20th of January

Before we left our hotel we called up several others a little higher up the valley with potentially better views than the back of another building and a tyre dump. We found one that promised an open fire in each room with a sack of wood only $2.50, which excited us as it might be the first warm room that we had experienced in our entire India experience. Of course the hotel was closed for winter. We settled on a hotel in Vashisht and walked to it.

Our hotel was the best we had stayed in so far and very cheap ($15/night + $3 for a heater). The top feature was which the hotel provided only indirectly, was the view. It was spectacular, less than a kilometre from our hotel soared a three kilometre peak, now sure we were two kilometres above sea level already but that doesn’t dissuade from the majesty of the peak. Just behind, to the left, to the right, in fact in 180 degrees from our balconies were towering mountains, some capped with snow. At the bottom of the valley flows some river, I was probably told its name but I didn’t pay attention, I nicknamed it the silver lode due to the way the sun reflected off it. Just wondrous, I really can’t describe how sensational our views were.

As it was off season there were only a few restaurants open with pretty limited cuisine but the food was very good.

23rd of December

Today we walked to the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies and then on to the Viceroys residence. The Viceroys residence was the place where the Viceroy lived during the time of the Raj. It was built in the Scottish baronial style, which basically boils down to very impressive.

After the Raj left it was converted to some important political residence for the new government and later in to a university building in which humanities and social science are studied. We went on a tour of the building in which we had to pay 50 rupees and 20 rupees for Mark and myself. I saved the dollar by showing my Indian citizenship card. Not that they readily believed me, I think the thing that saved me the money was the fact that the card listed my occupation as student, and currently I guess I am a student.

The tour consisted of 2 rooms and two hallways. The first hallway consisted of a brief history (which I didn't listen to as you can observed from my above paragraph) and showing us the old felt mountings for the guns and sword. There aren't any weapons left, they've been removed but the felt remains, impressive. In the second hallway we were showed a library where we weren't allowed to see inside and some brass light switches. Which all the Indians then queued up to see, we did to, to see what all the fuss was about, they were light switches. The next two rooms were equally impressive as the light switches, so once we hit the museum (a room with some low quality photos) we bailed, which was fortunately the end of the tour. That said just walking around the grands of this place was fantasitic. Really beautfiul, with old trees, lovely grass fields with the obligatory couples being couples on them. Indian style couples though.

20th of December

We had a pretty lazy start to the day. The hospital had an anaesthetic exam on for their registrars so theatres were shut. We decided to go to the Jakruu temple that is at the top of the hill where we are staying. The temple is to the monkey god, so as you can imagine there were lots of monkeys around. There were warning signs up informing us to take care of your belongings. Being rather bright I put on my sunglasses, as we were leaving I noticed a monkey leaping towards me. I flung my arm up and it bounced off me and scratched at my face. About 2 seconds later I realised that my sunglasses, which were over my eyes (where they belong), had been stolen. The dirty bloody monkey had stolen them. I didn’t like them before but now I can’t stand them.

The view from the high parts of Shimla is fantastic. Considering at sea level I can see to the horizon, about 7 km away, being at 2200 m I can see 150 km. The vista is stunning, the mountain ranges roll around us, the highest ones are about 6000 m. Snow capped teeth of the world. I’ve never seen anything like it around Australia, not that I’m widely travelled. I’ve added some photos to try and capture the panorama that is Shimla.