Historical Colonial Shimla

From Delhi together with my new Intrepid friends the first place we visited was the colonial town of Shimla where we stayed for two nights. We travelled by train for 4 – 5 hours through the Punjab state where we disembarked at a station called Chandigarh. The next part of the journey to Shimla was by mini bus. Details of the journey and my first experience of Indian train travel can be found at the end of this post.

At an altitude of 2000 m Shimla is nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas and is the capital of the Himachal Pradesh province.

In 1864 Shimla was declared as the summer capital of British India until India gained independence in 1947.

Upon arrival in Shimla, after checking into our hotel, Maddy our Intrepid guide took us on an orientation walking tour. As a fairly popular tourist location Shimla had a lively and pleasant ‘holiday’ atmosphere with many shops selling scarfs, clothing and local handicrafts.

There was also an abundance of eating options ranging from street food to tourist cafes to traditional restaurants.

Local men, generally older local men wear these hats.

Situated along Mall Road, the main shopping area of Shimla is The Ridge, a large open space in the centre and a cultural focal point for both locals and tourists.

The Ridge is a lively area and playing in the small market was a small band.

Christ Church is a neo-Gothic style church built in 1857 to largely serve the Anglican British community.

From a place called ‘Hawa Ghar’ an elevated pavillion, you get great views of The Ridge and the Himalayas beyond, especially at sunset.

Shimla felt safe to wander around in the evening although generally I wasn’t on my own as I had members of the Intrepid group to socialise with.

Jakhu temple is an ancient temple which is dedicated to Lord Hanuman, a Hindu deity. The temple stands at the top of Jakhu Hill, the tallest peak of Shimla at 2455 m above sea level.

To visit you can either walk uphill for 2 km, take a taxi for about 250 rupees (£2.50) or take the cable car for 450 rupees per person.

If you walk you need to be aware that many monkeys line the route and will try to steal your belongings. This put me off… the prospect of being harrassed by monkeys just to see another temple didn’t seem worth it.

4 of my new Intrepid friends visited by cable car but they were underwhelmed. The view was hazy, the temple was surrounded by rubbish and they witnessed some poor woman having her glasses snatched by a monkey.

Heritage scenic train

With a monkey! Yep! As well as the Jakhu temple there are many monkeys roaming around Shimla including at the railway station.

We arrived early at Shimla train station eager and excited to be taking a ride on the ‘toy train’ which promised a scenic journey offering views of ‘quaint villages and gorgeous mountain passes’.

The station offered panoramic views of the surrounding Himalayas and in the morning sunshine we didn’t mind waiting a while for the train. Maddy our guide explained we had to be there early so he could queue for the tickets ready for when the ticket office opened.

The short 35 minute train ride was lined with trees however I was able to capture some shots of the Himalayas in the occasional clearing.

Viceregal Lodge

From the scenic train, our driver collected us in the mini bus and drove us to Viceregal Lodge, the place where the partition agreement was drawn up which separated India from Pakistan and Bangladesh. We were given a tour of the ground floor although we were not permitted to take any photos inside.

There was a lot of information to read and historic photographs explaining the Lodge was previously built by the British as the summer residence of the Indian Viceroy, the British Raj leader who governed the whole of the Indian subcontinent between 1888 and 1946.

Food and drinks

For lunch Maddy recommended Devicos restaurant and bar and this was where I tried my first Masala Dosa. This is a dish originally from South India and is like a big pancake which was filled with bits of potato and vegetables.

The red sauce is the masala which you can pour over the top to add a tasty spicy flavour. This was delicious, an ideal lunchtime snack and at a cost of only 200 rupees (around £2).

Lunch was so good that 7 of us returned to the same restaurant later that evening. I ordered Chana Peshwari which I figured would be chick peas and coconut. We had a range of dishes between us and the servings were so big we all ended up sharing and trying most of them. The food again was amazing with such delicious flavours.

One for the road… we each had a shot of a  local spirit and for just £1 my Old Monk Indian rum was fab.

For our first night in Shimla we had dinner in the Cafe Simla Times which had a cocktail bar on the roof terrace and also served craft beers. From the above flight we were given to taste, the middle one was apple cider which was delicious and resulted in me ordering a full glass.

The food was good too. There wasn’t a huge Indian vegetarian selection so I had a Chinese focus with vegetable szechuan which was not at all sweet but with a perfect level of spice… a bit of a kick but not mouth burny spicy.

Getting to Shimla

Two taxi’s took the 9 of us (including Maddy) from our hotel in Karol Bagh to the main Delhi train station which was about 10 minutes away.

A vegetarian breakfast was served on the train and it was surprisingly good including of a couple of warm vegetable cutlets and some brown bread. And even environmentally friendly wooden cutlery.

The time passed quickly and I enjoyed reading my new (and signed) Simon Reeve book.

After around 4 hours the train arrived in Chandigarh which is a central train station hub. Here we transferred into a mini bus and began our drive to Shimla.

We followed the ‘Himalayan Express Way’ complete with monkeys along the side of the road and cows in the central reservation. As we began to climb higher into the mountains we stopped for lunch in a restaurant with panoramic scenic views.

Hotel

The hotel Silverine has a good location in Shimla being just a 10 minute walk from The Ridge, the main square. My room was clean, light, airy and comfortable. Well the bed was rather on the firm side but the shower was fab with a good pressure and plenty of hot water.

Summary

Shimla was a lovely town which had an easy-going holiday vibe about it. The ‘toy train’ ride was disappointing as firstly it only lasted for 35 minutes and secondly we didn’t see much of the ‘panoramic Himalayan views’ as promised by Intrepid.