A blissful 4 days in Shimla

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The Royal Suite was beautiful. ..the furnishings and old photos incredible. A couple of days later we actually met the man who had done all the photographs for the hotel....some off negatives and some off small prints.
After breakfast Veeru picked us up and took us downtown where he parked and said right you go up in lift to The Mall Rd and then proceed up to Jakku Temple. We were a bit concerned as we thought we had a guide but as he showed us in the itinerary Shimla was the only city we didn't have a guide. So anyway Sandra and he shared WhatSapp addresses (S was on NZ roaming) and we intrepidly set off on our own.
Shimla is built over 7 hills and. It was was a little village in 1815 when an English surveyor found it and proclaimed it fit for the British summer Hill Station where they would shift the Government of India to escape the dreadful heat of the Delhi summer. JGs mother was born here in 1919 as her father was a major in the army and something like an aide - de - camp for a general. So it quickly developed and today is just over a million people. Some wonderful architecture.
So we go up in the lift to The Mall Rd (no cars) which runs along a Ridgeline and has shops restaurants etc. Some lovely old buildings.There are various little side roads which go to upper and lower bazaars.After a couple of hours wandering around we message Veeru and head to the lift down to the main road and we find Veeru at car park.Back to hotel.
A lovely dinner but no one else there so we felt a bit self conscious.
Next morning we meet Veeru at 9 and go out touring...the plan is to go to a famous golf course and hot springs...but the road is pretty bad although scenery great so we decide to turn around and head for lunch. We had spoken to a guide at the hotel thel previous night and he had recommended Wild Flower Hall for lunch so we set off in that direction.
By now we were getting to grips with the road rules...basically there are none...!.They do drive on the left which is familiar to us but really that is just a guide.The horn is the most important bit of equipment on a car or motorcycle / scooter. Indicators are fitted but hardly used. Passing on blind corners seems par for the course and it became apparent that Veeru was very adept at this. Basically it goes like this...we are behind a slow bus going towards an uphill corner. Veeru sounds his horn ( the blower) which tell's bus (blowee ) to effectively hold his line.Then we are off and the judgement is just right because we just cut in front of the bus as a gaily decorated truck comes round the corner.
We do trust Veeru though although have had to close our eyes a few times.
So we make it to Wildflower Hall. Was built by an English general in the 1800s burnt down later then Mr Oberoi of hotel fame decided to rebuild it exactly the same in 1990. A beautiful place and expensive lunch for the 3 of us.

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