Shimla, IN

In continuation of my earlier ‘Manali’ post, our arrival in Shimla was welcoming destination after the twists and turns of the bus ride. We had read that we would be harassed by porters, so we put on our packs before disembarking the bus, which made it very easy to dodge the crowd that greeted us. We didn’t have any reservations set up, so we started making our way up to Mall Road, where we knew there would be more accomodations. We stopped at several hotels and after about 1.5 hours and with the help of a fellow who surely gained commission in leading us to Hotel Doeger along the road called ‘The Ridge’, which is the next street level up from ‘The Mall’. I was looking for a more comfortable hotel (as opposed to the hostel-like room we booked for the first night), but by then we were tired. With our backpacks mercifully off our backs and stowed in our room, we headed back down to Mall Road to explore the other hotels without our huge loads.

We came upon Hotel Willow Banks and were lucky enough to secure the following 3 nights with them. Hotel Willow Banks was the perfect place to call home for the next few days and was easily accessible to all the shops and restaurants. It also had Wi-fi, which was honestly the biggest sell for us. With our accomodations set up for the rest of our stay, we finally sat down at a place called Cafe Sol where we ordered pasta and burritos. With our bellies full and the 10 hour commute behind us, we retired to our room for the evening.

Day 1. We woke up Monday morning to monkeys jumping off the roofs outside our window and a great view of the city. We packed up our things, checked out of Hotel Doeger and made our way down to Hotel Willow Banks, where we left our backpacks at the front desk while we took the morning to explore. We idly looked at the shops and the various transportation options back to Delhi. By noon, our room was ready, so we checked in and made ourselves comfortable. We also loaded up the hotel with a huge load of laundry, which normally would’ve been quite expensive, but the prices here in India are very reasonable. In fact, I would have to say that India is the best country as far as ‘value for your money’ goes, across all things, like accommodation, food, shopping.

We headed up to the ridge to have a late lunch at a restaurant called ‘Ashiana’. We had ordered a Himachal specialty, called Chana Madra as well as some mutton biriyani and butter naan. We have officially coined this our favorite meal in India that we’ve ordered for ourselves. After lunch, we headed back to our room for an afternoon nap and so that I could work on a brochure for the DAAN Foundation. In the evening, we looked for other restaurants, but we ended up at Cafe Sol for a second time, where I ordered spaghetti and Dan ordered nachos. We also enjoyed some coffee, which I regretted later around 2:30am when I was still awake, watching some 3rd-class horror movie about giant cockroaches.

Day 2. Tuesday started off with a Skype session to both sets of parents, along with brother Joe. It was good to talk to them and my dad seemed relieved that we had changed our minds about Leh, especially after googling the road from Manali to Leh and seeing drop offs on both sides of the road.

We then set out for some take-away coffee and pastries for breakfast before making our way down the slopes to Cart Road, where the Interstate Bus Station was. This time, we expertly knew where to go to secure some tickets (due to our previous experience in Manali), but were greeted with a long queue of men at the reservations counter. Luckily enough, several men saw us and ushered us to the front, we’re not too sure if it was because I was female (since some of them said, ‘Lady, lady’ while waving us ahead) or because Dan was white, but we figured it must have been a combination of both. Anyways, we managed to buy our bus tickets back to Delhi, to depart at 8:30am on Thursday, June 23rd. With the comfort of having our transportation set up, we decided to go ‘off the beaten track’ back up to Mall Road. We went up many stairs, through narrow passages, passed homes and schools no more than 1 meter apart from each other and found our way back up to the main road. We stopped in a tiny restaurant called ‘Chinatown’ and had some chow mein and spring rolls, which were alright, but not as great as the Chinese cuisine we experienced in Manali.

Afterwards, we were feeling ambitious, so we decided to look for the Oberoi Cecil, which apparently was a fancy colonial-style hotel further west along Mall Road. We were greeted by a well-dressed doorman in traditional Maharaja-style garb, his red turban and sash contrasting nicely to his stark-white suit with gold buttons. The hotel itself didn’t look like much on the outside, but the interior was amazing. We took advantage of the lounge area and ordered a few drinks, where I tried an Indian white wine and Dan tried some Indian rum called ‘Old Monk’ and we took the time to write in our journals and enjoy a small snack. At a cost of $300 USD, you could enjoy staying at the Oberoi, but as it were we headed out and back to our own hotel for a nap. In the evening, we walked through the streets and found ourselves a Manali magnet for Sanam and Nick. Dan was so elated that there was no point in trying to haggle with the shopkeeper, since it was clear that he really wanted it. It was such a surprise to us, since we had searched almost every type of gift shop in Manali and had accepted defeat when we came up empty handed. With such high spirits, we went, for a third night, back to Cafe Sol – where I enjoyed the vegetable lasagna and Dan ordered the Cafe Sol Specialty pizza.

Dan had discovered another sauce that is packaged in a very similar bottle as Tabasco sauce, but it is an Indian prodcut called ‘Capsico’. Here, he had a ‘sauce-off’ and has decided that he prefers Capsico over Tabasco. As we left the restaurant, the waiter said, ‘See you tomorrow’ – it’s pretty obvious that we’ve become regulars.

Day 3. Since this was our last full day in Shimla, we knew it was our last chance to hike up to the Jakhu Temple. We first started off the day on the right foot and had a great breakfast at the ‘Honey Hut’, which was situated along Mall Road. We enjoyed lemon & ginger tea, honey & butter toast, a grilled cheese & vegetable sandwich, warm blueberry muffins drizzled with honey and then finished off with a brownie.

With our bodies fueled up, we started up towards the temple. At the bottom of the path, there was a sign that said that if you were under 30 and you make it to the temple in less than 30 minutes then, you’re categorized as ‘Absolutely Fit’. So, we quickly checked our watches (11:04am) and started up. It’s not comparable to 4-5 hour hikes we do back home, in fact, it’s only about a 1 hour round trip, however the ascent is steep and we couldn’t stop to rest for very long, otherwise we ran the risk of being harassed by the monkeys. We were hoping to get a good shot of the city, but our efforts were thwarted due to the fact that we were in the middle of a huge white cloud. 27 minutes later, we made it to the giant orange statue of Load Hanuman (a hindu moneky god). It is apparently the world’s highest statue at 2468 feet, just topping Christ the Redeemer in Brazil. On our way back down we noticed a monkey walking alongside a man, begging for food in a very human and child-like way, with palms outstretched and short tugs at his pants every now and then. Further down the hill another monkey didn’t seem to like the crowd around his home and was throwing fruit down from the trees.

After we made it back down, we visited Christ Church and picked up ourselves the new testament in Hindi as a souvenier. We explored a really cool antique book shop and found a collection of maps that Dan would have loved to bring home. We stopped into a place called the Embassy, which, from the outside, looked little more than a coffee and tea stall, but once you step through the small doorway, the cafe opens up to a really open room with a spectacular view of the city. We hunkered down here to journal and enjoy the food and drinks that we ordered, including banana lassis, apple & almond cake, chicken biriyani, hot & sour soup and a warm brownie with chocolate sauce and ice cream. YUM!

So as to not break with tradition, we’ve decided to go back to Cafe Sol for our last dinner in Shimla. We’ve had a wonderful stay here and are glad to have visited such a place. Tomorrow, onwards back to Delhi.