Shimla - Shops and other random pics.

On our second day in Shimla, we had the luxury of pleasing ourselves and wandering around the main shopping area.  The shopping area is over several levels meaning it spills down the sides of a hill.  The main and more "salubrious" part is called The Ridge.

Below are random pics.

Shimla is "smoke-free".  You can smoke inside, I gather, but we didn't see any smoking in public buildings.  

 The main shopping strip.

We walked through the Tibetan Market yesterday.  We were told that it was the stall-holders who were Tibetan, not the goods.

Not a Chinese person in sight!  But I gather Chinese food is popular in India.

We were not sure just which was Chinese - the shoes or the maker?

I bought two gifts here, for such a small amount I didn't even bother bargaining.  When I told the lady to keep the (even smaller) change, she insisted on handing it over.  Guilt on both sides?

Getting ready for the colourful Holi festival! We saw it in 2012.  Don't wear your good white shirt on the day!

It isn't all neat and tidy.

But this must have been beautiful in its heyday.

And off the beaten track...

Not everyone's life is easy.  Cars are not permitted in the main shopping areas, so goods have to be carried in.

And saw this!

Looking over the edge of the road on the way back to our hotel.  There are no levels bits in Shimla!

Blood Bank in Shimla

The Blood Bank was in town.  Posters telling the benefits for donors.

No difference between religions.  Good to know!

And the proceedings.

Shimla Day 1

We met our guide this morning and he looked at the program set down for us and decreed the travel company's visit to Kufri not of interest to international tourists.  He suggested that we take an hours walk in the Mountains.  After checking that he did not have a 10km hike in mind (we are at 2200m!), we happily agreed.  In fact it was a good idea.

Lookout on the way to our walk.  Valleys around Shimla.

The Himalayas were amazing, although there were two other mountain ranges in between. 

We survived the altitude.  We could not go anywhere near our usual pace, but we could take our time and stop to catch our breath.  The first third was uphill, then it was downhill.  There are no level bits in Shimla!

And we have learned that a dhaba means you can buy food!  There were also lots of dhaba along the roads - like service centres.  Note the ubiquitous sleeping dog.

 A Shimla sheep!

Then Shan showed us the town. Below is Christ Church.  BTW, the red statue on the hill behind is the Jakhoo Temple, a Hindu temple to Lord Hanuman.  No bells in this church.

A couple of interesting plaques inside.

Presumably this was his wife.

We had lunch at a cafe, and the manager spoke perfect English.  He was married to a Korean lady and another in-law was Vietnamese.  We asked who the owner was, and were told that the owner lived in Melbourne! So Shimla tourism has many connections!

 Then we went back to our hotel.  It is 2km from the shopping centre, with up and downhill parts. Given the altitude, we had done well!

The road to Shimla - and monkey business

Driving to Shimla was a 3+ hour excursion.  Chandigarh is approx 300m elevation, and Shimla is 2,200m.  We thought we were in for a drive through the mountains, like going to the Cameron Highlands.  But no.  There were houses, cities, some quite big, for most of the way.  The road was being widened into, according to our driver, a 6 lane highway.  He thought that tourism was driving all the building construction.  Shimla itself is expensive, so people seek a more reasonable holiday alternative outside Shimla.

One shot of the road

but this was more typical.

There were road works aplenty.

"Jobs and Growth" in India.

 We arrived at our hotel.  There are  things to think about in Shimla that I hadn't come across before.  Monkeys for one.  The hotel has warning about keeping windows closed to keep monkeys out, and you can hear them on the roof at night as they settle  down to sleep.

We went for a walk before dinner and came across some.

Tomorrow we see more of Shimla.

Chandigarh people

Just as we had gone into Nek Chand's garden, I was approached by two young ladies.  I thought they wanted me to take a photo of them, but no, they wanted a photo WITH me.  So here is a photo of a photo with me!  Soon after that, another young girl and her father also wanted a photo with me.  By now I was an expert, and I realised that this gave me questioning rights!  The young girl was 9 years old, and these young ladies were locals.  Ah Nicole Kidman, eat your heart out!

After our visit, I saw this group of local school children.  All lined up and well behaved!

Chandigarh

Chandigarh is very reminiscent of Canberra.  A planned city, neat and well maintained.  Not your usual idea of India.  It is affluent and is the capital of two states.

We only had time to look at Nek Chand's rock garden.  He was a public servant who used protected land to secretly built up a garden using recycled stuff - from pottery to old electrical fittings to bangles!  By the time it was "found out", it was too good to lose.  It reminded me of the story of Wendy Whiteley's secret  in North Sydney - she gradually developed Railway land into a beautiful garden, and it is now protected.

Kin mun is standing in front of a wall of old, broken electrical ceramic fittings.  A bit like the old insulators we used to have.  Close up here:

Us in front of more old stuff

You would go through an archway to the next surprise.

Like this. Kin Mun and our guide.

Some pavilions were all little statues.

These were made from bangles.  They appealed to me the most!

This was the main attraction in Chandigarh.  There were museums and an art gallery, but we didn't have time.  There was another long drive to Shimla ahead of us.