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Published: July 20th 2009
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As we were not expecting to like Shimla we were pleasantly surprised to find we did! It was a large city, another hill town close to Delhi, and it was spread 3 kilometers over the ridge line of three hills. The traffic was very busy, still holiday season, but our hotel was very close to the main bazaar area so we had no need to battle the traffic once we were settled. The company that we had booked the jeep tour through for our trip to the Kinnaur and Spiti valleys was based in Shimla and they had prebooked the hotel for us. Our first stop was to there office which was in the main bazaar. There are three bazaar (shopping) areas all joined by walking malls which wind their way up to the main bazaar on top of the hill. Joining the main bazaar is a very large square which is full of old English buildings - in fact some of them were mock tudor style buildings with the white and black squared walls. The rest were built of old grey stone and in the middle of them all is a large square which is a constant hive of activity.
It is still Punjab school holiday season and in the evening every one is out enjoying the pony rides, balloon sellers and food stalls set up in the square. A great atmosphere.
We spent our couple of days here just wandering around. Our hotel is very comfortable and we've caught up on our washing. Hand washing is the major task we have to do each day as we aren't traveling with very many clothes.
We wanted to visit the Shimla Theater but because there is no current production performing it is closed. We did find a modern art gallery underneath it though which gave us an insight into the structure of part of the building. During the day we had to apply for our special permits for the prohibited areas we were visiting. They will only issue to groups so we went with another 3 people, Germans, who were traveling in another jeep with Bandbox. There was a lady outside the office with her son waiting to 'become' part of a group as they wouldn't issue a permit to her as she was only two people. They told her to wait until some other tourists turned up. I had quite
a funny conversation with the young man issuing the permits. He looked at me very seriously and said 'Madame, may I tell you something.' 'Yes' I said. 'I think you are very beautiful' 'Thank you' I said. 'Madame, may I ask you something?' 'Yes' 'Do you think I am very handsome?' I replied that I thought he had a lovely smile, whilst trying not to laugh. It is very strange to be called Madame all the time here - Jerry gets called Sir.
The cost for our tour was 2000 rupees (AUD$ 54) per day for the jeep and driver. We thought it a good price as petrol is not cheap over here, not much cheaper then Australian prices. Though we wouldn't be traveling vast distances we would be driving up some very high mountains and over very rough roads. We were to follow rivers all the way - first the Sutlej through a region that was full of orchards and forests gradually going up to where the Sutlej met the Spiti. The Spiti Valley is a high altitude desert and would be very bleak . It is to travel in this area you need the special permits as it
is close to the Tibetan border. We would visit ancient Tibetan monastery sites here. The Dalai Lama was due in the area at the same time as we were going to be there. From there we turned off into the Pin Valley which has only just recently opened to Western tourism before coming back to the Spiti, following it down till it joined the Beas River which would gradually green as we drove further away from the Spiti Valley. We had the option of extending the trip if there was any where that we wanted to spend extra time. So after stocking up on snack foods and cash - no ATM's in the region - we went to sleep wandering what the next fortnight would bring.
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yusuf
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wow,its so beautiful sight.