India Travel

Most travellers only spend a couple of nights in Shimla - long enough to see the sights, and to book an onward ticket. There’s little to detain you any longer, and accommodation is, in the main, phenomenally expensive. Between mid-April and mid-September, tariffs double; during May, June and July, finding anywhere at all to stay is impossible if you haven’t booked in advance. At other times it’s worth trying to negotiate a discount: a fifty percent reduction is usual from November to early April. The prices listed here are for high season.

The Cecil, the Mall 0177/204848, or reserve through Delhi 011/436 3030. Apiece of Shimla’s history. Bought and revamped by the Oberoi group, it is luxurious but devoid of character, with little but the facade as a reminder of its past. Rooms 225-275.

Chanakya, Lakkar Bazaar 0177/254465. Cosy, clean and central. The cheaper rooms are good value.

Chapslee, Lakkar Bazaar 0177/202542. Beautiful old manor house which captures Shimla’s grand past; set in its own grounds on the edge of town and stuffed with antiques. Five luxurious suites, one single room, and a library, card room, tennis court, and croquet lawn. Book in advance. Meals also available to non-guests if booked in advance.

Dreamland, the Ridge, above the church. Good-value during the low season, with clean rooms, moat with hot water, Star TV, and views of the Himalayas. 0-0 Fontaine Bleau, below the Kali temple, near the Mall 0177/253549. Simple rooms in a friendly eccentric family house just a short walk up from the station. Don’t arrive with a porter as they won’t pay a commission. Good value.

Oberoi Clarks, the Mall 0177/251010. Period building converted into a very comfortable, formula five-star. Rooms 132, plus 10 percent tax, with all meals included.

Pineview, Mythe Estate, below the Mall 0177/257045. A good location facing north on the far side of the Victory tunnel, with a wide choice of comfortable rooms.

Ranjan, just above the bus stand. Large white building with simple rooms, some original fittings and a sunny balcony. Good if you can’t face the
climb up the hill from the bus stand.

Sangeet, the Mall 0177/202506-7. Friendly, comfortable, modern hotel. Good value.

Uphar, the Ridge, near the Dreamland 0177/257670, Friendly place, large rooms some with Star TV and balcony: ail have hot showers.

Vikrant, Cart Road, near the station 0177/253602. Handy for late arrivals and early departures. Large hotel with some singles. All rooms have TV.

White. Lakkar Bazaar 0177/25613B. Centrally located and well-managed hotel, with immaculate.light rooms with views. Deluxe suites excellent. Recommended.

Woodland, Daisy Bank Estate 0177/211002. Tucked away above the eastern end of the mall in a concrete jungle - range of clean rooms, the pricier ones with bathtubs Quiet, bazaar views and easy access to Jakhu Peak.

Woodville Palace, Raj Bhavan Road, 50177/223919. Twenty mintues’ walk south from Christ Church, an elegant, old-fashioned 1930s mansion on the peaceful western side of town, with huge rooms, period furniture, lawns and a badminton court. Members of the former localroyal family still upstairs. Its shown Suite is priced at Rs6000

YMCA, the Ridge f 0177/204085 Large including seven en-suites. In-house dininc Z Star TV, snooker tables (table tennis mL and sun-terrace. West wing is more modem There’s a Rs40 membership charge and breaks is included. Low-season rates negotiable a YWCA, Constantia, the Mall S0177/203081 a large rambling old building in grounds right on inn of the Ridge with great views of the distant Himalayas. Basic rooms and hot water bv th» bucket.

Wherever you arrive in Shimla, you’ll be mobbed by porters. Most of the town is pedestrianized, and seriously steep, so you maybe glad of the extra help to carry your gear, but bear in mind that most porters double as touts and demand a commission which will increase the cost of your room. Taxis, which line up outside the Tourist Reception Centre on Cart Road, are the best way to get to tne pricier hotels on the outskirts. The mainVishal Himachal Taxi Union rank ("30177/257645) is lkm east of the bus stand, at the bottom of the elevator (Rs5 each way) that connects the east end of Cart Road with the Mall-The list of set fares they publish applies to high season; at other times, you should be able to negotiate discounts. Other, more central, taxi ranks can be found just above the main bus station and near the tourist office on Cart Road. The elevator, known as “the lift", consists of two stages connected by a corridor midway - keep your ticket, bought from the operator, with you for the second stage.

