Fighting off monkeys in Shimla
Namaste! We arrived in Shimla yesterday afternoon, after another interesting bus ride. Our bus was scheduled to leave Dharamsala (a 10-15 minute taxi ride from McLeod Ganj) at 6:00 a.m. We had decided to take the “Superfast” bus, as it was a difference of approximately 4 hours…knowing how cramped these buses are, we thought we’d save our knees the trauma. We got to the bus station at about 5:25 a.m. and moments later, a driver hops on the bus and calls out “Shimla”. I hopped on to see if this was THE bus, and by the time I got to the front, the bus was in gear and starting to move. Chris had both of our bags outside, getting ready to climb up and lock them to the racks. No time for that. I called out to Chris to jump on with the bags and the moment he was on board, we took off. Remember that Dharamsala is in the mountains… the bus starts careening downhill, making crazy turns and poor Chris is trying to get both of our big packs up the small bus aisle. The conductor nicely kicked a man out of the front comfy seats and gave them to us. Comfy is relative of course, but there was more leg room even though we had to straddle our bags. Again we enjoyed having a daredevil driver who liked to lay on the horn and play chicken with oncoming trucks, buses and cows. I couldn’t keep my eyes open after topping myself up twice with a Gravol like pill appropriately named “Vomistop”.
So we are in Shimla. Shimla is at 2205 metres and spreads across a mountain ridge for about 12 km offering views of mountains as far as the eye can see. Everything here is a hill, many that have steps built in. In the mid 1800’s Shimla became the summer capital of the British Raj. Until 1939 the entire government of India came to Shimla during the heat of the summer. Due to this, the town is an odd mix of urban forest, British colonial buildings (reminiscent of many a Fairmont hotel, actually), and homes that densly hug the slopes. Once the Brit rule ended, the buildings were and are used still by Indian government offices. Again we have to remind ourselves that we are still indeed in India. The streets are immaculate and due to a prohibition of motor vehicles in the centre of town, extremely quiet! It is nice being up at this altitude, the sun is hot, but the air is cool and pleasant. The temperature today is 16.5.
This morning Chris and I walked up, up, up to Jakhu Temple, a temple dedicated to the monkey god, Hanuman. Along the walk you can rent a walking stick, used for fending off the many monkeys that live in the area. I rented one and it came in handy. While on our way up a local man warned us to put our sunglasses in our bag, as they seem to be a favorite item for monkey theft. Before arriving at the temple, a women sold us several packages of prasad (food offerings - actually little white balls of candy) to bring along to the temple. There were two temples, the first and larger one surrounded by monkeys and people (some of the people hired to keep the monkey business to a tolerable minimum). Once we took off our shoes, we entered and gave our prasad to the holy man inside, who said a prayer, marked our foreheads with saffron and gave us holy water to drink and a mix of the sweet candy and dried chick peas to eat. We of course understood very little of it, but helpful locals pointed out what we should be doing, and we did it. Outside the temple we could hear a group of girls sqealing as the monkey thugs got too close. Monkeys are literally everywhere here and range in size from tiny babies to big beefy males, I’m guessing weighing at least 30 lbs. In our room last night, we could hear lots of monkeys jumping on the roof… if you weren’t aware of the monkey situation here you would definitely think it was people up there they sound so heavy. We just read that a man in Delhi (I think their Deputy Mayor) was killed by monkeys. He was attacked by a large group of them, and in his panic he fell over a balcony and died. Scary! Monkey advice: no eye contact, no smiling at the monkey, and no sticking out your tongue — all are translated as “Bring it on, monkey! Lets see what you got”.
Anyhow, that’s all I have for now. Hope everyone is well at home.
xoxo
Paula
October 26 2007 09:43 am | India
October 28th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
I’m not sure that I like the monkey idea. Other then that sounds wonderful,good to know your still having a great time
October 28th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
Hi! i am following your trip and always cant wait to hear of your adventures!!! Its sounds and looks like lots of fun!!p.s i am a friend of your mom and dads… thanks bye for now!
October 29th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
I think I would have died of terror at the monkeys on the roof bit!!!
October 30th, 2007 at 11:31 am
Hi Paula and Chris; Finally figured out how to send you a message. What a great adventure! Enjoy every minute of it.