A consultant in India – Part 6

3/6/2009

I get up in the early morning to catch the first bus to Shimla; I’m surprised and pleased to see that everyone was already up to say goodbye. Life there, though isolated and completely different from what I’m used, was good and I enjoyed all the people I’ve been living with in this short but intense period.

I jumped then on the bus and immersed myself in the typical atmosphere of an Indian bus trip: the Sikh driver, the overcrowded seats, the car horns and the images of gurus bordered by blinking leds like a christmas tree.

Indian bus

In a bus stop I’m offered, through the window, a very sweet drink. The drink is free and is offered by a group of people for a religious custom. I’ve drank it and hoped not to regret it later! (note: luckily everything went fine)
To get to Shimla I was suggested to take a train from Dharmpur. When I got in the station I saw that the timetable wouldn’t help me very much.

Train timetable - Dharmpur

I asked informations at the ticket counter and I bought a ticket for Shimla. Just 10 Rs for getting into this traditional toy train (although not anymore steam powered) which would bring me to the hill station Shimla. I was told that the train was really slow but I didn’t expect that much; it took 4 hours to cover 70km! I should have imagined that when a volunteer in Ruchi told me: “If you’re in the toy train and you have to pee, you can get off and then jump again onboard!”. It’s true.
By the way the route was really nice, the railway it’s famous for its 103 galleries and its hillviews.

Toy train to Shimla

Toy Train to Shimla

I then got to Shimla, which revealed to be a pleasant town, with a fancy street full of shops and restaurants and an architecture clearly imprinted during the British domination.

The Ridge - Shimla

I got a room in an hostel and then I had a little walk around the city. Beside the main road (“The Mall”) there is also a cluster of small streets forming the typical bazaar structure typical of Indian towns.

Shimla

I was really tired but before going to bed I tried a restaurant just near Scandal Point (the center of Shimla). Loveena restaurant is cited also in the Lonely Planet which, however, wasn’t fair toward this place which is a real pick in my opinion. I had a great non veg. thali menu, including also a Gulabjamun as dessert, for about 160 Rs (about 2.5€). You can get a similar dinner for less, but the service was optimal and there is a nice hill view by the restaurant’s windows.

4/6/2009

This morning I planned to go to the Jakhu Temple. The path it’s not to long (2.5km) but very steep and there is a sign which tells you if you’re in shape considering the climbing time (and I was! )

Jakhu Temple

As you can see from the picture above I have a walking stick (which you can get on the way to Jakhu temple for 50Rs); however this is not for the walk but for the monkeys (really!). In fact this site is famous more for the monkeys living there than for the temple itself. However the reviews of my friends (“they check your pockets for food”) and of the Lonely (“frankly a menace”) were, in my opinion, a little exaggerated. Monkeys actually try to approach you but there’s not really need to beat them , the mere presence of the stick scary most of them and for the boldest ones it’s enough to wave the stick or hitting the ground to make noise.

Jakhu Temple

The Jakhu temple itself is a small structure, not much different to other Hindu temples I visited so far but it’s surrounded by a nice garden where you can take a rest after your walk (always keeping an eye on the monkeys!).

After leaving the temple I passed through the town to have a quick lunch. There I have been stopped by an Indian student who asked me few minutes to practice English. I met a lot of young Indians like him that try to improve their English by talking with tourists as much as they can.

In the afternoon I went for a walk towards The Glen, a former british playground. Bad idea. Getting to this place is about 5Km of hill paths and when I got there I didn’t even realize that this place was the park! So I looked around for a while before surrending to the idea that the little piece of terraced terrain with patched grass was the park.
At the end of the day I calculated I walked more than 15Km through the hills!

The Glen - Shimla

5/6/2009
Last day in Shimla, time to pack my stuff and go towards Rishikesh, the yoga capital, before my last stop in Varanasi, the most sacred hindu city.
I spent the last day there wandering in the bazaars but without doing shopping. I was given all the tricks by the Ruchi volunteers for my shopping in Delhi, where all goods sold in tourist places come from.

The Mall - Shimla

In the evening I went to the bus station, always crowded, noisy and lively as in every town. I went there one hour in advance to ask multiple times directions about my bus and I have been consistently answered platform 3. One hour later I managed to get my bus on platform 1.
The bus is a deluxe, this means nothing more that is the same bus all of us used to go for school trips. To me, after more than 3 weeks of Tata daily buses, this AC vehicle branded Volvo seemed like the enterprise!
I sat in the comfortable seats and prepared for this 10-hour overnight trip. When the bus left I could admire Shimla valley, filled of lights, while the TV on board was playing classical Bollywood music videos.

Shimla by night

Related articles by Zemanta

• Film: The Variety of Life, Real and Imagined, in Movie-Mad India (nytimes.com)
• Exploring life, and all its madness (boston.com)
• The battle over Indian History (teabreak.pk)