Saturday morning we left Chandigarh for Shimla or Simla depending on who you ask. But it's pronounced Shimla. Shimla is a hill station in Himachal Pradesh that was once the summer capital of the British empire in India.
The guidebooks all reccomend taking the "toy train" up to the town.
No, not that "toy train".
This toy train.
It's actually a train that rolls on what's called a narrow guage track.
The seats are smaller and there was next to no luggage storage space.
It's really just a touristy thing to do because a bus only takes about two or three hours.
It's a five hour scenic trip that goes pretty slowly. The charm is in the scenery,
the random "no spitting" signs that look like "no spitting on the baby" signs,
And of course the company.
Some of the stops along the way were quite charming.
We arrived late in the day so no pictures from our evening stroll through the upper mall where you can buy anything and everything.
The town is built into the side of a hill.
There's quite a bit of tudor style buildings, and of course the famous Christ Church.
And monkeys.
Lots of monkeys.
We went for a little hike up to this giant statue of Hanuman.
All along the way there were signs warning of the dangers of monkeys.
Shops rented "monkey sticks" to fend of the monkeys.
And when we got to the top, there were indeed, a lot of monkeys. But they didn't seem overly aggressive so I was mostly ignoring them as I sat to read my guidebook.
Which was the point at which several things happened simultaneously. First I saw a look of horror on Becky's face and heard her begin to say my name just as I felt small fingers groping my ear.
Yep, it was a monkey, and he was trying to steal my headband!
Needless to say, I gave the monkeys a wide berth after that.
That's not to say we didn't enjoy watching the cute baby monkeys play on the playground.
Then we went back down the hill to explore the rest of the town.
Including the fire station where they keep the fire-motorcycles(?!!)
and the local spice market.
We got back to our hotel in time to witness a wedding parade complete with groom on a white horse.
And then we headed to Bir.
So many things came to mind while reading this blog. "And of course, the famous Christ Church" (Ah, yes, of course... do other people recognize it? Was it in a movie? Made me smile). And "the dangers of monkeys" ("Would somebody please tell me who's been touching these monkeys - leave them monkeys alone, they've got problems enough as it is!"). Thanks for posting! Miss you. Feeling pressure waves right now and wondering when Elliot will come...
ReplyDeleteWhat's funny is Becky and I totally rehashed that particular Flight of the Concords song on our way up the hill.
DeleteMiss you too. Can't wait to meet baby Elliot!