SHIMLA & THE TOY TRAIN

5th - 8th May 2015

We arrived on the night bus from Manali at 3am and wondered if we should get a room or just try to kill time for a couple of hours until the day started. We had hardly slept on the bus, due to the fact we had had to keep our bags under our feet as they couldn't put them on the roof. Very bent knees coupled with a winding road meant we were very cramped and kept getting thrown left and right. Little did we know that there was a boot on this bus and we could have had our bags in there!

After climbing the huge hill to the ridge that forms the pedestrian high street of Shimla, we found some benches to lie on and wait for the day to come. With it came people doing their morning exercises at 6.30am and kids cramming in a game of cricket before school. Soon the street was full of kids in school uniform and people going about their day. Snooze time was definitely over so we went to the Indian Coffee House for a breakfast of scrambled eggs on toast.

Once we were settled in our hotel and had had a proper sleep, we wondered out to see Shimla properly. The town is built on either side of a ridge, with roads running parallel to the spine of the hill going down. Most buildings have more floors on one side than the other due to the steepness of the hill, and really it's a marvel that there's any buildings at all up there! Shimla's history is an interesting one, and would be very different had it not been for the Scottish civil servant named Charles Kennedy who chose to build his summer home there in 1822. By 1864, the small forest town had become the summer hangout of the entire Indian government when the Delhi heat became unbearable. Every summer until 1949, the whole government would decamp to here, bringing hundreds of donkey loads of files and forms, where they would continue to rule one quarter of the worlds population. Everywhere you look are examples of British rule, with British looking buildings and infrastructure evident today. Will commented that the mall reminded him of Stratford-Upon-Avon and I would have to agree.

Moving away from the ridge, there are a maze of streets that make up the bazaar, selling all manner of things. Will managed to pick up some new Levi's, a beard trimmer (to tame his wild beard), some new flip flops and a hair bobble (to tame his wild hair). I bought a kurti - a tunic blouse to be worn over trousers. 

We walked to the Viceregal Lodge, the other end of town along the ridge. It was built by a Scottish architect in 1888 to house the Viceroy during the summer months. We felt it looked like a Scottish castle had been plonked in the middle of our Indian holiday. The lodge had also played a huge part in the India independence talks and there was a display of photos showing Nehru and Gandhi as well as Viscount Mountbatten.

For lunch we went to the Embassy restaurant, and were encouraged to try the owners home made banana and walnut cake for pudding. It was delicious, and when I said it was exactly like cake my mum makes, he was so delighted, he ran off and brought us out another 2 slices for free!

Overlooking the main square is a fountain and statue of Gandhi. It is a great spot to sit up high and people watch. We spent an hour up there watching the sunset and balloon sellers attempting to shift their wares.

On our last day we climbed through the forest to the highest point in the city to see the Jakhu Monkey Temple. To get there you have to cross paths with many monkeys, eager to relieve you of any food you might be carrying or even your glasses. Once you got to the top you were rewarded with a 33m high giant orange monkey statue, who overlooked the entire city. Around him, bamboo scaffolding was being erected by workmen. They must have built over 6 stories high and yet they were sat up there, barefoot and not tied on! The view must have been incredible from up there. After walking around with our spirit guide (a dog who had started following us from the hotel, who did a very good job of scaring away the monkeys for us) we wandered back down.

We went to one last temple as the sun was setting at the opposite end of the ridge. There was some amazing views of the giant monkey statue towering over Shimla as well as the surrounding valleys and foothills. 

On our way back into the centre of town we got talking to a chap we kept bumping into over the last few days. He told us about a great little restaurant to go for a thali hidden down a steep alleyway towards the bazaars. It was like Indian fast food, so we were hurried in and the food came instantly, and then we were bundled out, but it was bloody good. Unfortunately neither of us can remember the name. 

After a lovely few days, it was time to leave. We headed off in the morning to catch the 'toy train' to Kalka. The narrow gauge train line was built by the British in 1903 and has 103 tunnels and many more bends. It's a 96km journey and takes 6 hours as the gradient is so steep. We found some seats and off we went. A group of school kids and their teacher sat by us and it wasn't long before we were chatting away. I was just finishing my book 'The 3 mistakes of my life' by Chetan Bhagat, a well known Indian author. One of the guys said he hadn't read that one but had read all the others. I handed him my copy and in return he wanted to give me a gift, so now I'm the proud owner of a bamboo mug :)

The end of the line is a place called Kalka. From here our plan is to catch the Himalayan Queen (a train) to the city of Chandigarth, where we should hopefully find an eight hour night bus to get us to Rishikesh. With the afternoon already in full swing our arrival time in Rishikesh is hard to predict. 

The slow and leisurely six hour toy train is starting to seem like it was a bad idea.