29 September, Shimla

We decided to travel South, to Shimla, because a number of people recommended it and because it is en route to Agra, which was to be our next stop. Shimla, like the other towns in that mountainous region is not built in the valley but sits perched on the side of the mountain, which makes for very steep streets and some scary structural engineering. The bus trip to Shimla was scenic – mountains and plantations – but took the whole day and we were pretty irritable when we arrived, only to be accosted by tens of touts all shouting at the same time, trying to

- Carry our bags uphill for 40 rupees (50 pence; one guy, both our backpacks which weigh about 20kgs each; no way, not possible)

- Take us by taxi to the vernicular

- Sell us accommodation.

We thought we had grown immune against touts (the best is just to ignore them completely and go your own way and soon they get the message), but these people! Maybe its the mountain air but they were a different breed. You have never seen anything like it. Tens of them shouting at the same time, pulling on our sleeves: “Sir, Sir, we are you from Sir? Ah Soud Africa! Twenty20”. “Sir, where are you staying? I have nice hotel sir. Very clean, big discount”. “Sir only 20 rupees per bag sir, very cheap”. “YMCA Sir? No you can’t stay there. Expensive, not very clean!”.

Wouter could have shot them (and he is a patient man, like you know) but they just would have clung to us, dying and bleeding, I swear. Anyway, we finally succumbed to one soft-spoken blue-eyed old man/tout called Yusuf who talked to us near the Christ Church) (when we were weak from walking uphill with our backpacks for about 1km, trailed by two or three die-hards), and he led us the ‘three minute walk’ or 15 minute uphill trek to an okay hotel, where we stayed for two nights.

What I forgot to mention is that the bus to Shimla had to stop at a tyre shop as it seemed to have had a leak. When the guys took off the tyre we thought they would be replacing the whole thing as there were literally large bits of tyre ripped out. We were (by then) only faintly surprised when they just patched the leak and put the tyre back, next to a similarly worn out one. Also, I was shown a picture of the ‘deluxe’ bus beforehand. It look like this - . In reality, this was the bus.

Honestly, we need to get the Advertising Standards Authority to investigate ;-)

Shimla’s a bit of a strange town. Cleaner than any we’ve seen with no open gutters and ‘no spitting’ signs everywhere, and filled with seemingly well-off Indian tourists but with nothing really to do. There were some horses taking kids for rides, one or two okay restaurants and some good views, but for the hundreds of Indian tourists we saw walking up and down the main street, there was nothing really to entertain them. Like the Lonely Planet said – you go to Shimla to “watch everybody watch everybody else”!

Keeping Shimla clean (Christ Church in the background)

Although we didn’t see many other westerners we were surprised and perplexed to be treated like celebrities by some of the people. One family even asked for our pictures and the kids each posed with us. Even one older guy got his friend to photograph him with us. Wouter thinks it was something about me that attracted them – maybe they thought I was some kind of western celebrity – but they were keenly interested in me. (We now think it could have been my hair, which is still boyishly short.)

For those of you who are interested in our culinary experiences, we had some Masala Dosa and Pav Bhaji (see pics) from one of the backstreet cafes. It was spicy but pretty good. Barbs, Gayds, I did not think I would ever say this but I am craving some Garrick food. Just plain old salmon with some steamed broccoli and baked potatoes. Yum. Wouter says he’d love a steak and some red wine. You see, no one seem to serve beef in this country because cows are seen as holy and wine is very expensive (if you can get it) at about £20 for a bottle of cheap-as French. We had some Indian wine at a wine tasting in London once but we've not managed to track down any yet (patience Chad, patience.)

Abandoned house - would love to get our hands on this baby. Its invaded by monkeys however. Shimla has a large simian population and they are blatant in their thefts of spectacles, food - anything really.

Backstreet market