A weekend in Shimla

Just got back from visiting the state capital. It is completely different from both Dharamsala and Amritsar. The central Mall Road is completely traffic free so there is a lot less noise. No beeping every 2 minutes!

There were a lot more children around. It seemed a lot more family friendly, which in turn meant woman friendly!

Mall Road is higher than the entrance road into Shimla so it is accessed by either a lift or stairs. The lift is 10 rupees (approx 10p) each way, we went up it a couple of times. I don't think locals use it, as every time we asked someone for directions it seemed to be a tourist who didn't know their way around... The stairs were brutal. They were steep and uneven, but it meant we could see more on the way up. There were a couple of markets that are as noisy and exciting as the media would have us believe.

Our hotel was on the stairs, about a quarter of the way up. It was a budget hotel at 500 rupees (£4.50ish) a night per person. It was a decent place by not necessarily somewhere we'd recommend. I completely forgot to take photos of thr room but I think I can paint a picture with 4 words: round bed, mirrored ceiling!

We visited Hanuman's temple at the top of Shimla on Saturday. He is a deity in the Hindu religion and he has the appearance of a monkey. Therefore there were monkeys everywhere at the temple! There were signs warning that they liked to steal glasses so I walked round half blind just in case. There is a statue of Hanuman so big that you can see it all the way down the mountain in the main centre of Shimla.

There is a small temple in the centre of the complex where you can get offerings for the monkeys, they go mad for it. Rice crispies covered in sugar. Who wouldn't like it!?

We went for a walk up to a giant waterfall called Chadwick Falls, it is about 60 metres high, in the middle of an evergreen forest. We could have been anywhere in Europe, it was raining and green. Wales eat your heart out!
In the taxi on the way back we noticed we'd gained some friends along the way - leeches! There was a lot of squealing, not all of it from me (!) But we managed to get them off, virtually unscathed.

There are a lot of buildings in central Shimla that have a British/mock-tudor look to them. Think Stratford with bonus statues of Gandhi. We didn't get chance to look round them all, but we'll soon rectify that. We've added Shimla to our itinerary for after we leave Dharamsala!

(photos are on my camera, not phone. I'll see what jittery pokery I can do to get some on here...)

(in other news "jigri puggri" is a Hindi expression to explain Indian Time. Ie, nothing runs to schedule but that's ok because we're in India!)