Shimla Town

  Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India Sunday, September 7, 2014

Shimla is where all the Delhites come for the weekend, so arriving on a Saturday evening is not the best time to try and get a hotel. We spent a couple of hours walking up and down the main street, climbing up hundreds of steps to see grungy rooms or to be told they were fully booked but in the end we found one called White Hotel which wasn't cheap (twice the price of our Delhi hotels) but was about the best compromise we could find in terms of price v room facilities.  And as we had arrived in the dark we could't see the view from our balcony, we will just have to wait until the morning for that. Well morning came and we could understand now, where the hotel got it's name. Very funny! It was a white outwe were so high up the clouds were below us and all around us and we couldn't see a thing! So a bit later when the clouds did clear away and we finally got to see it. And WOW was it worth the wait. We could see the Himalayas stretching off for miles and the view was to die for. The rest of the town didn't really have much to offer us. There were little market stalls and shops but it was all fairly tacky stuff and not anything we wanted. The restaurants were seemingly few and far between but we did find a little cafe called "Wake and Bake Cafe" which served a good english breakfast and wonderful pitta bread and hummus. One day whilst out looking for a shop to get our train ticket out of here, the heavens opened and the thunder was deafening (remember we were already in the clouds). So we took shelter in this little building that was asking a 50 rupee (50p) entrance fee. It turned out to be the Gaiety Theatre which has been fully restored back to its Victorian Gothic glory of when it was built in 1887 by an English man(that date will be forever etched onto our brain now by our guide who said the date every 2 minutes of our 1 hour guided tour!) Our guide was very informative and you could tell he was really passionate about the building. He even took us up above the stage to show us the old ropes and workings they use to pull up the curtain and change the scenery. Well apart from giving us shelter from the rain, we actually really enjoyed it in the theatre. They were rehearsing a play whilst we were there so you could see it was a living breathing theatre again too which was nice. The following day we did manage to find our tickets on the Himalayan Queen. The train which leaves Shimla (but you can read all about that on another entry) and we decided to follow the Heritage trail as a guidebook had suggested it was a good way to see the town. Well to say we were shocked was an understatement. Practically all the buildings listed were either derelict or in huge disrepairThe church was now a tiny library with about a gazillion books in it so it was very claustrophobic. The only 2 which seemed ok were the Post Office and the reddish old Railway building. Gorton Castle now used by the Chief Accountant for Himachal Pradesh, was a disgrace. The rubbish all piled up around the outside and the windows falling apart. A real shame these old buildings do not have someone to care for them like the Theatre did. There really isn't much else to say about Shimla. It was pleasant. A bit wet at this time of year and cold at night. First time we had needed a blanket at night in ages. We are glad we went but it isn't somewhere either of us would rush back to. [gallery columns="4" ids="8315,8316,8317,8318,8319,8320,8321,8322,8323,8324,8325,8326,8327,8328,8329,8330,8331,8332,8333,8334,8335,8336,8337,8338,8339,8340,8341,8342,8343,8344,8345,8346,8347,8348,8349,8350,8352,8353,8354,8356,8357,8358,8359,8360,8361,8362,8363"]