Buses arriving on the main Chandigarh and Manali highways approach Shimla from the west, via Cart Road and pull in at the chaotic main bus stand, halfway around the hill. Buses from Narkanda, Rampur and Kinnaur arrive at the Rivoli bus stand (or"Lakkar Bazaar") on the north side ot the Ridge, though some continue to the main bus stand. Shimla’s airport lies 21km southeast of town on the Mandi road atjubarhati.

The HPTDC main tourist office (daily: high season 9am-7pm: low season 9am-6pm; 0177/252561), is located on the Mall near Scandal Point. They organize whistle-stop sightseeing tours to destinations around Sbimla, including Kufri, Chail, Narkanda and Sarahan, as well as Heritage Walks (2-3hr; Rs50) around Shimla, and helicopter rides (3 routes, prices according to route and number of passengers). To venture into the more remore and challenging regions such as Kinnaur and Spiti, check out the many mountaineering and trekking agencies on the Mall. For a list of recommended operators.

Until the construction of the Kalka-Shimla railway, the only way to get to Shimla hill station was on the so-called Cart Road - a slow, windi the trail trodden’by lines of long-suffering porters and horse-drawn tongas. Plans for a narrow- L.autr railway had been started as early as 1847, but it cook the intervention of the vicerov himself, Lord Curzon, to get the massive undertaking off the ground.

By the time the 96-kilometre line was completed in 1897. (13 tunnels. 24 bridges and 18 stations had been built between Shimla and che railhead at Kalka, 26km northeast of Chandigarh. These days, buses may be quicker, but a ride on the toy train” is far more memorable - especially if you travel first-class, in one of the sided rail cars. Hauled along by a tiny blue-and-white diesel locomotive, they rattle at a leisurely pace through stunning scenery, taking between five-and-a-half and seven hours to reach Shimla.
Along the route, you’ll notice the guards exchanging little leather pouches with staff strategically positioned on the station platforms. The bags they receive in return contain small brass discs, which the drivers slot into special machines to alert the sig-n;ik ahead of their approach. “Neal’s Token System", in place since the line was first inaugurated, is a fail-safe means of ensuring that trains travelling in opposite directions never meet face to face on the single-track sections of the railway.

For information about train times and ticket booking, see p.528. of the Raj. The buna- and memsahibs may have moved on, but Shimla retains a decidedly British feel: pukka Indian gentlemen in tweeds stroll along the Mall smoking pipes, while neatly turned-out schoolchildren scuttle past mock-Tudor shop-fronts and houses with names like Braeside. At the same time, the dense, chaotic mass of corrugated iron rooftops immediately below the ridge, Shimla’s bazaar, lends an unmistakably Indian aspect to the town, an active market and gateway for the northwestern Himalayan region.

The best time to visit is during October and November, before the Himachali winter sets in, when the days are still warm and dry, and the morning skies are clear. From December to late February, heavy snow is common, and temperatures hover around, or below zero. The spring brings with it unpredictability: warm blasts of air from the plains, and flurries of freezing rain from the mountains. Try to avoid the two high seasons (mid-April to mid-June & mid-Sept to mid-Jan), when accommodation is scarce and expensive. Whenever you come, though, bring plenty of warm clothes as the nights can. get surprisingly chilly.

Whether you travel by road or rail, the last stretch of the climb up to SHIMLA seems interminable. Deep in the foothills of the Himalayas, the hill station is approached via an unfeasibly sinuous route that winds from the plains at Kalka across nearly 100km of precipitous river valleys, pine forests, and mountainsides swathed in maize terraces and apple orchards. It’s not hard to see why the British chose this inaccessible site as their summer capital. At an altitude of 2159m, the crescent-shaped ridge over which it spills is blessed with perennially cool air, crisp light, and superb panoramas across verdant, undulating country to the snowy peaks of the Great Himalayan range.

