This hill station city is in the state of Himachal Pradesh and sits on the southern foothills of the Himalayas. The city is built in the hills making it a very photogenic place, especially where my Air B&B was located. I unknowingly booked my Air B&B a little outside of Shimla in a district called Panthaghati, which is on another hill across the valley.
I was coming from New Delhi through Chandigarh, where I stayed for one night before hopping on a public bus to Shimla. It wasn’t until I arrived in Shimla, when I realized my Air B&B was still quite far, even after getting off at the last stop in town. I walked towards the bus station and asked for directions to Panthaghati. After a while of animated explanations and broken English, a man comes by with more fluent English and asks me where I am going. He ends up helping me catch the correct bus to Panthaghati (of course, there was a tip involved for the assistance). How locals know which bus to take is still a mystery to me. The buses don’t have bus numbers nor was there a schedule or even a proper bus stop with any signage. I was basically standing on an ominous side of a random part of the street with a bunch of locals waiting for the bus. When it pulls up, the man tells the bus driver where I’m going and helps me with my backpack. All the people waiting with me on the bus crams in without a seat, but the man insists that I take a seat next to the bus driver. So, the man occupying the seat gets up and I gingerly sit down while repeatedly thanking him, not knowing if he understood my gratitude. After all the shuffling about and after the bus takes off, my next question was, how and where do I pay for my bus fare? Just as fast as that question entered my mind, a man comes by to collect the bus fare. But because no one told me how much the bus fare was and no one seemed like they spoke English, I just took out a handful of change for him to take whatever was needed. I like to believe that he didn’t rip off the only foreigner on the bus. After about 40 minutes of curvy roads and narrow streets in the dark with no street lights, I was told that I had arrived at my stop. Thankfully, I vaguely recognized the building of my Air B&B so I didn’t have to wander around in the dark for too long. The last stretch of steep, uneven steps up to my Air B&B really made me feel like I’ve had enough excitement for the day and all I wanted to do was lie in bed.
There is an area in Shimla called “The Mall” which is a pedestrian street in the hills full of stores and street vendors. This place made me really feel like I was in India, with stores selling colourful spices lined up along the street in sacks, little carts selling snacks, bakeries, colourful cloth stores, and much more. Just watching ladies haggle for colourful fabric with shop owners was entertainment itself.
I don’t remember who, but someone in Shimla recommended that I go visit the Monkey Temple (or Jakhu Temple) up on the top of the hill because it offers very pretty panoramic views of the city. I figured it was nicknamed the “Monkey Temple” because it was a place of worship to the sacred Hindu Monkey Lord. After a 45 minute climb to the top, I realized that I was partially correct. It’s also called the Monkey Temple because of the many monkeys that live there. I am terrified of monkeys. So as soon as I saw them hanging around the entrance of the temple grounds, I considered turning around and calling it a day. But then I thought, I spent 45 minutes to get up here, and I’m halfway across the word. Why not just go for it. In hindsight, I should’ve turned around and listened to my gut. I had 3 monkeys jump on me and one stole my sunglasses off my face while I was climbing the stairs towards the temple. I guess a few families saw what happened, and they tried to help me retrieve my sunglasses back from the monkey by swatting it with a stick, tossing snacks at it, and even yelling at it, only to have it hiss at us. It eventually ran off with my sunglasses, and sat on a roof to stare at us. I was told by the guard that there would be no way I would get my sunglasses back. These weren’t expensive sunglasses by any means, but they were my red Canadian sunglasses that I treasured while travelling, so I was a little heart broken that I had to lose them to a monkey. A bystander suggested that I buy a packet of snacks from the vendor to hopefully “trade” with the monkey. I had nothing else to lose, so I did. I gave it to the guard, because as soon as I had the packet in hand, another monkey jumped on me and I just screamed and wanted to cry. The guard tosses it up to the monkey on the roof, and it lets go of my sunglasses with both hands to catch the packet, my sunglasses fall the ground, a bystander quickly grabs it before another monkey takes it, and the whole crowd cheers. I was so happy to have my sunglasses back, but even more so, I was so grateful for the group effort in helping me retrieve these sunglasses. These people were on vacation with their families and were there to pray at the temple, but yet, they still spent the time to help the only foreigner out. As soon as I had my sunglasses, I quickly stuffed it in my purse and quickly ran down the hill before another monkey decided to jump me. I was able to quickly snap a picture before I left, so this is the one and only (minus the one I took at the entrance):
Shimla is a wonderful place to visit and is a surprisingly slow-paced city. It’s such a drastic change from the crazy traffic in New Delhi. My experience in Shimla was such a positive one primarily because of all the friendly and helpful people I met. India has the unfortunate stigma of being dangerous. But many people like to generalize the whole country based on all the negative media it gets. I believe that in every country, there are both “dangerous” parts and “safer” parts. Its all about being a smart traveller and doing your research prior to entering a country, and looking out for red flags.
Puzzled by this random cow crossing. But happy to have my red shades back.
One Hungry Explorer 