Wednesday 20th May 2015
I awoke as the sun was coming up we were high in the
mountains and it was about 5am so I closed my eyes and tried to go back to
sleep the bus was so uncomfortable it was hard to get any lasting sleep. Around
6am we stopped for ages at a little side of the road tea stall it was about the
forth stop we had taken (the first was about an hour after we left and lasted
for about an hour) I got up and stretched my cramped legs waiting to get moving
again.
Mark moved to the back of the bus where there was no one
sitting and lay down and went back to sleep I took up both of our seats and was
dozing as the bus moved off when suddenly everyone was shouting and the bus
came to a sudden stop the guy in front of me thought we had left mark behind!
I went back to sleep and woke up about an hour later at yet
another stop although this one was slightly welcome as I really needed a wee.
We finally got moving again and I dozed the rest of the way. The bus turfed us
out on the side of the road about 7km away from Shimla town of course the taxi
drivers descended on us immediately trying to get us to go with them for the
bargain price of 250 rupees we instead opted to catch the local bus which cost
us five rupees.
The bus didn’t take us as close as we had hoped and we still
had to walk a decent distance all uphill. The main street of Shimla is
pedestrian only so we couldn’t have got much further even if we wanted to. The
town is riddled with touts selling hotels and porters trying to make a buck by carrying
people’s luggage but we ignored them all and eventually found somewhere to stay.
Shimla is a pretty expensive town but we managed to get a
nice place with a stunning view and a balcony. We checked in and had showers
before going to bed for a nap. By the time we woke up we were starving so we
wondered down into town to get some lunch. We found an Indian place and I
ordered something I’d never heard of before which turned out to be an absolute
winner (it’s a shame I was too tired to bother remembering what it was called)
The view from our balcony
The Ridge
The view on snow-capped mountains from The Ridge
We walked about a bit but really we both felt exhausted so
we went back to the guesthouse where Mark spent the rest of the afternoon
napping and I read my book. About 7.30pm we headed to out to get some dinner
neither of us were particualy hungry so we found a place and had a little munch
before heading back to bed for even more sleep.
Thursday 21st May 2015
Despite sleeping all day yesterday and then all night we
still somehow managed to sleep in. we got up and headed to breakfast at this
atmospheric old Indian coffee house the food was good and cheap and the waiters
all wore old school traditional uniforms with funny hats.
Old coffee posters
After eating we headed up to Jakhu temple at the bottom of
the hill there was a sign to test your fitness it reckoned under 30 minutes for
people aged under 30 was incredibly fit so we decided to challenge ourselves
and set off upwards although the steep hill soon had me lagging behind we made
it to the top in less than 22 minutes.
At the top is a giant 33m high statue of Hanuman that is
currently covered in bamboo scaffolding while it is repainted the guys painting
it were bare foot balanced on bamboo beams held together with brown string. We
sat and watched them paint for a while until a huge monkey came and bothered us
there was an Indian tourist who had a stick and chased him away he said that the
monkeys steal things like sunglasses and hold them ransom for food! We put
everything we had in our bag and stayed away from the many monkeys who swarmed
the temple.
The weird statues that marked our arrival at the temple.
On the way up to the temple we saw this man turning a burnt out car into a convertible with an axe.
The men painting the Hanuman statue
a stupid man feeding a monkey - it got angry when he ran out of food - what a surprise
Jakhu Temple
One of the menacing monkeys sitting in the cutest pose.
Monkeys sleeping on somebodies house
The sign that challenged us
The lonely planet claimed that the temple had great views
but there were too many trees to see far. The temple was pretty though and the
grounds were lovely (even though they were teaming with sneaky monkeys)
We walked back down and took a few pic of Christ Church
which is the second oldest church in India I wanted to go inside as it apparently
has beautiful stained glass windows but it was all locked up. We walked down to
the mall and had some hot chips for lunch followed by an ice-cream.
We were waiting for the bus ticket office to open to enquire
about buses to Manali and killed time by going into Gaiety theatre. We had a
tour along with another English couple the guide was hugely passionate about
the theatre which was beautiful. We got to go up on stage and sit in the VIP
box as well as up on the balcony. It’s a shame there are no shows playing while
we are in town. Up the top of the theatre was a photo gallery displaying all
sorts of pictures from before the theatres restoration as well as the theatre
in its heyday.
View of the theater from the stage
View of the stage from the VIP box
We came out of the theatre and headed to the bus ticket counter where we got tickets for a few days’ time. With that done we walked about 4km
to the Former Viceregal lodge which now houses the Indian Institute of Advanced
Studies but there are a few rooms open to the public as well as the lawns and
gardens. We bought tickets and walked around the grounds for 45minutes until
our guided tour at 5pm. We only got to go into three rooms as well as the huge
lobby but it is all spectacularly well kept the entire building is like an
English Manor house.
