Holiday at Shimla

Breathtakingly beautiful landscape, mountains, and lush greenery. One of India’s favorite fiction writer’s abode is in this place so are his various characters and ghosts…. The steep mountain ranges and the cold do offer you the creeps, though of much more preference is the promising opportunities for everyone who is willing to be absorbed into this scenic beauty..

This place was also termed as the summer capital during British Raj and still has a whiff of Britishness about it.. Here during Dec and January we can actually witness snowfall.. which for a southie like me is a wonderful thing.. the snow capped mountains are really beautiful,one of the many guides told us.. but even now the sight of the clouds so close to the mountains as though kissing it is one sight to behold and one so commonly available here. In Shimla.

I come out of my reverie to think of how we got there. It was a bright May morning in Bangalore. With a suitcase full of clothes and accessories I had an unusual package with me- An absolutely irate husband, a dumb cab driver, a few of the choicest swear words. Such a ride later we were at the Bangalore airport near HAL quite ok and early. My mother had come to see us off and had brought with her some breakfast as it was quite early for us to have them when we left home..

We were to go to Delhi, take a flight to Chandigarh and then move to Shimla in a taxi. A delayed landing, a few tense minutes later we were aboard the flight to Chandigarh. And by the time we reached our taxi we were jet lagged (not being frequent fliers), tired and hungry. We asked our friendly cab driver to stop by a Dhaba and had some lunch. Then began the drive to our destination.. it is what is in colloquial terms called the ‘Ghat section’

That nearly freaked me out, quite a few dangerous curves and quite a long drive later we witnessed the Great Beauty. A city in all its splendor at night with the lights all over the mountain range is truly a sight to behold.. and it held us spellbound. If this surprised me I should say I was in for more surprises.. my husband had got us an accommodation in an erstwhile Palace!!!!

Woodville Palace is what it is called. There is a sentry at the entrance who salutes you every time you pass him by. It has all the grandeur of a palace especially the head and torso of scary animals that were hunted.. Okay let me shamelessly admit that I am a foodie so let me start with my area of expertise. The dining room is a really huge area where tables seating four pretty comfortably are placed. Amidst soothing music and a buffet breakfast and dinner this place actually grows into you. The best part of all this is that the waiters keep a record of your visit and actually call you to find out why you are not at the breakfast or dinner table!!!

Now who other than ma or your better half ever did that to you??

Of course in the event that you do show up for lunch then the palace becomes like any other hotel where you pay as soon as you finish your lunch. Otherwise, the bill for breakfast and dinner can be settled during your checkout.

The first place that we were suggested by the hotel authorities was to visit the Ridge. We had to pass through another place called the Mall Road in order for us to reach the Ridge. The mall was quite a distraction for us I must say. The place is laden with shops and shops and more…shops. The mall in itself is quite as strange place to be in. There was a handicraft exhibition going on. Vendors were selling all kinds of things there a fish tank, a massage machine, some suits, kurtas, Shimla caps, shoes, and a huge assortment of bags and wallets made of jute. We got ourselves and our family down south some things from here. And got going!

But again there was this distraction. A person was making portraits and wanted to know if we would like to get one of ours done. Now, that did seem like a great idea so we sat ourselves when he drew us. We then went finally to The Ridge. It was mid afternoon so we had lunch at a South Indian restaurant and proceeded further. Here too an exhibition was being held so we went in to see how different it was from the one we had just seen in the morning. There was a visual game (optical illusion) where a photo was handed out and you had to stare and find out the picture that was hidden in it. There were holograms of Aum, Shiva and Ganesha that were given. Right next to this stall was an immensely talented person who could paint on rice?!! He told us he could write our name and make a key chain of the same at a price of 50 INR!! What a wonderful job he did too with such concentration and precision. It was actually shameful to watch him do the job and once done I felt so sorry for him. Such a waste of fine talent!

We went to Christ Church after that. A serene place in memoriam of many British soldiers. I do not know if there is any church in India or around the world that insists that we remove our footwear other that the Christ Church at Shimla. We stayed there for quite a while, me thankful to the Almighty for all that He has bestowed upon me and thinking of the two people I felt who would go unrecognized for their talent – the main who drew on a rice grain and the man who made our portrait. Both of us are normally chatty but there was an unusual calm and quite amidst us.. maybe it was too much for us to witness on day one.

But we moved on.. we saw the library (closed for lunch), the police station and some buildings in the Victorian style. And then we came to the main part of the ridge. We were later told that this was the entrance and we had gone a long way ahead before we could reach the entrance.

At the foot of the hill there were some of my favorite shops ( Gol Gappas) and I wanted to try them immediately. Umm just thinking about them makes my mouth water and want some. We also saw a board that said that this hill was pretty steep and there is a Hanuman Temple atop the hill. You are fit and healthy if you finish it in 45 mins, need to work hard if you finish in half an hour etc.. We thought we should give it a shot and see but decided against it as we wanted to get back before it was dark as we were not very confident of our navigation skills. As we came back down from whatever small part of the hill we climbed there was a huge crowd and some great music. There was an orchestra group performing at a stage mid way on the hill and could be seen by all. There were some requests and dedications from the crowd. The voices were so good that we didn’t feel like moving, so we stood for sometime listening to the golden oldies for some time and walked back to The Mall and then our taxi was waiting to take us to the hotel or rather back to the Palace..

