Our overnight stay in Shimla

A View of Shimla as we were approaching it

Shimla is a hill station and is the capitol city of the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. Despite the altitude the sun was shining and it was gloriously warm. The approach road skirted around the bottom end of Shimla. From there it is a series of alleyways and very steep rickety stairways to get to the top of it and, apart from the road skirting it, it is traffic free. Lovely when you are walking around but a nightmare when you have a bike and want to find a guest-house. I left Colin with the bike and went off to try and find a place to stay. Most guest-houses are quite pricey so we knew it would be hard to find somewhere near our budget. The first place I went to was ridiculously over-priced but there was a coolie there (slang word used for men who carry luggage for a living) who said he knew where we could get a cheaper place. He wouldn't point it out to me but said he would take me there. Twenty minutes later and up several flights of stairs we arrived at Hotel Amir which was nearer our budget. I was gasping for breath trying to keep up with him. We got the last room available and then I had to go back to get Colin who didn't have a clue where I was. There was no parking at the hotel so we put the bike in a tourist car park for the night. We could have carried our bags by ourselves but, having been shown the hotel by the coolie and the fact that he was still at my side, it was only right to pay him to carry our bags. They carry 4-5 suitcases at a time on their back so when he picked up our bag he laughed at one of his friends and told him how light they were. He found it even funnier when he realised we understood what he had said - probably the easiest money he has ever earned.

Once you have bust a gut  climbing up never ending stairways, through bustling alleyways and local markets you reach the upper and lower Malls. In the 1860's, when India was under British rule, the British established Shimla as a summer retreat so that they could enjoy the fresh, cool air away from the oppressive heat of the Plains. The British influence is still very much in evidence in the Mall as you can see.

It had big wide walkways

Christ Church on the upper Mall is the second oldest church in Northern India.

The Gaiety theatre was built in 1888 to entertain the British elite who went to Shimla for their summer holidays. It was renovated in 2004 and seats just over 300 people. Many well known people have performed on this stage. Before we left Vashisht we watched a Michael Palin series on the Himalayas. In one of the episodes he was on this stage speaking to the audience. When we were looking around the theatre a very very enthusiastic theatre guide approached us and started telling us all about the theatre. He was an elderly very pleasant man so we didn't have the heart to tell him that we just wanted to have a look ourselves. We ended in there for ages because of him.

An Official in the Mall.

This Coffee House is an institution in Shimla. Uniformed waiters serve very good cheap food. Inside is pretty cool looking. Shops in the mall are a mixture of old traditional shops and new designer shops. You'll find Benetton, Tommy Hillfiger etc.

The Monkey God Hanuman has pride of place at Shimla's highest point.

Ladies sitting chatting. The lady in red is wearing a wedding sari.

Monkeys are a real pest in Shimla. They grab at whatever they can steal. They can give you a really nasty bite and, as well as being very painful, can put you at risk of catching rabies.

A sweet shop in the market selling freshly made sweets.

We really enjoyed our day and night in Shimla. Although Colin didn't think much of Shimla when he was there many years ago he really enjoyed it this time.

Bilaspur to Shimla

After a sleepless night for Colin and a good kip for me we set off for Shimla at 9am - we're definately not the get on the road for 6am type. It wasn't too far a distance so we hoped to get there in a few hours so that we could spend the day exploring it. Colin had been there many years ago in the middle of winter and hadn't been very impressed with it but I have never been and really wanted to see it.

We were only on the main highway for a few kms and then we turned onto a lesser road. It was initially really busy with loads of trucks and constant hairpin bends. Colin was constantly on the horn as is the norm here. Any time you approach a bend - which is constantly in the mountain roads - you are expected to beep your horn to let on-coming traffic know that you are approaching as they are usually coming round on your side of the road. This gives time for you, or them, to swerve to avoid collision. Also, if you are over-taking - which is often as the lorries are very slow to climb the hills - you beep to let the lorry know you want to overtake. The driver then beeps his horn to let you know it is safe to overtake as he can see the road in front and what's coming toward him and you can't.Your life in now his hands as you start to overtake. If a vehicle suddenly appears coming towards him he will stick his hand out of the window and tell you to slow down and get back, hopefully. If the coast is clear and you pass the lorry, you againbeep your horn to say thank you and when you're safely past he beeps his horn back to say OK. It is really unbelievable how many times you beep your horn in a journey doing that and that doesn't include beeping at people wandering on the road and any animal that wants to run out in front of you - dogs, pigs, monkeys, cows etc.

After a while the road became much quieter and the road surface smooth. The weather was glorious and Colin took it slow so he was able to enjoy the breath-taking scenery rather than having to have his eyes on stalks watching the road. We stopped for a bite of lunch and took this photo of the mountains down below us as we were heading to the higher mountains in front of us to reach Shimla at an altitude of 2400m.

A wee pit stop to try and un-numb the backsides. The bike was going well and we reached Shimla in 4 hours. 

