NEMY, SHIMLA, INDIA

MONDAY, MAY 9, 2011

SHIMLA,

I could write three pages on our travels from McLeod Ganj to Shimla.  Car hire is proving a comfortable (by local standards) and economical means of transportation for us based on our number. To leave to your imagination and for us to not recall parts , the trip including our ten-minute chai stop took seven hours and covered 210kms.

I would be embellishing the story if I said that a total of five kilometers were either straight, flat or free of traffic.  A nod to our driver. Quiet, but most attentive to our well-being. One thing I give credit to all drivers who survive the day is you earn your miles here.  No free pass to the 400 series and put your feet up. Our slight inconvenience of being jostled left, right, up, down, stop, go, back-up, weave, dust, fumes, heat, oh yes, almost forgot, HORNS, is our reassurance is that if the driver falls asleep during all this, he might be ready for the big float down the Ganga

Shimla, located in the foothills of the Himalaya, is the British’s most famous Hill Station. Every year the Brits packed up their beurocracy and move the governance of more than twenty percent of the world’s population to this town. Shimla offered a brief respite from the oppressive heat of the current capital of the time, Calcutta or New Delhi.

We have come, along with many others for the same reason. The town is full of people on vacation, which is adding a carnival like atmosphere to this already tourist town.  

What makes this place so unique is that it is literally pinned to the sides of numerous hills. One’s day itinerary must be carefully planned out to either start high and pay the consequence of ending low or vice versa.  Endless alleys and laneways packed with merchants crisscrossed with narrow stairways that seem to have no top or bottom.

A live game of snakes and ladders.

My tailor