Named after its patron goddess, Shamla Devi (a manifestation of Kali), the tiny village that stood on this spot was “discovered” by a team of British surveyors in 1817. Shortly afterwards, groups of battle-weary army officers began to trickle up here between skirmishes with the Gurkhas in the Sutlej Valley. Glowing reports of its beauty and climate gradually filtered to the imperial capital, Calcutta, and within a decade, the ridges around Shimla were peppered with bungalows and holiday cottages. The British finally persuaded the local raja to part with the land in 1830, and the settlement became the subcontinent’s most fashionable summer resort. Each year, long trains of packhorses and coolies picked their way up from the plains, bringing with them the Raj’s top brass, and legions of grass-widows whose husbands were obliged to sweat it out at lower elevations. The annual migration was finally rubber-stamped in 1864, when Shimla — now an elegant town of mansions, churches and cricket pitches - was declared the Government of India’s official hot-season HQ.The civil servants had to carry on business as usual, but for most of its temporary residents, the summer capital was an endless round of garden parties, formal dinners, high teas, balls, bridge games and evening promenades along the main street, the Mall. With the completion of the Kalka-Shimla Railway in 1903, Shimla lay only two days by train from Delhi. Its meteoric rise continued after Independence, when, following the reorganization of the Punjab in Shimla became state capital of Himachal Pradesh.

Today, Shimla is still a major holiday resort, popular mainly with nouvea* riche Punjabis and Delhi-ites who flock here in their thousands during the May-June run-up to the monsoons, and then again in September and October. Its jaded colonial charm also appeals to foreigners looking tor a taste Shimla

Whether you travel by road or rail, the last stretch of the climb up to SHIMLA seems interminable. Deep in the foothills of the Himalayas, the hill station is approached via an unfeasibly sinuous route that winds from the plains at Kalka across nearly 100km of precipitous river valleys, pine forests, and mountainsides swathed in maize terraces and apple orchards. It’s not hard to see why the British chose this inaccessible site as their summer capital. At an altitude of 2159m, the crescent-shaped ridge over which it spills is blessed with perennially cool air, crisp light, and superb panoramas across verdant, undulating country to the snowy peaks of the Great Himalayan range.

Named after its patron goddess, Shamla Devi (a manifestation of Kali), the tiny village that stood on this spot was “discovered” by a team of British surveyors in 1817. Shortly afterwards, groups of battle-weary army officers began to trickle up here between skirmishes with the Gurkhas in the Sutlej Valley. Glowing reports of its beauty and climate gradually filtered to the imperial capital, Calcutta, and within a decade, the ridges around Shimla were peppered with bungalows and holiday cottages. The British finally persuaded the local raja to part with the land in 1830, and the settlement became the subcontinent’s most fashionable summer resort. Each year, long trains of packhorses and coolies picked their way up from the plains, bringing with them the Raj’s top brass, and legions of grass-widows whose husbands were obliged to sweat it out at lower elevations.The annual migration was finally rubber-stamped in 1864, when Shimla — now an elegant town of mansions, churches and cricket pitches - was declared the Government of India’s official hot-season HQ. The civil servants had to carry on business as usual, but for most of its temporary residents, the summer capital was an endless round of garden parties, formal dinners, high teas, balls, bridge games and evening promenades along the main street, the Mall. With the completion of the Kalka-Shimla Railway in 1903, Shimla lay only two days by train from Delhi. Its meteoric rise continued after Independence, when, following the reorganization of the Punjab in Shimla became state capital of Himachal Pradesh.

Today, Shimla is still a major holiday resort, popular mainly with novena riche Punjabis and Delhi-ites who flock here in their thousands during the May-June run-up to the monsoons, and then again in September and October. Its jaded colonial charm also appeals to foreigners looking tor a taste

Shimla. Himachal’s capital, is India’s largest and most famous hill station, where much of the action in Rudyard Kipling’s colonial classic Kim took place. While the city is a favourite spot for Indian families and honeymooners, its size does little to win it popularity among Western tourists who tend to pass through on their way to Manali. It is however, a perfect halfway house if Vo ‘ heading to the Kullu Valley, or back in the other direction towards the of Haryana and Punjab. It’s also the starting post for forays into the rerrtnr regions of Kinnaur and Spiti.