Vashisht to Bilaspur

We had planned to leave Vashisht to start our bike ride to Agonda in Goa yesterday but due to unforeseen circumstances, e.g. the bike service not being finished yesterday morning as had been arranged with the mechanic, we set off on Saturday 20th. We have a rough outline of a plan of our route but nothing set in stone. The only goals must meet are firstly, reaching Nepal before 31st Oct and staying there for a minimum of 1 day to fulfil our visa requirements and secondly, reaching Agonda before 4rd of Dec as that day we have a flight booked to return to the UK for a 3 week holiday. There are places that we definately want to visit on route so we plan to just take our time and stop off in a place for a few days when we want. Our only concern is that this is the first time we have had a motorbike and we are riding it a long distance in India and Nepal and none of us has any mechanical knowledge, unless you call filling the bike with petrol, mechanical knowledge!

We bought saddle bags and a tank bag for the bike. Between them there isn't really that much space and by the time we had packed our computer, kindles, speakers chargers etc. and all the spare parts we had been advised to carry for the bike (even though we don't have a clue what to do with them) there wasn't much room for clothes. As we knew we would have very little space we had already posted a rucksack with clothes in it to our friend Raggu in Agonda. Hopefully it will arrive and not be lost in the Indian postal system.

So, bike loaded with bags we excitedly finally set off on our journey - at 11am rather than 9am as we had planned. Oh well, it's not always easy to stick to the plan. The first place we wanted to visit was Shimla. We wouldn't get there in 1 day so we planned to ride to a town called Bilaspur stay there for the night and ride on to Shimla the next day. Bilaspur is famous in Himachal because it has a large man-made lake.

The first 3 hours of the journey were bitterly cold but the weather improved as we dropped altitude - Vashisht is 2300m and Bilaspur is 670m. It's very difficult to categorise Indian roads in terms of motorways, A roads etc but there are national highways, which are the major roads and other lesser roads which vary greatly in condition. Riding a bike on these roads is very different from riding a bike in the UK. Due to the road conditions here there are days that you can ride for many hours and cover very little distance.

For the first few hours we drove on a lesser road. The road surface was great, not a lot of traffic road except in the villages and small towns we rode through and, despite the bitter cold we enjoyed the ride. Then we joined the national highway which was very busy at times. Poor Colin needed 3 sets of eyes to keep track of everything he had to dodge. My job as co-rider was monkey watch as, the more we dropped in altitude, the more monkeys there were playing about the roadside. In fact, when we stopped for lunch, a couple of monkeys went up to the bike very interested looking. If we hadn't shooed them off they would probably have opened the bag and ran off with the first thing they could grab!

After riding for 6 hours - with lots of wee breaks of course - we arrived at Bilaspur. It looked like a very busy town so, rather than head into the town and look for somewhere to stay and be able to park the bike, we skirted around it and drove a little bit further. As there were no other towns close by and it was 5pm, the time we had already decided that we would always try find accommodation by each day as it is dark here at 6pm, our only option was to book into a roadside hotel. 

The first place we looked as was really grotty and felt like walking into a scene from 'Psycho' but the second place we found, Tiger Hill Hotel, was very basic but clean. Although, if we had been looking forward to a lovely hot shower we would have been disappointed as the geiser didn't work so no hot water and, if we had been looking forward to relaxing in front of the TV in the room we would also have been disappointed as that didn't work either but, it had a restaurant which even had a menu so we had a good feed. Unfortunately we hadn't considered the fact that the hotel was on a bend and lorries would be screetching round it all night and also, we had a front facing room which meant that we could enjoy the acoustics all night. Fortunately I always carry ear plugs with me in India. Poor Colin never slept a wink. Oh well, every day is a learning curve!

Leaving Vashisht to start our bike ride to Agonda in Goa

When we arrived in Vashisht in the Spring the fields, plants and orchards were awakening. Then came summer with the apples and vegetable gardens producing their crop. Autumn meant everything being harvested - apples being sent throughout India and overseas and garden produce being sold in the markets or dried for eating in the winter. Now Winter is approaching and all the grass is being cut so that the animals can be fed in their barns in the Winter and final preparations being done to dry out food. When we arrived the weather was lovely, then came the monsoon rains followed by lovely weather again. Now it has turned very cold, even in daytime when the sky is clear blue. The snow is now visible on the mountain tops that we can see from our balcony - the one just in the middle of the pic.

The same pic using the zoom lens. When we see the snow getting this close we know it's time to go down to the plains to Goa and the lure of eating meat and having a G&T at sundown becomes quite strong. We are leaving tomorrow, Friday 19/10, and instead of taking our usual route down - 14 hour bus journey to Dheli, 26 hour train journey to Goa and then 1 hour taxi to Agonda - we are riding on the bike. It is 2500kms but we also have to drive over into Nepal for one day to fulfill nour visa requirements. We plan to take 3-4 weeks, stopping off at places for a few days that we find interesting. This is the plan so let's see. Hope to keep up the blog on the way as we need to have somewhere to record our potential disasters, especially when driving an 8 year old Royal Enfield  through India with no mechanical knowledge between us and trusting maps that conflict with each other!

