Manali 29/03-30/03
We were sad to finally leave McGleod Ganj but we were now
looking forward to seeing new places. Due to time restrictions we had a little
difficulty trying to figure out our route for the next 2 weeks as there were so
many places we wanted to fit in! We’d heard great things about Manali so we decided
to briefly have a look for ourselves. We were going to have to take an
overnight minibus to get there and as if on cue my stomach took a bad turn just
that morning! Ed kindly popped out and got me some various non-descript pills
from a friendly Tibetan chemist. They seemed to just about do the job! The
overnight bus turned out to be a bit of a nightmare to be honest. The seats
were way too small for Ed’s long limbs and the girl in front of him reclined
her chair back as far as it would go. We managed to get very little sleep as
the road continuously climbed up and down the mountains! Also, ironically, this
was the first bus we’ve taken in India that actually arrived early, so instead
of pulling into the bus station at 6:30am we arrived at 4:30am! Naturally the place
was absolutely dead and being up in the mountains it was rather cold! Miraculously,
out of nowhere, a lone tuk tuk driver came past the bus station and we managed
to get a lift to Old Manali where we knew there to be quite a few hotels. When
we reached there, everything was shut as you’d expect at about 5am! We looked
around a few places and I decided to sit tight at one of them as they had an
outdoor veranda. Preparing for a few cold hours I wrapped myself up in my shawl
and hoped we wouldn’t get pneumonia or something like that! However, luck was
once again with us that night and a woman from the hotel appeared and I was
able to ask for a room! We were very relieved to be in warm beds just as the
sun was about to come up!
As I mentioned we were slightly pushed for time so we
unfortunately only had one full day to look around Manali. We tried to make the
most of it and took a stroll along the river and along to the other side of
Manali. The whole town had a beautiful backdrop of white snowy mountains and
the air was cool and crisp. We really enjoyed our day there, also stopping for
a riverside piece of chocolate cake and walking through a small forest which
reminded me of the forest in Twilight- no sign of Jacob or Edward (the vampire
not Ed).
N
Shimla 31/03-02/03
Having to endure our second long haul bus trip in the past
few days, it was Ed’s turn to have a wobbly tummy! It was a ten hour bus from
Manali to Shimla and it constantly meandered along the mountain roads! Made me
feel rather queasy! Poor Ed though, about 6 hours into the journey started to
feel REALLY rubbish! When the bus stopped for repairs he had to dash off and
find a spot behind a bush! Luckily we had toilet paper this time so it wasn’t
quite the catastrophe of the Gandhi memorial! We were very happy to reach
Shimla at about 6pm! Shimla is a very interesting place, it was the number one
hill station for the British during the Raj to get away from the Indian summer
heat. It’s also slap bang on the side of a mountain so the roads are at very
different levels and you can actually take a lift to move up and down the
levels! We stayed in the YMCA which was founded by the British in the 1800’s.
It was a fascinating building and it reminded me of a large youth club with
big dorms and table tennis rooms (we had a few good grand slam tournaments!).
The city itself is also filled with British architecture, in some parts you
felt like you were walking through an English high street! We found a lovely
restaurant which was previously the old bandstand! We also visited the State
Museum which had an interesting section on Gandhi’s various visits to Shimla.
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| The view from the YMCA |
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| The Shimla Public Library |
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| Christ Church |
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| The Restaurant Bandstand |
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| Shimla- The Ridge |
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| The Town Hall |
One morning we climbed up to Jakhu Temple which has a huge
orange statue of a Hindu Monkey God overlooking Shimla. Aptly, this is also the
home of hundreds of macaque monkeys! Once we started the main ascent to the
temple we saw several signs warning that these monkeys were super sneaky and
not to wear glasses or anything they could grab! As Ed was about to enter the
Temple he went to remove his glasses and had them in his hand when he was
spotted by a monkey who ran up to him and tried to snatch his glasses! Apparently, they hold them hostage until you give them food!
Luckily Ed had quick reflexes and was able to swipe them out of harm’s way! On
the way back down one monkey tried to open my camera bag although unfortunately
for him I didn’t have any food inside!
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| Overlooking Shimla |
I’m afraid the monkey stories aren’t over yet! Once we got
back from our day’s sightseeing we found our room window wide open! To our
horror we found that we’d been burgled! A monkey had managed to open our window
and come in to look for food! It perhaps didn’t quite get what it asked for! I found my Doxycycline malaria tablets had been opened and it had eaten 4 of
them! It had also ripped open my underwear bag so everything was all over
the place! We weren’t quite sure if it had taken anything else but it was
confirmed the following morning when I saw the sneaky monkey sitting on the
edge of the roof with my Christmas pants in his mouth! Maybe it was trying to
tell me it was no longer the season to be wearing such things. Also to Ed’s surprise,
he spotted another monkey chewing on his ipod headphones! We got some
photographic evidence of those furry crooks.
Our next stop was Chandigarh and we travelled there in style
on a train called ‘The Himalayan Queen’. It’s a UNESCO toy train between Shimla
and Kalka used by the British. It takes 5hours40 to travel just 98km but the
views are fantastic. It also goes through 103 tunnels and takes over 900
curves. It was a lovely train ride through the mountains and we passed through
typically English stations such as ‘Summer Hill’. Once we reached Kalka we were
able to get a 30 minute train to Chandigarh which only cost us 35p each!
N
Chandigarh & Haridwar 03/04-06/04
Chandigarh was once again a very unique place to visit. It
is a designed city so it is organised into grids and sectors. It’s very smart
and it seemed like quite a middle class area. The street our hotel was on had
shops selling plasma tvs and air conditioners! We explored the main square and
visited the National Portrait Gallery. It wasn’t quite what we had expected as
it was more of a dedication to the martyrs who fought for Indian independence
against the British. It had some quite interesting information all the same. I
had decided to wear my Punjabi suit out and about in Chandigarh- the one that I
had made in Amritsar and I was very happy to get some compliments from some
Indian women! We wanted to go see a recommended Rock Garden about 1.5km away so
we decided to take our first bicycle rickshaw! It was as awkward as we thought
it was going to be! We kept feeling like we wanted to get out and help him!
However, I guess it’s how he makes his living so at least we were giving him
business (we gave him a nice tip!) and it’s more environmentally friendly. The
Rock Garden was a rather unusual place. It was created by a man called Nek
Chand. As Chandigarh was a planned city, its creation destroyed quite a few
villages so he took the rubble and rubbish and made a rock garden. It had some
strange figurines and an open park area with loads of bizarre swings but it did
also have some pretty waterfalls. After our excursion we popped into a
traditional sweet shop which sold many different Indian sweets. We tried all sorts of treacle cakes & fudges, they
were pretty nice but soooooo sweet!
After dinner one evening when we were walking home a man called Narinder Singh introduced himself to us. He was 76 years
old and and it seemed that his hobby was to help and talk to foreigners! He was
very friendly and kept wanting us to take photos of him presenting things to
us! We had 4 photos in total- 1)him presenting me a booklet on the Rock Garden
2)him presenting Ed a toffee sweet 3)him presenting me an Indian sweet 4) a
group photo with another foreign couple of him presenting all of us an
information booklet! J
We took another super long bus from Chandigarh to Haridwar.
We took a government bus which, as always, was rather crowded! We just about
managed to fit on with our two big rucksacks! It took us 7 hours in total and
for the most part the road was like a farm track so it was a rather bumpy ride! By the end I could no longer feel my knees! Whilst in Haridwar we were both pretty exhausted for the multitude of long bus
trips we had taken in the past week or so but we managed to have a look around
the town and eat some good curries!
N
