India: Manali, Shimla, Chandigarh & Haridwar

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).

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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.

The view from the YMCA

The Shimla Public Library

Christ Church

The Restaurant Bandstand

Shimla- The Ridge

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!

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!

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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!

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