Hotel Peterhoff Shimla

... of the region.

The drainage systems of Himachal Pradesh are Sutlej, Ravi, Chenab, Beas and Yamuna. This Hill Station experience three seasons hot weather season, cold weather season and rainy season. It is considered as a fruit bowl of the country. Himachal Pradesh is a well known habitat to a variety of animals. There are around 1200 bird and 359 animal species in the state. Himachal Pradesh is divided into 12 districts ...

... 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 ...

... diesel engine pulling us up hills no train should be able to manage, crossing hundreds of bridges and passing through dozes of tunnels. All built to take the British to Shimla, which during the summer months was used as the British Raj's capital. Each small quaint station enroute has two signs, one telling you how high you've climbed, the other a quote promoting religious harmony.

... always take many many hours to travel that distance through the dirt roads or winding mountain roads and what have you. Anyway, we found the entrance to Monkey Temple and there was a sign put up informing people how long the hike should take for various age categories. For 30-45 year olds it was 45 minutes from bottom to top to be considered 'asbolutely fit' and for the 20-30 year olds it was 30 minutes. We began the hike. Annina and Eyal bought some 'monkey ...

... I just dreampt of being in a noisy bus in the middle of nowhere crunched up in a black hole. I had waking dreams, or vivid thoughts brought on through wishing I was asleep. I saw a very clear image of an old lady standing on a road in Old Dehli next to a very large brown and white horse that had some sort of brilliant white head dress on, or maybe a head plate that had long ...

... feeling almost exuberant at the fact that I felt, for the first time since the second module started the Wednesday before (directly after my 290 exam - OUCH!) that I was in with a fighting chance of passing this mother. And pass I did. The professionalism, courtesy, patience and understanding shown by all the staff at Koenig is second to non and this truly is an end to end service. Not only was getting from Delhi to Shimla a cinch but having settled my ...

It was so nice to escape from Delhi again! For all other rail journeys that I've undertaken so far in India, I've been conveyed in sleeper compartments - multiple tiers of padded benching, with everyone sitting on the lowest tier during the day-time. For the journey to Kalka, a small town at the base of the Himalayan foothills marking the northern end of the broad-gauge railway line, I booked onto a 'Chair Car', the class of carriage most similar to what I'm ...

... of they are caught throwing litter or spitting in the street. Shimla has a town hall and a rotary club and various other small things that illustrate the presence of the raj there. It seems that time has stood still since they left and Shimla is in a time warp - albeit very quaint and refreshing having come from Amritsar. James and I walked up the mountains to the Jakhu temple where Hanuman is worshiped. being a monkey god, the temple is overrun with monkeys trying ...

... in, so Puru was everyone's best friend! We bumped into a couple we met when we did our trek - a Norwegian guy and a French-Canadian girl - think they were quite confused to see Puru and I in the same place together! We watched a Hindi film - I'd forgotten how long and angst-ridden they are - I was so drained from all the heartache and emotion by the end of it! Good songs though :o) After two days back at work it was the weekend again! Yay! I went to Mussoorie again on ...

... us) and so we pulled out of the station a carriage virtually to ourselves for the 6 hour trundle up the mountain to Shimla. The journey was as scenic as we had hoped...the track wound its way up a seemingly endless gradient folllowing the contours of the hills, passing over deep ravines , rounding steep sided valleys and huge buttresses . At every winding turn we were treated to new 'cinematic' vistas and impressive (if hazy) views of the slowly disappearing plaines layed out ...