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The next day we started on our way back to New Delhi and left by Jeep for Sarahan, an old capital of the Rampur Bushahr rulers and is noted for its wood-bonded Bhimakali temple. We arrived in the village and took a hotel overlooking the temple. Arriving at noon, we decided to eat at the temple: a simple vegetarian meal with rice. It was a bit heavily spiced for me but I did manage to enjoy the rice. After lunch we visited the temple and its towers. This place had a few rules and regulations before entering the grounds: not only did we have to leave our shoes behind, but we had to remove any leather objects and empty our pockets of wallets etc. as well (no leather rule). Then to top it off we all were given the special Kinnaur hats to wear. Papa went first, while mummy and myself stood guard on all our |
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worldly possessions. As we were only allowed to photograph from the outside, we managed to get funny shots of papa peeking through the various lattice carved windows. Mummy and I then went up next to see what the ruckus was all about: I couldn�t say it amounted to much - just a large temple, pretty empty inside except for the 200-year-old image of an ancient goddess, who I might add, is still actively worshipped during a special festival when animals and birds are sacrificed in the courtyard. When we arrived back at the hotel I managed to get some playtime in with my newfound friends before the folks once again dragged me on another �explore-the-town� venture. This time we walked through narrow cobblestone streets, while greeting local passers by. The next day we left for the bus station to catch a very dilapidated bus for the short trip down to Jeri. I was not feeling in the mood for much engaging with the other local passengers, as I had woken up on the wrong side of the bed and with a sore throat as well. In Jeri we took a shared Jeep to Shimla and it seemed to take forever. It was really a pickup truck and papa and another guy rode in the open air back with the luggage. Mom and myself had secured the front seat, which is always the best for the views and for not getting sick. Then Mummy traded places with Papa halfway through and also seemed to enjoy the trip standing in the back with the wind blowing in her face as she waved to all the astonished people on route. The ride took us through beautiful green pine forests winding around the mountain. The winding part was the hardest and eventually I did get sick. At that point I too joined mummy and the going was better. The fresh mountain air and the nice seats on our luggage helped.
Shimla was the summer capital of India during the British time. The much cooler climate made most of the government employees move here twice a year. So as a result of this, it is packed with all sorts of large old buildings but also a lot of new hotels to accommodate the many Indian tourists. By the time we got there, the place was bursting to the seams. It was hard to find a decent room at a decent price so we ended up spending a bit more than usual (again). We strolled on the famous Mall and had a great dinner of Biryani. The streets were full of people, all Indian tourists escaping the heat. There were also lots of monkeys, some even getting aggressive if you happened to show them your food! Coming home we noticed a loud noise coming from the room next door. It was the hot water pump that would run until 11 pm. Besides this there was some kind of Hindu festival nearby with loud blaring music till the next morning! Great - I was actually not feeling well at all and the noise didn�t make it any better. Papa tried in vain to get us moved to another room but as that was impossible he managed to get a good discount from the hotel owner. They even paid for our taxi the next |
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morning to the railway station. Yep, we were going on the Shimla-Kalka narrow-gauge toy train. This trip took us over 5 hours with the kind of scenery you can by now imagine. In (hot) Kalka we changed to the New Delhi Mail and had lots of room, but non a/c. But when we got to Chandigargh an hour later, we were literally overwhelmed with an enormous crowd of people, all of which seemed to have reserved seats; and we didn�t... so we had to move. With our luggage we had to work our way through several packed 2nd class coaches to find some room. Papa had an interesting talk with a young local fellow who had worked in a hotel in France and spoke the language quite well. So after such a day you can imagine I was very happy to find our aircon room at the Y. |
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