Monkey Madness in Serene Shimla

At the foot of the Himalayas features the quaint township of Shimla, renowned as the summer holiday capital of the state of Himachal Pradesh.

Shimla is the largest and most well-known hill station in India as it was originally “discovered” by the British in the 19^th century, who used it as their summer holiday haven. The original presence of the British men and women is evident in the colonial style architecture of the buildings throughout town.

 

I had no expectations of what Shimla would be like, other than the fact that the temperature would drop considerably compared to our journey through Rajasthan. Our trip from Haridwar took 9 hours by car up a long windy road, leaving behind the plains for the mountain tops. We arrived at 1am in the morning and quickly got inside our accommodation, away from the evening chill. So when morning came, the view and beauty of the township, cascading down the hill side was a sight for sore eyes.

It has been an adjustment getting used to the stares and comments from the locals, though this was amplified in Shimla as less westerners come here. I knew that staring was common in this country but the lengths people go to, trying to see what Deep and I are up to is hilarious. We had one man earlier on in our trip, who stood right in front of our faces at a train station and despite us staring back, he didn’t budge.

Anyway back to the beautiful, unique township of Shimla. Once a small village, Shimla has grown into a trendy place, with upmarket brand named stores and restaurants. We were amazed at the structure of the town, with the main shopping square continuing all the way down the hill side. You can literally spend hours walking down the winding road with no end to the array of colourful stores.

One of the popular things to do in Shimla is to venture up to Jakhu Temple, also referred to as “Monkey Temple”. An incredibly large statue of the monkey god Hanuman, towers above the town and is surrounded by real life monkeys, ironic, I know. Now previously on this trip, Deep and I have had wonderful encounters with playful, friendly monkeys, though these monkeys were clearly not taught to play nice. I just have to say that before I came on this trip I told Deep I had a slight fear of monkeys, fearing that they will jump on me and claw my eyes out (a slight exaggeration, but you understand the point I’m making). As we arrived at the temple a monkey jumped onto my back and stole my sunglasses off my face before scurrying up a tree. He then spent the next 10 minutes trying to work out what they were and ended up just chewing on them.

 

I was able to get the glasses back but had to give money to a local man who retrieved them. It was as I was handing over the money that I realised I’d been scammed, by the man and the monkey.

Aside from our monkey encounters, Shimla has been a wonderful travel destination, offering panoramic views of the hillside and satisfied my shopping addiction for now.

By Kerryn Anker