Northeast of Shinila, the village of Sarahan. site of the famous Bhimakali temple, set against a spectacular backdrop of soaring peaks, can be visited in a two- or three-day round trip from Shimla, or enroute to Spiti.
The southernmost area of the state. Sirmaur. is Himachal Pradesh most fertile and enjoys an equable climate. Nahan. the capital, holds little of interest h the major Sikh shrine in Paonta Sahib and Renuka wildlife sanctuary an worth visiting if you have your own transport. Southeast of Shimla, Kausali j a peaceful place to break your journey from Chandigarh, whilst nearbv Nalagarh Fort has been converted into the finest hotel in the state.

The earliest known inhabitants of the area now known as Himachal Pradesh were the Dasas, who entered the hills from the Gangetic plain between the third and second millennium BC, having been pushed out of their homeland by the Indus Valley civilization that swept into India from the West. By 2000 BC the Dasas had been joined by the Aryans, and a number of tribal republics, known asjaaapadas, began to emerge in geographically separate regions, where they fostered separate cultural traditions.
The terrain made it impossible for one ruler to hold sway over the whole region. The Guptas forged inroads into the mountains between the second and fifth centuries AD, only to be ousted in turn by Vardhana rulers, then petty

Rana and Thakur chieftains, and ultimately the Hindu Rajputs. As early as 550AD Rajput families had gained supremacy over the northwestern districts of Brahmour and Chamba, just two of the many princely states created between the sixth and sixteenth centuries. Of these, the most powerful was Kangra, where the Katoch Rajputs held off attacks on their treasure-stocked fort from the sultans. Mahmud of Ghazm (1009 AD), and the Tughluqs (fourteenth century) before finally falling to the Moghuls in the sixteenth century During the medieval era. Lahaul and Spiti remained aloof, governed not by Rajputs, but by the Jos of Tibetan origin, who introduced Tibetan customs and architecture, and profited from trade between India, Lhasa and Samarkand. After a period of submission to Ladakh, Lahaul and Spiti came under the rajas of Kullu, a central princely state that reached its apogee in the seventeenth century. Further south, the region around Shimla and Sirmaur was divided into over thirty independently governed thakumis. In the late seventeenth century, the newly empowered Sikh community, based at Paonta Sahib (Sirmaur), added to the threat already posed by the Moghuls. By the eighteenth century, under Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the Sikhs had gained strongholds in much of western Himachal, and considerable power in both Kullu and Spiti.

I Battling against Sikh expansion, Amar Singh Tapur, the leader of the Gurkha army set on extending his own Nepalese dominion, failed to take Kangra, but consolidated power in the southern Shimla hill states. The thakurai chiefs turned to the British for help, and forced the last of the Gurkhas back into Nepal in 1815. Predictably, the British assumed power over the south, thus tempting the Sikhs to battle in the Anglo-Sikh War. With the signing of a treaty in 1846 the British annexed most of the south and west of the state, and in 1864 pronounced Shimla, a cool retrea: for British officers and their families, the summer government headquarters.

After Independence, the regions bordering present-day Punjab were integrated, named Himachal Pradesh ("Himalayan Provinces"), and administered by a chief commissioner. By 1956, HP was recognized as a Union Territory, and in 1966 the state as it exists today was formed, with Shimla as its capital. i Despite being a political unity, Himachal Pradesh is hardly culturally homogeneous. With over ninety percent of the population living outside the main towns, and many areas remaining totally isolated during the long winter months, Himachal’s separate districts maintain distinct customs, architecture, dress and agricultural methods. Though Hinduism dominates, there are substantial numbers of Sikhs, Muslims and Christians, and Lahaul, Spiti and Kinnaur have been home to Tibetan Buddhists since the tenth century.

Foreigners travelling between between Sumdo in Spiti and Morang in Kinnaur -where the road passes within a few kilometres of Western Tibet - require Inner Line Permits, Officially you are required to travel in a group of four or more organized by a travel agent, but it is possible for individual travellers to obtain a permit and proceed by local bus or Jeep.

