India - Shimla

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DAY 6 14th January 2011
Looked out of the window and it was snowing and monkeys were climbing over hotel windows and running along the road! Had a good breakfast of cornflakes and toast and met Daneesh our tour guide! Shimla is an old hill station, encircled by seven hills, where the viceroys of the British Raj used to spend their summers so it seemed fitting that we visited the Viceregal Lodge on top of Observatory Hill. A very impressive building and we also had a short tour of the inside and were shown the room where Lord Mountbatten and the Rulers of Pakistan & india sat down in 1947 to discuss and sign Partition.
Onward to the Jakhu Hill Temple on Jakhu Hill (2450m) where there is a legend about Hanuman resting there waiting for a herb from the Himalayas to save Lakshmans life...............The inside of the temple is very colourful and is open 24 hours a day and the poor people can sleep or eat there. There is also a statue there which our guide told us is the highest statue, on the highest hill, in the world!
From here we went back into the main town and walked along the Mall up to the Anglican church. Had a quick peek inside and then walked along the ridge to the Post Office. Had a lunch of toasted cheese sandwich and potato wedges and watched a huge bird being mobbed by the crows. Managed to get some fairly good pictures and we think it was an eagle of some kind. We then decided to spend the afternoon in Shimla and went shopping in the lower bazaar – a usual buzzy Indian shopping street, with loads of material shops, street food, hardware shops etc. Had a meal in the old bandstand, which is now converted to a plush restaurant ( macaroni cheese!) and then watched an enormous lightening storm building up over the mountains. Apparently there is snow forecast in the next few days.
Anyway, back to the hotel, which is definitely, as confirmed by our guide also, a grotty hotel! It wasn’t made any better that when we asked for a heater they said it was an extra charge of 200 rupees! Chris braved the brown water and had a bath before all the water ran out of the bottom of the bath across the floor to a drain in the corner!!

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Comments

[Laura Holbrook]

Hotel sounds absolutely horrendous - yuck. Hope the scenery and sights are making up for this ;o)