Walking back to our room we realized how long ago the gol gappas were and how really hungry we were feeling. We went to our room to freshen up and nearly ran the distance (which is not much) to the dining hall for our dinner. It was pretty cold outside too. Some hot and hot food later with a much better stomach we went back to the warmth of our room.

Day 2 at Shimla began with an absolutely cold weather and some drizzle as well. In today’s agenda was a place called Kufri hill. Cars were allowed only up to a certain distance and from there on a steep rise to the hill top was to be on horses. I was absolutely terrified about it and so would the people back home. (We conveniently forgot to mention this particular ride to them, of course). There was no other way for us to reach the hill top so we went ahead with this challenge. One doesn’t get to ride on horses everyday we reasoned. We found a really young chap who was to guide us to the top. The horses were quite agile and strong and were able to take us well. Since it was quite cold at the top we thought something real hot and warm was welcome. There were small stalls set up at the hill we had Maggie and some tea and went for a walk up even further. There was an amusement park right at the top and also a Temple. We clicked some photos for us and helped other couples who were there with some shots for them too. It is a very wonderful hill with lots of greenery all around. There also people who would help you sight things there. We got to see the Indo China border, an apple grove and other such places with the help of a binocular. We also went to the Temple and got some Prasad. Walked around the beautiful hill for sometime as the young lad had given us exactly 1 hours time to drop us back to the ground. The air was refreshing and cool something that is seriously amiss in the city. We wanted to take in as much as we could before we went back to the hotel.

Our guide was waiting for us when we got to the entrance of the hilltop to take us back. The ride for both of us was a queasy one mainly due to the Maggie we had had. We thanked the lad and the Lord profusely for a safe landing. On our way back the driver stopped at a beautiful location where we could see the clouds kissing the hills. Also there were some locals helping other tourists to wear the traditional clothing of Himachal Pradesh complete with the jewellery and helped take photos for them too.

Shimla is one scenic beauty and one of the best places to be in. I have never been to Switzerland but of all that I have heard about the place and what I got to see at Shimla, I must say this is truly India’s answer to Switzerland.

It was near evening when we returned to our room and all that we wanted to do was to hit the sack and not get up. But we had to get up as our stomach stared to grumble and mumble we had to have something to keep it low. We walked around the hotel lawns afterwards and retired for the day.

Day 3 what with the heavy rain and chill weather outside we didn’t feel like waking up from the bed or leaving the warmth of our room. We decided to give today a break and stayed back at the hotel occasionally going out to have breakfast, lunch or just to sit in the lawns and the garden. It was a nice and tranquil day. A day of retrospection and exercise. My husband did some yoga and got me to do some stretching as well. We made plans for our last day at Shimla and how we wanted to spend it. There was some shopping left to be done and that temple climbing to be taken up as well as those yummy gol gappas.

Day 4 we woke up early wanting to spend every waking moment in this beautiful place. Had a quick shower and breakfast. We started our day by going to the Mall. We walked the distance from the mall to the ridge with a slower pace taking in everything we could. The shops, the people, the tourists and reached the ridge. We walked up to start the ascend to the temple. It was surprisingly warm that day and one of the friendly junta asked us to carry a bottle of water and also beware of monkeys.

It was more steeper than the Kufri hills and I was breathless at only 1/3^rd the distance. We took turns on climbing stairs and walking the hill. We also met some others who were on their way down. Some victorious others unable to climb, some really encouraging and others just the opposite. The walk seemed never ending to me. One of those who had given up told us we had not even covered half the distance after about 45 minutes of walking. I wanted to give up and so turned back and started our descend. We were slower in descending as the hill is pretty steep and slippery and I kept thinking that I would fall off. Once we came down we sat ourselves at the foot of the hill to rest awhile. For lunch we had some junk food and lots of gol gappas and started our purchases for our family back home.

By evening we were really reluctant to have to leave this wonderful place. We dragged our feet back to the Mall and then to our hotel to pack our things. Went for dinner which we made sure we had very very slowly. We spoke to the cabbie about the timing to leave Shimla to be on time to catch the flight from Chandigarh to Delhi, spoke to the hotel staff about the checkout procedures and finally went back to rest for the day.

Day 5 the day of our return back home. Both of us were not too happy to be going back. Our routines would start. His office, my studies (I had to take my college final semester exams). We reluctantly left the Woodville Palace and Shimla behind during our drive back to Chandigarh. Both of us could not stop talking about all that we had seen. We reached Chandigarh really early and asked our cab driver who was from Chandigarh to take us to a good dhaba for some lunch. He took us to a place called Lucky Dhaba. My first impression was of an extremely dingy place. But I was quite wrong. It was quite neat and had a fast service. We had some nice rotis a big glass of lassi. We went to the Chandigarh Airport thanked the driver for taking such good care of us and went for the boarding procedures.

The ride to Delhi was quite smooth. It was at Delhi we encountered some difficulty. The flight was late by about and hour and a half which meant that we would be reaching home by midnight. My parents came to receive us at the Bangalore airport and had arranged for a room at my mother’s office guest house close by the airport. We were eternally thankful to them for it. Jet lagged and tired we had a nice peaceful sleep and went to my parents’ for lunch and stayed there till evening. We had to set things right to start the next day so we left from there to our home. To begin the never ending circle of waking up, weaving around the heavy traffic, going to office, slog, weave around the traffic again, come back home, sleep, only to wake up and start the cycle all over again.

When people asked us how Shimla was we say only this - of grand beauty, chill weather, warm people and yummy food this is one of the best places to go on a holiday.

Shimla