Shimla
Well, we left the madness of Delhi after six days and headed for the foothills of the Himalaya to a little hill station called Shimla. It used to be the summer capital of the British Raj. There is lots of British architecture here, including a Catholic Church in the center of town! Shimla is very peaceful compared to Delhi. The main road, called the Mall, has no cars allowed, so there is none of the honking we got accustomed to in Pahar Ganj. Our hotel here is considered "mid-range," that is Rs 600 (about $13) per night. It has a little balcony outside of the cozy room, and is set on the steep hillside of the town. This place has steeper hills than San Francisco, if you can believe it! Yesterday, D and I hiked way uphill to the Jahku Temple, which is a little Hindu Temple devoted to the monkey-god, Hanuman. Very appropriately, there were tons of monkeys around the temple! In fact, monkeys are like the squirrels of this town, although they are way more mencing. We wacthed a monkey climb up the pants of this guy who was walking in front of us! He advised us to carry rocks as we walked down from the temple. Nevertheless, they are pretty cute, especially when the little babies cling upside-down to their momma's bellies.
Shimla is sweet, but there is not much to do here except wander the hills and walk up and down the Mall, which is the social center of town (it is a college town so there are lots of younger Indians trying to "be seen"). Tomorrow, we are going to leave for Dharamsala. The current debate is whether to take the bus (10 hours, questionable comfort, $6), or to hire a taxi (7 hours, a/c, $50). Hopefully, the connection will be quicker there, because we already have lots of great photos to share!
Shimla is sweet, but there is not much to do here except wander the hills and walk up and down the Mall, which is the social center of town (it is a college town so there are lots of younger Indians trying to "be seen"). Tomorrow, we are going to leave for Dharamsala. The current debate is whether to take the bus (10 hours, questionable comfort, $6), or to hire a taxi (7 hours, a/c, $50). Hopefully, the connection will be quicker there, because we already have lots of great photos to share!
posted by Liz C at 4:47 PM
3 Comments:
Hey guys!
It's good to hear that things are going well. A quick suggestion: I think you should adopt a monkey and bring him along for the ride. That would be incredible. Keep posting! Thanks for sharing your adventures; I'm now officially living vicariously through you. Keep the excitement rolling. Let me know how things go with the monkey.
-Fabio
I hope you guys prepared for India by watching A Passage to India, Ghandi, Gunga Din and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Those four should prepare you for just about any adventure you encounter in India and, from the sound of it, you'll have plenty of time for repeated viewings on your protracted bus rides. As for the monkey situation, you should know from the Temple of Doom that monkey brains are an Indian delicacy. When in Rome...
Ahh... Reading about Shimla makes it all come back for me! That's where I started my last bike trip in India (up to Manali, on to Leh, then through Kashmir--dodging rifle and mortar fire--and on to Dharamsala). I hope you get a chance to go up to Ladakh - it's a fantastic place, but you would have to leave soon to beat the snow on the high passes.
As for taking the bus to Dharamsala, I think a better description of the comfort will be "execrable", rather than "questionable". But what the heck - that's half the fun!
Things are going well back here at Guidewire. Have memories of work faded entirely from memory yet?
John S.
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