Inner Line Permits are valid for seven days and available free of charge from District Magistrates’ or District Commissioners’ offices in Shimla, Manaii, Kullu, Rampur, Kaza and Rekong Peo. if travelling independently, you’re best off applying at Kaza (see p.584) in Spiti or Rekong Peo (see p.533) in Kinnaur. You will need three photographs and photocopies of the relevant pages of your passport and visa. When you get your permit make at least four photocopies to present at checkpoints along the way.

When travelling through restricted areas, you should never take photographs of military installations or sensitive sites like bridges. Stick to the main route and you should have no problems - excepting perhaps the state of the road itself.

Visitors to the densely populated Kangra valley west of Manaii invariably make a beeline for Dharamsala, whose large community of Tibetan exiles includes the Dalai Lama himself. Trekking paths lead east from here to the tea-growing district of Palampur, and north across the treacherous passes of the Dhauladhar mountains into the Chamba Valley.

Finding guides and porters for treks is rarely difficult. The season runs from July to late November in the west, and late October in the north and east. In winter, all but the far south of the state lies beneath a thick blanket of snow, enticing groups of adventurous skiers to try out remote pistes. The region north of Manaii is accessible only from late June to early October when the roads are clear. Even in summer, when the days are hot and the sun strong, northern Himachal is beset with cold nights; always carry warm clothes, or pick up a locally made shawl.

Ruffled by the lower ridges of the Shivalik Range in the far south, cut through by the Pir Panjal and Dhauladhar ranges in the northwest, and dominated by the great Himalayas in the north and east, HIMACHAL PRADESH (HP) is India’s most popular and easily accessible hill state. Sandwiched between the Punjab and Tibet, its lowland orchards, subtropical forests and maize fields peter out in the higher reaches where pines cling to the steep slopes of mountains whose inhospitable peaks soar in rocky crags and forbidding ice fields to heights of more than 6000m. Together with deep gorges cut by rivers crashing down from the Himalayas, these mountains form natural boundaries between the state’s separate districts. Each has its own architecture, from rock-cut shrines and shikhara temples to colonial mansions and Buddhist monasteries. Roads struggle against the vagaries of the climate to connect the larger settlements, which are way outnumbered by remote villages, many of which are home to semi-nomadic Gaddi and Gujjar shepherds.

An obvious way to approach the state is to head north from Delhi to the state capital, Shimla, beyond the lush and temperate valleys of Sirmaur. The former summer location of the British government, Shimla is a curious, appealing mix of grand homes, churches and chaotic bazaars, with a favourable climate and breathtaking views. The main road northeast from Shimla tackles a pass just north of Narkanda, then follows the River Sutlej east to Sarahan, with its spectacular wooden temple, and enters the eastern district of Kinnaur, most of which is accessible only to those holding Inner Line permits (see p.518). Alpine and green in the west, Kinnaur becomes more austere and barren as it stretches east to the Tibetan plateau, its staggering beauty enhanced by delicate timber houses, temples and fluttering prayer flags.

Another road from Shimla climbs slowly northwest to Mandi, a major staging post for the state. To the north is Himachal’s most popular tourist spot, the Kullu valley, an undulating mass of terraced fields, orchards and forests overlooked by snowy peaks. Its epicentre is the rapidly expanding tourist town of Manali, sixteen hours by bus from Delhi. Long a favourite hangout of Western hippio. Manali is set in idyllic mountain scenery and offers trekking, white-water rafting and relaxing hot springs in nearby Vashisht.

The sacred site of Manikaran in the Parvati valley has a large Sikh Gurudwara, small Hindu temple and deliciously hot sulphur-tree springs. Beyond the Rohtang Pass in the far north of Kullu district, the high-altitude desert valleys of Lahaul and Spiti stretch beneath massive snowcapped peaks ^d remote settlements with Tibetan gompas dotting the landscape. Permits fe needed for travel through to Kinnaur, but Ki, Kaza, and Tabo are open, as P the road through Lahaul to Leh in Ladakh.