chunder down under

We saw Shimla from a distance, probably a couple of hours before we arrived. It was in the distance on one of the hills and was the only place that looked big enough to be a town. It was unlike anywhere I have ever seen before: perched on a ridge with houses seemingly tumbling down the steep, almost vertical slopes. With the inevitable screes of rubbish like lava flows running down the mountain. It was definitely cooler now; after all we were about 2200m above sea level. Carrying my backpack up the hill outside the train station also seemed harder; the slightly thinner atmosphere made breathing more difficult, or perhaps I am just more unfit than I thought. Jason was staying in a different hotel, so we temporarily parted company. I noticed with dismay that my hotel was reached by climbing about 60 steps.

















View from my window

The view from the hotel window made it all worthwhile, however. As the light faded you could see the hills stretching into the distance and the city sprawling over the slopes. In the far distance stood the Himalayan peaks, a light dusting of snow catching the light of the setting sun. I met my room mate, Prayag, from Birmingham but could handily speak Hindi and (less handily) Gujarati. He had come by bus, and to celebrate our arrival we found somewhere selling beer and brought some back to the room. On opening it we made our first discovery about cheap local beer: it is incredibly frothy, like someone has shaken it up for a couple of minutes. Half of it ended up over the table cloth – not a good start to endear you to the hotel.