The road to Shimla

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Wanted to go from McLeod Ganj to Manali to Shimla, but realize I won’t have enough time in Kathmandu if I do this, so decided to go directly to Shimla. This is all mountain riding, so the road curves and winds and rises and falls and is great fun on a motorcycle.

Travelling in India can be a real challenge with the highway signs. Sometimes you’re not really sure you’re on the right road and can’t verify it by reading the signs, either. You ask people, but it’s always risky because of the Asian issue with “face”. Applies here, too. If you ask how to get to a place, and if they know, they’ll tell you and point. If they don’t know, usually they’ll do the same thing, even if it means they’re pointing in an entirely false direction. I learned to read the hesitation in the ones who don’t know what they’re talking about, although I must have wasted a few hours going the wrong direction thanks to this. Now, when I see the hesitation, no matter which way they point I ask someone else. You have to ask a lot of people to be sure.

Got to Shimla and endured the usual shark attack. One guy actually ran beside my motorcycle through traffic asking if I wanted a hotel. I found a parking lot and there was another shark there, lurking in the shadows, guy named Mohan. We tried several nearby hotels that he knew of, before we found a fairly poor one that had a spare room in my price range. I paid him off and he left.

Random notes
Restaurants and shops always write the word Welcome as two words: Wel Come.

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Photos

Highway #^@!
Can sometimes be tough figuring out where you're going in India.

McLeod Ganj to Shimla.
Hilly, dry land and sometimes the road was no good.

Deep valley
Hard to convey how steep this really is with a camera, but it feels precipitous when you're standing beside it.