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Published: April 2nd 2007
So this weekend was spent in an English seaside resort, or certainly a place that felt like one! With the time off we had thanks to the lama dances back at Tashijong we decided to spend a long weekend in Shimla, giving us the chance to celebrate Heather's birthday (provided her and hannah were let out of their draconian christian school) and for Bhaarat to visit some family... who have been calling him for quite some time about it!
We met the 'new gappers' who had recently arrived in McCleoud on thursday - amusing to see people at the stage we were about 3/4 weeks ago, they seemed to be enjoying it though... living it up with regular trips to McClo's bar for evening drinks! - before catching a night bus to Shimla.
Shimla sits astride a
very steep ridge (there were landslides a few years ago in which Bhaarat's old family house was destroyed)... with the bus station down one side and, of course, the YMCA hostel which we'd been reccomended right at the top. The YMCA was fairly decent even if not the cheapest budget hostel (a whopping 200r, or 2 pound 50, a night each),
with a tv room and
hot showers - glorious.
Shimla feels just like those old-fashioned British seaside resorts you sometimes go to when you're little and your parents either feel nostalgic about their childhood and think you'll be interested or when they can't think of anywhere better to take you on a bank holiday. It comes with all the trappings - pony rides, popcorn, street candyfloss vendors, big balloons everywhere, a big wide road on which to stroll (with no traffic! The first time in India I've been away from incessant traffic horns) and even softee ice cream of the two flavour type. Shimla really is a full-on tourist town but geared as much towards the Indian tourist as the foreign one, apprently it's India's honeymoon capital. It was a nice place to chill out for a bit away from the usual hustle and bustle of an Indian city, though our 4 days were plenty of time... in Shimla the main past-time seems to be sitting and watching other people strolling along the ridge - pleasant but was starting to get boring!
On Saturday night we all went to a restaurant called Baljees for Heather's birthday meal. The
five of us (Bharaat, Heather, Hannah, Viveck (another aussie) and myself) all ordered a different curry so could mix and match. It was delicious with a dish roughly translated as 'yummy cheese curry' coming out tops! On Sunday we were 'invited' (obligated) to attend lunch at Hannah and Heather's christian girls' boarding school. Luckily the headmistress (most often described to us as a bit of a bitch) wasn't there so we had good food before being told off for venturing outside the visitors room and deciding to leave.
The bus home on Monday wasn't leaving until 9.30pm so, together with an aussie couple we'd met at the YMCA, we made the considerable trek up to the monkey temple above Shimla. The monkey temple is very aptly named, there's loads of them... everywhere. Cam, the aussie guy had a particularly rough time: screaming 'shit' and running away like a girl when the monkey Ellle (i think that was her name!) had poked with a stick (locals carry sticks to fend off any particularly sociably monkeys) snarled at him, this was really very funny for both us and the old ladies who were watching! Another later came up behind him to
Monkey...
stealing someone's shoe at the monkey temple - you legendsteal a sweet wrapper from a pocket of his bag but he didn't scream quite so loud this time!
After this we got the 10 hour bus homewards arriving in McCleoud very early before grabbing a quick breakfast and heading back to Tashijong to start teaching again.
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