are the monkeys- which steal anything and everything!

As soon as I arrived, one lunged at me and snatched my sunglasses, before sitting with them in it’s mouth and running away. A man from the stall which sold monkey sticks (and I thought they were walking canes) ran after it with a bag of nuts, and came back five minutes later with my sun glasses… he got a 100Rs tip for this- it made his day but I told him it was much easier than paying for some new ones (in the 1970s style most western fashions here seem to be based around). We arrived on Monday night, and after a steep walk up to the Ridge (here you get followed by porters as there are no rickshaws or other motorised traffic to take your bags and claim commission) booked into the YMCA. Not as dodgy as they are at home, it’s quite nice, and you get breakfast. This is one of the most expensive cities in Northern India so cheap places to stay are few and far between. I have to laugh, when you say cheap places, these are about 2 or 3 pounds a night, and a luxury place might be the same as a seaside B&B at home! Anyway, as there’s not much else to do, it’s been a case of sitting and watching the world go by. Yesterday it rained and get cold, but then we are quite high up. Tomorrow I’m leaving by myself at 9.30 for a place called Dehra Dun (or Doon as my ticket says). This journey is at odds with the timetable painted on to the wall at the bus station… This journey is ONLY 8 hours. Though there’s nothing to do here, so I think I’ll either go to Mussoorie for a day or so, or straight to Rishikesh.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 24th, 2006 at 3:24 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.