Shimla- The former British Capital in India

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Shimla is a town in the hill province of Himanchel Pradesh, towards the far north of India. It became a military hill station during the Guerka wars in the nineteenth century but subsequently became a popular destination for the British due to its fantastic views and high altitude of 2400 metres, giving respite from the extreme summer heat of Delhi.

The place became so popular that the British used it as their summer capital between April and November and its impressive to think that the whole country was run remotely from this small hill retreat.

Getting to Shimla can be a bit of a slog. First of all you have to take the main railway for five hours, heading north of Delhi to a small town called Kalka at the foot of the hills. From there, you switch onto a narrow gauge railway known as the “Toy Train”. The small diesel locomotives haul seven or eight equally small carriages along rails that are about a metre apart, resulting in a distinct sideways wobble when people walk around the carriage. The train climbs up along the hills sides, traversing back and forwards to gain height, going through tunnels and over small viaducts. Often you find yourself looking over a sheer drop of several hundred metres and across hazy valleys. The views are fantastic and worth the trip simple for that.

After departing Delhi at 5:30am, we reached Shimla at 5:30pm and decided wed had enough of trains for one day. Although you can fly there directly from Delhi, the views are so good from the train and its so cheap that it was worth the long day of travelling. For instance, we went first class on the way up in a comfortable, glass sided carriage for £2.30 each and slummed in in second class on the way back (still with fantastic views) for 43p each. Can really argue with prices like that.

Arriving there, we realised wed made a good decision. The mountain air was cool and fresh which was a welcome change, the town was clean and there was even a law against spitting (which incidentally, is one of the most popular Indian pass times and if hacking was an Olympic sport, India would take the gold!). The town is situated on the ridge of a mountain with panoramic views of the hills and valleys either side. You could even see the snow capped Himalayas in the distance, marking the border with Tibet.

We chose a cheap and cheerful hotel which was at one of the highest points in the city. The train station is at one of the lowest points so we can a 2km slog up some steep hills with our full packs to get there, but we decided it would be good training for Nepal. Did not stop it being a tiring trek though! The room was fairly basic but there was a restaurant on the third floor which was pretty much deserted so we could sit up there and look over the hills.

On our first full day there we walked to the state museum which was the usual mixture of stone sculptures and miniature paintings, but also had some great wood carvings and a feature on Ghandi. We then went to the Viceregal Lodge a bit further outside of the town which is the site of the government during the summer months. The impressive building on top of a hill wouldn look out of place in the highlands of Scotland and many of the other buildings in the town were similar with mock-tudor styling. After a wander around the immaculately kept garden (and a brief chat with some students from the nearby university) we headed inside for a guided tour of the few rooms the public were allowed access to. It was here that many important meetings, including those leading to the independence of India, took place and it was nice to get an insight into how the British did things all those years ago. What was also interesting was that we met a very nice Indian family - from Loughborough! Needless to say they were managing to get the local rates on all the entrance fees, much to their own amusement.

It was mid afternoon when we headed back to the hotel, up and down many hills which we later discovered covered 7km! Some good exercise there, but definitely worth it. We thought we would have a shower - to freshen up before dinner - but the hot water had other ideas. It seems the popular thing in Shimla, and rightly so, is to have your water solar heated. However, this meant that the hotel owner switches off the water during most of the day - a fact that took us a while to figure out and proved a bone of contention Im sure for the workers who had to come to our rescue and get it working for us. However, eventually we ventured outside again in search of dinner, wrapped up in layers against the rather cooler weather. It s very pleasant to wander around Shimla as people are just happy to mill around and are not in a rush. This atmosphere is of course improved further by there being a no vehicle zone in the main town area, meaning no horns, fumes or pestering from drivers. We both agree that it is one of our favourite places in India (although a room heater would have been appreciated!)

Thursday - Monkey Temple day! One of the traditions in Shimla (supposedly) is an early morning hike up to Jakhu Temple which sits at an altitude of 2500m which is the highest point in the area. Luckily the route to this temple ran right past our hotel, so we had no trouble getting started on this journey. The path provided some great views over the town, but the climb was relentless. It is no exaggeration to say that the path at times was almost vertical, and that it would have challenged even the fittest person. We were both achy when we reached the summit, but felt a huge sense of achievement partly due to us having completed the route in 35mins. A board at the start of the route says that if you are under 30 and complete the trek in 40mins or less you are FIT (other categories were available, such as average and unfit) so we were very pleased.

It is no surprise to see how the temple got its nickname monkey temple: they are everywhere! As we reached the top of the entrance stairway I was advised to remove my glasses as the aforementioned darlings like to snatch! Warren guided me to an area at the rear of the temple where we felt it was slightly safer and we took in the views from that side of the mountain. As well as the views, the playful monkeys were good to watch. There was a kids playground with slides etc. that the baby monkeys were having a great old time messing around. The adult monkeys are far from timid and can be a pest, but most of them were happy to go about their business, sitting in the sun and grooming each other or jumping amongst the trees. The temple itself was a small affair with pictures of 5headed gods on the outside and pained bright colours. We walked around it and poked our heads in, but there were people praying inside so we left them to their solitude.

We strolled down and went to explore the town centre a little more. There were two streets of western style shops (The Mall) and then a more Indian style bazaar a little lower down on several steep levels with the usual chaotic hustle and bustle. The best bit was that there were plenty of Indian tourists hence the shopkeepers don rely on western tourists, meaning we could walk down the street without the usual unwanted attention. It was coming up to one of the main Hindu festivals - Diwali, the festivals of lights - which Im told is similar to Christmas so the shops were full of Diwali special offers and there was generally a lot of shopping going on.

Our third day there was unplanned as we made a mistake on the dates when booking the train tickets, giving us an extra day in Shimla. Our schedule allowed us a bit of spare time towards the end of our India trip before entering Nepal, so we were happy to shave a day off of visiting Varanasi to relax in the cool mountain air. We investigated going on day treks in the region but in the end we decided to save money for trekking in Nepal, so spent much of the day sitting in the vacant restaurant looking out at the mountains and planning future travels.

The train journey the next day back to Delhi seemed to take forever this time, despite rewarding views from the toy-train. We eventually got there at 10:30pm and were thankful to have booked a room in advance so we could head straight to our hotel. This day of travel coincided with Diwali which is celebrated with lots of coloured lights, but also but setting off copious amounts of fireworks and bangers. Walking back to our hotel in the dark was like going through a war zone with all the explosions going on around us. The air was thick with smoke from the burnt gunpowder and the explosions continued until early the next morning. It was quite nice to be around during this festival as everyone was happy and friendly on the run up to their celebrations. We had one night in Delhi before catching a sleeper train to Varanasi the following evening, this being our final stop in India before venturing up to Nepal. We plan to cross the border on the 20th or 21st at Sunauli, near Bhairawa on the Nepalese side of the border. The bus journey from Varanasi to the border takes 10 hours, followed by another half-days travel from there to Kathmandu. This should be our last entry for little while until we get our bearings in Nepal so everyone keep their fingers crossed for a smooth journey for us....

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