Shimla, 5 July 2004

As I woke up in the morning, I peeked through the curtains and, I have to admit, there was indeed a breathtaking view of the hills through the window. It still bothered me, however, how people would enjoy such views when, in reality, highly treacherous driving is the price they have to pay for such a view! A barely visible note on the window warned us to be careful about leaving food in the balcony: it would invite the stray monkeys and there was no telling what could ensue once you had them as guests!

The children woke up an hour after I did, and we all showered. I had told them we would meet the driver at around 10:00 AM. We had breakfast at the hotel room: the restaurant dining area was being remodeled and, even if it were not, the amount of flies in the dining hall and in the neighborhood didn't inspire one to dine there.

I was not at all certain I wanted to engage in more treacherous driving for the day. However, it seemed necessary to do some driving to get to any interesting place. Thus, we set out to a place called Kufri - we had driven through that town the previous night to get to the resort hotel - where the driver recommended that we could do some horse riding. We went there, got out of the car, but the children felt that was not indeed going to be enjoyable, and decided against it. (I was not interested in it any way). It turned out that it was a good decision for another reason: it rained so heavily in a few minutes that it would have ruined the horse ride.

The next stop was for us to take in the city of Shimla: I had decided that we had enough of these breathtaking views with their attendant treacherous driving. The best suggestion that the driver had for us was the main mall in Shimla. We got off at the foot of the mall - remember Shimla is a hilly town - and we took some steps all the way to the top, where the mall area was located.

The mall was really nothing but a row of shops on a hilly road, not much of a mall - I felt - based on my experience with malls in the United States. By now, my children had gotten a special liking to dosa and chow mein, and we found a restaurant where both were served, and we had a nice lunch.

At the rendezvous - a bus stop - we had arranged to be picked up, the driver joined us and it was decided that the best thing we could do for the rest of the day is to go back to the hotel: it was still raining anyway, and I felt it was not conducive to any more driving around. I suggested to the driver that we would want to leave to New Delhi the next day rather early: I didn't want to get back into New Delhi rather late.

In the rest of the afternoon, my son and I played a little table tennis in the hotel premises and, with a simple dinner served in the room, we finished the day.

Later in the tour, my children would ask me whose idea it was to visit Shimla: I would admit, of course, that it was my idea; but, I had a different imagination of what the experience would be like, based on my knowledge of Shimla from Hindi movies.