Our last night has been really good. It's nice on our last night to take everyone down to Manali Town to a restaurant for dinner but at the moment Pritam is busy working in his high pastures and Champa is working for the village carrying and cutting large rocks to strengthen the river banks. So, Colin and I got a take-away of chicken and mutton and brought it back to the house. Oh and a wee bottle of whiskey. We had a wee house party and Champa loves a party. Champa made rice and chapattis so we had a good feed.

Chapattis on the tandoor. Asna cuddles Pritam.

Champa burning the fingers off herself getting the chapattis off the tandoor.

 

Asna and daddy, Mani. She's looking up at her mummy Laxmi. We had a great evening as always - much laughter and fun. Feels really sad knowing that we are leaving Vashisht and closing up the main kitchen for the night and exchanging our farewells was really sad.

A day trip to Naggar

Dave, Colin and myself set off to Naggar for the day on the bikes. It's about an hour downhill from Vashisht. We visited Naggar Castle. It was originally a royal residence before it was bought over from the British. It is now a museum and a lovely hotel run by Himachal tourism.

The stone and woodwork are really spectacular.

There are lots of little corridors leading to the guest bedrooms.

View from the castle.

View from the castle looking through one of the balcony arches.

The common areas still have very formal furniture.

The flowers in the garden are beautiful.

No day is complete without a stop at a local dhaba - choice of omelette or instant noodles with copious amounts of chai. Before we had stopped at this dhaba we had stopped at a cafe down the road. A young Indian guy gave us a very thick menu with Israeli food, Asian food, Italian food, Tibetan food as well as international cuisine.Colin ordered coke, Dave ordered limca and I ordered water. We were told there was no coke, no limca and no other soft drinks, only water. I thought that it was possibly a wise idea to ask what food on the menu was actually available as none of the drinks were. Unsurprisingly the answer was none. No wonder we love India.

At least at the dhaba we got a good scoff. Colin and Dave content with full bellies.

A day trip to Solang

Solang Valley is about 15 miles uphill from Vashisht. It is a ski-ing resort for most of the year although, at the moment, there isn't much snow around. A few weeks ago it was a lovely sunny day as the monsoon rains had finished here we headed out on the bike to Solang. This is the road that takes you to Solang although, I must say, this is a very good part of the road. Mostly the road surface was broken up and was quite treacherous in places, especially where landslides had occured when rocks came crashing down from the mountain and had broken up the road. It is the main road north to  Ladakh , Spiti Valley etc so it is very busy with trucks, cars and tourist buses.

The entrance to the gondola to take you up to the slopes.

Although there was not much snow at that time and the ski-resort was not open to skiers, the slopes are still in use. Para-gliding is very popular. None of us were the least bit tempted to go para-gliding in India, not even with an instructor at the back of you and especially after seeing people coming into land right on their backside - broken coccyx sprung to mind.

Some para-gliders were soaring really high. These two guys para-gliding were just small dots in the sky - we had to use the zoom lens on the camera to see them. So, they were actually much higher than they appear in the photo.

Coming into land.

If we did have any notion of going para-gliding this would certainly have put us off. The piece of colour in the tree is a para-gliding rig - obviously the one that never made it! You would have thought that someone would have removed it as surely it can't be good for business. That's India for you.

You can also go Zorbing . Once again not the least bit tempted, especially as they look quite deflated as if they must have holes in them.

Horse riding, either bareback or with a saddle.

Things for the kids to do, getting bounced up and down on a big elastic rope.

A fun-fare. A bit different from what we have in Scotland. When kids get in the wee cars a man holds onto the blue frame, walks round in a circle and pulls the cars round manually. Who needs electricity to operate a fun-fare.

We finished the day with going to a wee Dhaba and having some good grub - dhal and rice for Colin and a big omelette sandwich for me.

Sunday lunch at the Tennis Club

We took Jenny the mad Aussie to the Tennis club for Sunday lunch for a good feed of chicken as she hadn't had any meat since she came to India 5 weeks before. Bhadra didn't come as she is vegetarian and the smell of cooking chicken can be overpowering (and oh so wonderful). It was still monsoon time hence all the lawyers of clothing and grey skys.

Colin and Jenny.

View from the Tennis Club with the monsoon skys. The view is much nicer when the monsoon is finished and the sky is clear blue.

Jenny was on the back of Dave's bike and I was on the back of ours. Jenny and I had to walk for a bit as the condition of the road was very poor. We had arranged to meet the boys at the bridge but we soon caught up with them long before they got to the bridge as there was a traffic jam involving cars and goats.

And the goats just kept coming and coming.

Jenny and I made our 10 minute walk down to the bridge but the traffic was so backed up it didn't look like the boys would be arriving any time soon. This road, believe it or not, is not just for one-way traffic.

Waiting at the rickety bridge for the boys. This bridge is also not one-way traffic.

Safely across the bridge. I braved it across on the back of the bike despite a similar bridge a few miles up the road falling down into the river due to the force of the monsoon rains!

Waiting for Dave and Jenny. Colin had his back to the bridge and was constantly asking me were they crossing yet. Need to be more daring in traffic jams Dave.

Finally, full-bellied we got back to Vashisht. These mannequins outside a clothes shop in Vashisht are just near the path that we walk along to get home to the house. Bit scarey don't you think?