I’m happy to announce that
everything has been great in Shimla and the scenery is absolutely beautiful.
Especially after the troubles we faced in Jaipur in Agra, it feels great to
become calm again and to also travel on our own without an organized tour
company. Shimla has also been great because we met a new friend who basically
made our experience and a description of him is shown later in this blog post.
The Train Experience
Stephanie and I took our first
train ride of the trip to get up to Shimla and boy, was it an experience. We first traveled from Delhi to Kalka and
got to the train station by 5:00 am for our 5:35 train. We had tickets for second class meaning that we
were prepared to share a three-seater bench for the first 6 hour train
ride. This was fine and dandy for the first twenty minutes, but then the next
stop had a ton of people join the train so each
bench had four people on it and others were packed standing. I wanted to
get a picture of the crowdedness, but I also didn’t want to look weird taking
the picture. It was nuts though. And very hot as you can imagine.
Imagine this picture but with 30 more people in it and this is what our train ride was like.
Another interesting part of the first train ride was seeing all of the slum areas line the
railway tracks. It was one of those things that Stephanie and I couldn’t
take our eyes off because we both had our concerns for the conditions of these
dwellings. Tons of garbage, lots of open
defecation, tents as homes and such was the common sight. It was also just
as people were waking up so it was interesting to see people’s morning routine.
Overall, this was a very impactful sight for us and will probably stay with us
for a long time.
Once we got to Kalka, we waited
for one hour to take the “toy car” train. Our tickets said we were in “AC
chair class” but we again got stuck with small benches that were hard,
uncomfortable and cramped. Even though the seating all the way up to Shimla was
uncomfortable, we did not complain because that would not help anything. By the
end of it though my ass felt like it was on fire and it’s funny that me
learning how to say “my ass is fire” in Hebrew while I was in China was actually
applicable to this situation. Who would’ve thought?
Toy Train
Inside our cabin
The ride took about five hours
in total and was scenic as we slowly climbed the hills. It was also quite
foggy and rainy that day so often we just saw a lot of fog.
One of the views from Steph's window
Shimla: Day One
Once we arrived in Shimla we did
not have a place booked to stay, but were hoping to go to the YMCA because
Lonely Planet recommended this location. We weren’t quite sure how to get
there and luckily an Aussie man helped
us out. We ended up talking to this man, Noel, about various things such as
my Engineering for Developing Communities class, the Dalai Lama, and the famous
church in Shimla. This conversation was a bit difficult however because we were
at basically a 15-20% incline the whole way. Noel also told us about where he was staying and it happened to be
cheaper than the YMCA so we decided to take a room that was 600 Rs ($10) per
night.
We then relaxed, ate and enjoyed the beautiful city. Shimla is a hill town and also use to be a
big hub when the British were here. For this reason, there is a great amount of English architecture and
influence. We were also told that when the British were here, they would
rule the British land in southern Asia from Calcutta (a city in the east)
during the winter months and would pack up everything during the summer months and
rule from Shimla where it is much cooler.
A gorgeous sunset just after we arrived
Another picture from where our hotel was
You can kind of see the influence of the English architecture and whatnot here
Shimla: Day Two
We slept until noon on this day because we basically didn’t have any
sleep the day before. While the beds were not comfortable and the room was
quite cold (maybe 60 degrees) we were still satisfied. Once we got up, we
decided to eat at a cute restaurant where we could also people watch in a
certain area.
It’s difficult to describe how
Shimla is set up but overall it is very organized and calm (an Indian city
calm? Who would’ve known!) Much of the area, including a lookout point and a
long road with a bunch of shops (known as the Mall), does not allow cars so this
is what makes it so calm. They’ve even banned plastic bags here, have trash
cans consistently throughout the area, have advertisements about pollution and
even banned smoking here. Since this town was so eco-friendly, we joked as it
being the Portland of India. Overall, the
combination of the orderliness in the streets as well as the breath-taking
views of the hills I think has dropped our heart rates since being in Shimla
and it’s been wonderful.
An open area where cars aren't allowed
Proof that we were actually in Shimla and didn't just take all these pictures from the internet or something
After we ate, our only plan for the day was to roam and explore. During our journey we met a new friend
from England named Martin. Martin turned out to be a fascinating guy and I have
a section about him later.
