Blogs from Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India, Asia

Spending a day on trains was fascinating. The first regular train had a breakfast service of excellent logistics. The team of boys gave us chai,water, omelette, more chai, cleared up and all so efficiently. Then into the Toy Train to Shimla which the Brits had built to escape the heat of Delhi. Quite different experience. Small, plastic seats, all the luggage around you. I nearly got left behind when I got off to buy chai and had to run along to jump on! Shimla is a great place (at 2200ft) to slow down and be more attentive. The gentle walk along The Mall where everyone walks is great for people watching. The cost to the Viceregals Lodge was interesting. It looks like Scottish being built of grey granite. The viceregal was from Scotland so obviously wanted ... read more

Time to leave the bright, crisp clear air of Shimla and descend to the smog of New Delhi. As we came up on the Toy Train ( The Shivalik deluxe Express, the only express thing being that it didn't stop at the myriad of small stations, not the 15 miles an hour top speed it managed), we decided to return on the bus, and pushed the boat out and went for the super deluxe Volvo a/c ( cost all of £10 for the 9 hour trip). First they handed water out, and then the sick bags, seems it's a very bendy mountain road, occasionally we would meet up with the narrow gauge railway, seeing it bend around the mountain side, but unfortunately didn't see any trains on it. Not long after we set off, they fired ... read more

First up today was a visit to Viceregal Lodge, built in just 4 years in the 1880s in the style of Balmoral Castle. It was the summer residence during the Raj and was the site of many of the negotiations prior to partition in 1947. It is now used by the Indian Institute of Advanced Study. 60 or so post doctorate students are selected each year to continue their research here. The gardens are extensive with plenty of English flowers. The grounds included a fire station and a squash court. The house was the first in Shimla to have electricity and a full fire protection system. We then went the the opposite end of the spectrum and visited the Jakhu Temple dedicated to Hanuman the monkey god. As expected, there were plenty of monkeys around. We ... read more

We left our lovely family in the beautiful Kullu Valley today and made the long 10 hour trip to Shimla. Our driver was much different to the one we had one the way up and actually managed to pass other vehicles WITHOUT USING THR HORN. I am sure this is against some regulation and as soon as I get to grips with the traffic admin here I will report him for his dangerous behaviour. The long trip was useful to reflect on the first week in India. What had surprised me most? Well, the Ambassador is dead, long live the Swift. Let me explain. Most cars in India are small, very clean and white. 50% of them are Suzukis, I know this because I conducted my own survey today. Most of the Suzukis are Swifts, but ... read more

Three things I didn’t know about Shimla a week ago. It is the administrative capital of Himachal Pradesh and, although originally “devised for an anticipated peak population of 45,000, at the most 60,000”, its metropolitan area now contains nearly 300,000 people. This is no sleepy remnant of a colonial past but a bustling, busy place. The ridge on which it sits forms a watershed between the Gangetic and Indus river systems. It cleaves the subcontinent in two, one system flowing into the Arabian Sea, and the other into the Bay of Bengal. Despite recent saturation coverage in the British media about the seventieth anniversary of Indian independence, I had managed to miss that it was in Simla, as it was then known, that the key independence negotiations took place. And, appropriately, given the way in which ... read more