Girlie road trip Day 9 Simla
I had changed rooms to catch up stories with another close friend, and we were chatting non stop till 12.30 am.. It was an exciting night as we got a knock on our door at 2.30 am.. A friend wanted a change of beds and I offered to go to her room instead… I am a deep sleeper and anybody else’s snoring doesn’t bother me.
Breakfast was done happily by admiring the valley view from our room window, but the portions were very big and I felt bad at the amount of food that was wasted among the four of us.
In the morning when most members of the group wanted to go shopping on the mall road, I insisted for a sightseeing trip and luckily 2 friends accompanied me. Instead of the expensive hotel taxi, I decided to ask last night’s local taxi driver to take us around.
What a wonderful decision that was! He was more interested in giving us a good experience and personally showing us around to as many places as possible.
He insisted that the first place that we go to in order to avoid the crowds was the Institute of advanced studies. This was constructed only in 4 years from 1884 to 1888. Please don’t get misled by its boring sounding name. It was initially the famous Viceroy Lodge… 13 British Viceroys till Lord Mountbatten stayed here. And they ruled India from this place in Summer from March to September. Yes Simla was the summer capital of India during the British Times.
We got the internal tour ticket for one hour later and we decided to explore the exterior of the majestic buildings and the sprawling gardens at leisure. I swear, I felt as if we were in some European city, given the pleasant weather, the very well maintained gardens, the few people and the amazing views and architecture!
After the initial thrill of clicking pictures at every beautiful nook and corner, at one spot we just sat for long in silence enjoying the company of more than hundreds of colourful butterflies around us and the carpet like feel of fallen bright red flowers. Really we were blessed to be surrounded with this kind of simple natural phenomenon and beauty.
We just had to have a local pastry that seems to be everywhere in Simla, and it was time to join the group and go inside.
Our internal tour guide told us about the still functional water sprinkler system inside the building, which thankfully has never been used in case of fire emergency. We entered at the East and west cloak roomwhich was used initially to keep belongings of visitors and now is a photo gallery.
Our next stop was the Old Billiards room, which still had a 192 year old clock, which requires winding once a week since 1826 when it was manufactured by a Dutch company. It shows the date and moon positions also
The next room on the guided tour was the Visiters waiting room. It was here that the Partition of India papers were prepared. It had a walnut wood ceiling of intricate Kashmiri woodwork and has remained the same for more than a century without the requirement of any kind of wood polish
We were next in the Main entrance hall with ceilings up-to almost 5 floors above us, surrounded on all sides by very impressive looking Burmese teak..There used to be a panel of decorative weapons, which were sadly taken out from here and kept at Rashtrapati Bhavan at Delhi. Suddenly I realised that even our tour matches the grandeur of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, it was the premier place in Summer during the British Rule in India!
We could see the first floor which was used as offices for around 840 employees at one time along with 40 gardeners to manage the workload. These old offices are now converted to Research rooms for PH. D scholars who want to do still advanced research in Humanities or Social Studies.
At the end of the hall we saw what used to be the State room at one time. At the other side was the Ball Room where formal dance sessions were held. Behind a closed door was the present library which used to be the formal dining hall. The original Belgian chandeliars had
electrical fittings by GEC which were kept ready during construction and become operational years later when the area got electricity.
The antique furniture around us, in solid original wood and intricate carvings, be it chairs, tables, side boards, etc. was something to be admired by one and all.
I am glad President Radhakrishna decided to dedicate this impressive piece of architecture to public use, so that the general public like us get a chance to see this.
We next made a quick stop at the Himalayan bird park to see some noisy birds and peacocks and some stuffed animals too.
Our next stop was at the State Museum, which is generally not shown by tourist guides, probably due to the steep narrow access road towards it. We got a glimpse of the culture, sight seeing spots, clothes, jewelry, paintings, coins, etc of Himachal area.
Then our cab driver took us on a long drive to the non commercial side of Simla which was really beautiful. The
majestic British era styled public buildings and bungalows, the valley views, the intense greenery, etc. gave this place a charm that was absent in the main crowded area of Simla.
Our cab driver Rajinder’s daughters has studied in some of the good schools that Simla is famous for. His kids excelled both in academics and sports and it is nice to see the new generation doing well in India. Rajinder’s father was an ex army man, so he personally escorted and guided us at the next stop, the perfectly maintained yet hardly visited Military Museum.
Rajinder had a sense of pride in his voice, as he took us through the different halls, starting from ancient history war of Mahabharata to the latest Kargil war stories. The different uniforms, ammunitions, weapons, flags, bravery Awards, war heroes, every single aspect of the defence personnel was depicted with so much of self prestige! I was again thankful to these veterans who keep us safe at the borders and inside our country .
We saw the helipad used by VIPs who are then spared of the notorious Simla traffic jams. We saw the greens of the army golf course. And we had to snack up to delicious chat items at the army canteen.
Our last stop was at the famous Sankat Mochan temple of a very benovelent looking Hanuman idol. It was Hanuman Jayanthi the previous day and we made an effort to walk down and up the hill in the midst of a traffic jam. The other giant idol of Hanuman was on top of the hill at Jakku, which we just bowed down to from way below as we had no time to drive so far.
In fact there was a Vaishno Devi temple nearby, but I decided to listen to my tired body and did not venture into another round of hill climbing.
However once we reached the lift and came up to the Mall road, we had lots more of climbing to do. We met with the rest of friends and saw their shopping spree goodies, and indulged in some shopping ourselves.
We had seen the middle level mall road at night, so we took the lower level Mall road for some street shopping and delicious street food made in absolutely pure ghee. We indulged again and again in variety of samosa, chole Pattice, Tokri chat, till we felt really stuffed.
And yes we had to climb a huge flight of steps to get to the most happening place in Simla on a Sunday evening – the upper mall road ! The art galleries, the horse riders, the costume photographers, the obvious eating joints not withstanding, it was the variety of scenic view points that caught my attention. The setting sun cast a warm glow on the imposing Cathedral of Simla which had looked equally beautiful even under the night lights.
I just had to bask in the glory of Simla as I looked down at the Lakkar bazaar road, where we had stayed just a week ago.
Good company, good ambiece and good food was the next thing to indulge in at Condecor which was the meeting point for the group. I indulged in the use of a clean toilet which is the best part of going to a good restaurant.
After all the excessive eating of tasty street food in the day, a nice luxurious hot chocolate milk shake in the cold weather was just the perfect ending to a hectic day at Simla.
We had made the best use of the limited time in Simla enjoying both the sight seeing and the shopping options. It was time for 13 women to check out from just 2 hotel rooms, you can imagine the hustle and bustle as we had to pack and weigh our luggage trying to stuff all our shopping into the permissible baggage allowance limits.
Porters came to take our 30 bags to the main road and 13 of us got almost stuffed into two vehicles, everything was taken in the stride of adjustment. If you can adjust to the ups and downs of unpredictable travel experiences, then you can also adjust to life itself!
As we got into our Volvo buses to travel out of Simla , I slept like a baby under my thick jacket, this was the last night of our road trip together…tomorrow night we would head off in different directions.
So in 2018, do notice these simple smiling moments. Have a smiling year.
Recent Comments