We continued to walk with Martin and follow him to a museum he planned
to go to. He also showed us a few lookout points of the city that looked great.
Once we got to the museum however we found out that it was closed so that was a
bummer. It was a tiny place though so I don’t think we were missing too much.
We then parted ways, but made plans to meet for dinner at a certain restaurant
he goes to.
We returned to the hotel, blogged/journaled and then met Martin for dinner. We ended up talking
for almost four hours about many of his travels and he gave us some helpful
tips for when we go to Varanasi. We also had a pretty good meal with boiled
vegetables, a slice of sort of a dense biscuit, and some lamb. That was my
first meat in India and it was pretty good, but I’m still not running out of my
way to eat meat. It’s also handy because eating vegetarian is cheaper and
generally safer to eat.
Shimla: Day Three
Our only goal of the day was to book bus tickets to go to our next
location, Mussoorie. After having a
cheap and good breakfast, we successfully booked our tickets that cost us $8
for an 8 hour bus ride. The rest of the day entailed walking around kind of
aimlessly. The highlight of the day was spending some time watching monkeys
climb around in one area which was great. The monkeys go where ever they want
here including: power lines, cars, motorcycles, houses, and swiftly jump from
place to place.
Some of our monkey friends
Later, we met Martin again for
dinner and it was another 4+ hour night of great conversation. I
surprisingly had butter chicken and that was also quite tasty. We also thought
this would be our last time seeing Martin because we had a night bus on
Thursday and he had an afternoon exam, but then we decided to meet for lunch
the following day.
Shimla: Day Four
We had three goals for our last day in Shimla. First, was to see a
little book shop that Martin recommended. Second, was to see the inside of the
big church which is a major landmark of the town. And third, to get to our bus
on time. Unfortunately we were only successful with two of these three goals
but we’re okay with it.
The first plan of the day was to
go to Shimla’s Christ Church before we met with Martin for lunch at noon. This
church was of course built by the English back in the day when they ruled
India. I found this experience to be interesting for a few different reasons. First, we had to take off our shoes before
we entered the sanctuary which I’ve never had to do before in a church.
Maybe this tradition had carried from Hindu practices at the temple because it
is customary to take off your shoes before entering a temple. Anyway, when I entered the church it oddly felt a
bit homey. I think this is because I grew up with the church and it almost
use to be a second home for me when I was younger. I felt comfortable walking through the sanctuary as well as seeing
the organ, the pulpit and such. This differs from the multiple temple and
mosques I’ve been to where I’m quite unfamiliar with the traditions. It also
had stained glass with pictures of Jesus and various angels which reminded me
of my grandma’s church as well.
What still bothered me though
was how all of the figures in the stained glass appear as white/European
figures. This is something that bothers me about Christian artwork because
it is obvious that Jesus nor any of his disciples, were white but rather Middle
Eastern. Despite this, the Europeans chose to depict these religious figures
having white skin. Oh, and the little
gift shop in the back was a bit weird.
Because we met Martin lunch and
had another five hour conversation, we did not have enough time to visit
the book store Martin had recommended so we had failed in this goal for the
day. We were okay with it though because we
continued to hear more about Martin’s fascinating travels and we also discussed
other things. It was also surprising because although he had an exam at 2:00
it was apparently fine for him to show up at 5:00.
We then had to say our goodbyes to Martin in the pouring rain so he
could take his exam and we could get ready to leave. We had a tasty dinner and made it to the old bus station in time so we
could take a transfer bus to the new bus station where we would catch our bus to
Derahdun. The first bus ride was a bit cramped but luckily only cost 7 Rs. each
and only took about 15 minutes or so.
Our ride to Dehradun felt
luxurious compared to the train ride up to Shimla because we had our own
assigned seats that reclined comfortably. I surprisingly got more sleep
than I expected and soon enough we made it
to Dehradun. We then had to take an auto to go to a different bus station that
cost 120 Rs. and then got a bus to
Mussoorie which cost 56 Rs (~$1) each for the two hour bus ride. Lastly, we made it to our hotel which again
only costs us $10/night and even has hot water! Yay!
