McLEOD GANJ-SHIMLA. November 3rd-4th.

Monday I take it easy, have a long brekkie and lunch, feel as if every bone in my body is aching, and get ready to take off for Shimla. Bump into Evonne and Xxxx again at the internet shop. A travel agent had told me that the bus for Shimla leaves at 8.30 from Dharamsala, so am at the McLeod bus stand by 7 am Tuesday, and get talking to two elderly Swiss lady backpackers, and enviously notice that their backpacks are even smaller and lighter-looking than mine. One of them seemed to be quite badly affected with arthritis, so ten out of ten for effort. She told me that she had once hitch-hiked all round Oz, including across the Nullabor. No bus arrived by 7.45, and her friend discovered a share Jeep that would take us to Dharamsala for 9 rupees each, (the same price as the bus). This was a real exercise in togetherness, as four people had to jam onto bench seats originally intended for three. At Dharamsala my bus was leaving in about 5 minutes, and their bus to Manali not much later, so the share Jeep was a good move. In McLeod one day I had noticed a backpacker shin up the back of a bus and place his backpack on the roof rack, and couldn't wait to emulate this feat. Not as easy as it sounds as the bottom of the ladder is almost waist-high, but I managed it and clipped the shoulder straps through the bars at the side of the rack. A fairly uneventful trip, and we did stop a couple of times for a few minutes to stretch legs etc, which was good. The fare was 257 rupees (7 bucks or so), and I noticed that they weren't keen on picking up local fares very much (except for the guy who ran alongside when we were going uphill, yanked the door open and jumped in unnoticed. When he slammed the door behind him the driver and conductor both nearly had a heart attack).
Anyway, we arrived at Shimla about 4.45pm, and the bus was immediately surrounded by 'porters' who want 20 rupees just to carry your bags a short distance. I repeated my gymnastic feat of the morning, and got to my pack neck and neck with one of them who had shinned up behind me, so I just slipped it on, ending that discussion. Then I managed to spoil it all by standing on the edge of a depression at the side of the road, and falling over. Bouncing back up I take off in the direction of the Gulmarg Hotel, where I've rung and made a booking the night before. I have a pretty good idea of where it is from the LP sketch map, but this real annoying hotel tout attaches himself to me, and won't let go. After telling him a couple of times to go away, I tend to ignore him and ask directions from passers-by, and soon find myself on The Mall, which is near to the hotel. A convenient policeman is chatting at the side of the road, so I make a complaint to him about this annoying-type person, and finally lose him. I see what I think is the track to the hotel, and ask a guy, who turns out to be another hotel tout, albeit a very polite one, and we walk into the foyer together. The hotel is a riot - they have put me in a honeymoon-type room, with over 50 mirrors in it, and I have lots of noisy Indian neighbours, who have their TV's on and doors open, everybody talking at once, and much going and coming, as it seems to be a large hotel. I check out a few cafes along The Mall, which is a non-traffic thoroughfare, thronged with promenading Indian tourists. All the cafes are expensive, so I choose the cleanest-looking one, where I pay through the nose for a quite mediocre meal. Back at the hotel things quieten down by the time I've finished my bedtime read, and I have a really deep sleep, not stirring all night. But it's not my sort of place at all, people buzzing at my door asking (last night) if I want dinner, or now if I want breakfast, and the neighbours starting up again, so I take off down the Mall, and ask at the Hotel Classic, where at 550 rupees, it's 200 cheaper than the Gulmarg, all the quiet you can handle, a beaut view, and I seem to be the only guest.

In the afternoon I walk out west along The Mall a couple of kilometres to the Himachal Museum, a quite extensive collection, with everything from coins and stamps through to archeology, guns, paintings and anthropology. From there it is not too far to the Vice-Regal Lodge, which was built in the 1880's to house the Viceroy and the goverment, who ruled India from here during the hot months, from March until October. Inside the building (no cameras allowed), you can look up about 4 floors from the central foyer, all the staircases and every square inch of wall covered in ornately-carved Burmese teak. Since Independence, the building has housed the Indian Department of Advanced Studies, but you can look around provided you are quiet and don't disturb the workers. I went on a guided tour, and we were allowed to peer into the library from outside. It had several incredible crystal chandeliers in it, and when I asked, the guide said that it used to be the Vice-Regal ballroom. It was funny, because I was the only western tourist amongst about 30 local tourists, so we got each part of the tour first in Hindi, and then everybody had to wait while the lady explained it all to me in English. I had been intrigued by this place since watching a Malcolm Muggeridge documentary series on the Raj in India, which was on TV decades ago, and I must say it wasn't disappointing. One thing that had stuck in my mind from the series, was him saying that in the nineteenth century the Russians could never understand how 10,000 Englishmen could rule hundreds of millions of Indians, much of the time from a mountain eyrie.