Le Talbot Hotel Shimla

... for anybody who wanted to cool their mind and senses off the heat and sultry of Indian summers. Himachal Pradesh has been bestowed with picturesque beauty that is incorporated in the various hill stations. You can experience peace and serenity by visiting various pilgrimage destinations like temples and monastery in Himachal Pradesh that are really stupendous. There are many colonial monuments that form the monumental ...

... papers were signed to end British rule, and split India and Pakistan. As we left we saw something even more jarring on a building that looked like it should be in Scotland - a monkey walking across the ramparts of the lodge.

On the subject of monkeys., Shimla has a lot of monkeys, a lot of very confident monkeys. Its main temple is dedicated to the monkey god, so they have the run of the place. We hired sticks to ward off monkeys - they can ...

... ny shoes before entering a church! It looks like your average English church, lots of stained glass windows, font, pulpit, organ but it's slap bang in the middle of the Indian mountains.

Had a look at the memorial tablets after Mcleod Ganj I've decided that they are worth looking at. Spotted one for the ex headmistress of a school in Shimla who "crossed the border" rather good euphamism!
Another I am going to quote in full.
Bertie Edgar ...

... honderd tunnels. Voor Shimla hebben we weer heel wat meegemaakt sinds onze vorige blog, dus bereid je voor op een lang verhaal. Allereerst het volgende. Ik kan er zelf inmiddels mee leven dus ik ga het met jullie delen: Mijn haar is zwart.. En dat heb ik niet met opzet gedaan. We wilden ons haar bruin verven met natuurlijke henna-verf. Eerst hadden we Jorindes haar gedaan en het zag er superleuk uit dus ik zag er al naar uit dat ik aan de beurt was. De ...

... up to the fabled region of Ladakh in the nothernmost tip of India were going to have to be scrapped unless we were to dedicate an inordinate amount of time and funds getting there. Having heard that Ladakh had much in common with the dry rugged mountains of Nepal, we reluctantly let go of our plans to go to there and leave it to another day. However, we still had our train tickets to Shimla, the first leg of our journey to Ladakh. Since we had heard that Shimla ...

... in turn was in a rather impressive building, which in England would be called a stately house and used to be called the 'Viceregal Lodge', where the Shimla Conferences were held and where the Partition Agreement was signed. Again, a bit too British to feel like India and a bit odd. But if it had been in Britain the National Trust would have taken the garden in hand and the ticket office wouldn't have taken a two hour unscheduled lunch break. They also wouldn't have called the ...

... so close to the India-Tibet border. THe regulations have changed and it must be done in person now. Hopefully will get away soon for my 5 day jeep safari to my monastery in the Pin Valley. Not sure when I'll be able to send mail again. Cheers

... lime green walls and dark brown chairs but it's very popular with the locals who were all drinking either tea or coffee. I ordered scrambled eggs on toast and a coffee (which was the best I've had in India so far). The waiters were all wearing bright white clean uniforms with sailor type paper hats. 2 guys were wearing whats called Cummerbunds - white uniforms with red and yellow belts and a hat with a small white plume on top with a small red and yellow ...

... feet and in a week I reached the highest motorable village on earth, Kibber, which is entirely Buddhist...the monasteries in the region are remarkable, I visited the morning chants at 6am and was mesmerized by the peace and warmth of the monks (but don't like modeling for photos). Most monks have lived at the monasteries their whole lives, hence, they know nothing about the outside world...they invite you in for tea (LOTS of tea everyday)...and you sit around a lot ...

... as far as their acting went. Interestingly, the lyrics were written by this guy named Vishal Dadlani, I hear, who heads a band named Pentagram from Bombay. What's the big deal? Not much, except they came last year to perform at our institute. So, the name rang a bell. Moreso because, that guy raised a huge deal about losing his ring at our institute. Our luck to have it stolen on our campus! I do hope he's found it by now. ok, the DJ has shifted songs: song ...