Our Friend, Martin
Martin is 38ish year-old British man who has traveled to (we think) about sixty different countries throughout
his life. He is a fascinating guy and is currently taking a two-month course in
Shimla relating to cyber security of some sort. This is his fifth time in
India and he has also backpacked from Egypt to South Africa for six-months in
2009; he did a two or three month backpacking trip throughout Europe that
included Istanbul, and various other places; and he’s even backpacked the US by
beginning in New York, going to Georgia and then over to Las Vegas and maybe
California.
His stories are absolutely fascinating and some of our favorite traveling stories he’s told us are about
the time he came into India by flying to Pakistan and crossing the border; or
about the time he traveled through Sudan which was nearly impossible to get
through; or lastly, about the time he was in the Outback of Australia where the
crazy Aussies played a trick on the tourists by making them excited to see
koalas in a tree when really they were fake koalas that had I <3 Australia
shirts on them.
We’ve also talked about all sorts of other things and potentially our
most interesting conversation was about Scotland. This began by him telling us that Scotland will vote on September 18th
whether they want to separate from the United Kingdom or not. This was news
to me and Stephanie had apparently just learned about it earlier in the day.
He told us a great amount about the history between England and
Scotland and also about the Scottish culture in general in how they are very
proud and tough people. He also said how if they do choose to break away from
the UK, it’ll be the saddest day in his life because he seemed to love Scotland
and its beauty. However, if Scotland
does choose to break off, they’ll apparently have a difficult time doing so
because they’ll have to create their own currency and they have no chance of
joining the European Union because Spain will veto them joining the union. Spain
will veto because if Scotland breaks from the UK yet is still able to join the
EU, then Cataluña will be more motivated to separate from Spain and try to join
the EU…but that’s a whole different story.
Another interesting discussion
was about what he is currently learning about – cyber security. He talked
about the general methods used to break passwords and also how hackers can access
information in general. He stressed the
importance of having a different password for everything, to avoid using family
or pet names, and to use lowercase/uppercase as well as numbers in every
password because it makes them much more difficult to crack. I’ve heard
this many times before, but the way he talked about it seemed to stress the
importance even more. So go out there people, and make sure you have good but
different passwords out there!
Overall, we have another person
to add to our friend crush list because Martin is a delightful guy and is also
inspiring with his range in interests as well as all of the traveling he has
done. He has definitely encouraged us to keep traveling and has also made
our travel to-do list much longer. Without a doubt, he made our short experience in Shimla very special and we are very
glad to have accidentally run into him when we were roaming around on our
first full day in Shimla. It would be a pleasure to meet up again one of these
days, but we’ll see!
Various Thoughts/Comments
·
Shimla is quite cold and probably equates to
late September/early October weather in Michigan. It again reminds me how I do
not like the cold and I am certainly looking forward to missing a lot of the
winter when I go to Nicaragua in January
·
We bought a flight from Kathmandu to Delhi on
November 14 to make our travels home easier. Although it’ll mean a 12-hour
layover in the airport, it gives us peace-of-mind that we’ll have an easy way
out of India/Nepal
·
My dad’s only request for a gift was to get him
colorful dice for (I think) the backgammon set he’s been making. I partially
succeeded in this mission and bought a pair of brown wooden dice and a pair of
baby blue dice. They are actually originally both key chains and this is fine
for the wooden dice because they keychain part can be unscrewed. The baby blue
dice won’t be functional though because after I bought them, I realized that
the keychain part can't be unscrewed and the dots on the dice are sticker jewel
things which makes them a weird shape and thus unfair. Oh well, it’s the
thought that counts and hopefully he will still like them
·
After our experience with a few British people I
can confidently speak with a British accent for fun. Before this trip I’ve
always been uncomfortable speaking in accents but now I surprisingly do. This definitely
wasn’t a skill I expected to gain while being here but it’s fun to have. One of
these days, Steph and I are going to pretend to be British the whole day and
say we’re from London just because.
Caroline’s Song of the Day
8-Sept Digital Lion by James Blake
9-Sept Everything by Michael Buble
10-Sept I Ain’t the Same (iTunes Session) by Alabama Shakes
11-Sept What am I To You? By Norah Jones
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