Me standing outside the Former Viceregal Lodge
Some of the gardens
We came out and started the trek back into town we were both
hungry so stopped for food at the first restaurant we came to. We then wanted
to go to the cinema and walked there through a maze of alleyways and through
the bustling market only to be told we were the only people who had come to the
screening and so they weren’t going to show anything and just close the cinema
for the night which was a disappointment.
We walked back heading through this long tunnel that goes
under the mall when we walked in on one side it was sunset and by the time we
walked out the other side night ha fallen and we were in darkness. We found our
way back up to the ridge and from there back to our guesthouse where we showed
and watched TV (a poor substitute for the cinema!)
Friday 22nd May 2015
After not drinking nearly enough water yesterday I couldn’t
wake up this morning my head felt all cloudy my eyes were all puffy and my tongue
felt like a sponge. Eventually I managed to wake up by having a shower and we
got moving to the Indian coffee house for breakfast.
With food in our bellies we walked down the hill to the
train station. Shimla has a tiny toy train that runs up the hill from Kalka
taking about 4-6 hours but I wanted to see if we could take a shorter (much
shorter) ride as the scenery is supposed to be spectacular. Unfortunately it
wasn’t possible and so we just had to walk back up the hill.
We walked back through town right the length of the mall and
kept going on the other side out of town to where there is a big old house that
is now a hotel which has a big garden restaurant we sat out in the sun and Mark
drank Gin and tonic and I had a pot of tea. The place was cute as heck with the
waiters dressed in little suits and hats it was a lovely location and we had
the whole place to ourselves. There was a young girl who seemed to be some sort
of manager there who couldn’t seem to work out why we had come to Shimla it
sounded as though she would rather be anywhere else, she also couldn’t work out
why I wouldn’t want to drink.
We sat in the sunshine for a few hours until we got hungry
then we walked back into town and found a restaurant with a terrace and a great
view of Shimla. We had real pizzas and Mark drank all the beer the food was
amazing so we got dessert as well. There was a group of young lawyers (we knew
they were lawyers because one guy said very loudly “what better way for young
lawyers to spend a Friday afternoon”) they were a bit of a laugh and gave us
some good recommendations for places in HP.
Enjoying the sunshine and the food (really he was enjoying himself)
When the sun moved and there was no more shade it was time
to go back to the guesthouse where we chilled out and had showers before going
out for dinner it was a real “treat yoself” kind of day. We went to a rotund
restaurant and had delicious curry then waddled back up the hill to do some
laundry and watch movies.
Saturday 23rd May 2015
We had to be out of our hotel by midday, the owner clearly
disliked us as I think he thought we would be a cash cow when we arrived but
actually didn’t spend any other money at the hotel other than the room much to
his dislike. He begrudgingly said we could leave our bags in the hotel for the
day until our night bus but we didn’t leave anything important behind.
We went and had breakfast and came back and packed we had
also broken his rule about doing laundry in the room and he clearly knew as
Mark had to hang some things on the balcony to make sure they were all dry before
we headed off.
We left our bags and headed out for some lunch we went back
to the place we spent the afternoon yesterday and ate too much again but made
up for it by going on a long walk to the Himmachel state museum. The walk was
the best part of the museum which was a bit boring but is housed in a beautiful
old house.
After the museum we walked a little further along the road
to the Himalayan bird park which also proved to be a disappointment. The park
was a bit old and tired, all the water features were empty except one which was
full of dirty water but the birds seemed happy and healthy and there were some
rather amusing stuffed animals that had passed their prime.
Who knew birds liked to live in kennels?
By the time we walked back into town it was around 5pm so we
killed time getting a coffee and later on Mark ate dinner but I was still full
from lunch. Eventually we made a move back to the hotel to pick up our bags and
head to the bus station.
Me and all my bags outside Christ Church Cathedral - The second oldest church in India
We had been advised to take the lift down to the road rather
than walk but what a mistake that was, there are two lifts which cost us and
our bags 40 rupees to ride down (there are stairs but they are locked forcing
people to use the paying lift) in normal Indian fashion everyone pushed and at
one stage two guys went into a lift and headed down without waiting for the
lift to fill up even though there was a massive queue waiting.
The lift took us the best part of 30 minutes which was far
longer than it would have taken us to walk down the other side of the hill and
meant we were standing around with our packs on for much longer.
Once on the road we had to get a bus to the old bus stand
and from there get another bus to the new bus stand but we lucked out and the bus
we got on dropped us off at a cross roads where we could get a second bus and didn’t
even charge us for the ride.
The bus to the new bus station was a nightmare it was
already full when we got on and I couldn’t balance standing at the top of the
steps without enough room to stand tall and so was being pulled over backwards
by my bad almost falling out of the door. Luckily it wasn’t far when we got
there I was trying to reverse out of the door without falling flat on my back
like a turtle when an impatient Indian girl pushed me out luckily I found my
feet (and karma got that bitch as she was on our bus sat behind a hugely fat
man who spent the entire bus ride of ten hours spewing out of the window)
We found our bus and put our bags on even though we had left
with plenty of time the wait around at the lift meant that we arrived with just
enough time to put our bags on go for a final toilet break and get on and go.
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