Shimla Sights

The first picture is of the Chirst Church, nice and haunting in the dark!

The second is of Scandel Point, Shimla is a tourist destination for Indian people as well, so it's full of ice cream stalls and people sitting around taking in the views and shooting off noisey balloons in the day and these flourescant helicopters at night!

The final three are of us at the Viceregal Lodge.

St Bede's School and College

Grandy: We managed to get a lift from someone in the hotel to St Bede's, took bit of recon to get matt into an all girls college but we found the back entrance and by-passed security! There is a school and also a college, the college wasn't very picturesque it's looks quite like a british college except it's built on a very steep hill!

The second and third pictures are of the school, we only saw very young children there and couldn't find the reception to ask any question. But the school is attached to the college, all girls as previously mentioned, it's very treey and green, looks like it's fairly wealthy, the girls we asked for directions from were fluent in english. The fourth and fifth pictures show the college, we couldn't get to see anymore because we weren't really supposed to be there in the first place!

I hope you like the pictures xxx

Shimla

After finally going to see the doctor yesterday and getting some gut busting medication (i kid you not 10 pills a day) we were able to venture to our second tourist site in two weeks!!!
A 2km walk out of shilma (felt more like 5 with the hills!) and cheeky navigation of the monkey traffic! we found the the Viceregal Lodge, where the British Viceroy lived during the summer (Ambasador equivalent when India was part of the British empire, we think!) Pretty impressive building, although we weren't able to see much inside because it is now a 'higher learning' academy - for scholars.
The weather is very very misty here, we're not quite sure if it is actually mist or low clouds to be honest! It rained yesterday and on the walk home from the Viceregal lodge you could literally see it wisping along the road!
We've booked a trek at the weekend (after harry potter is released!!) around the Kinnaur Valley, it was slightly expensive but we get jeeped to three separate destinations to trek (one which includes hot springs!) which is probably more practical than the other option, ascending the local 4000m peak! We are going with two girls who's name's and nationalities we don't know but they seemed pretty good at haggling, they managed to half the price of the trek!

Beth: can you send my congratulations to Gemma, what a beautiful name, have you met her yet?

A Room with a View

So here are a few pictures of Shimla, the first two were during the epic train journey up here. The third and fourth are the views from our room! Sadly the mist is due to the monsoon season, we also took some video's to capture the views better. The last picture is of Shilma, as you can see it's very very steep here. There will be more to come!!

Fantasy Rock Garden

Here's a little sneaky peak at what we've been doing when we haven't been ill! Nek Chand's fanatsy rock garden in Chandigarh - is created surprisingly out of rock's but also things such as recycled pottery, bangles and pebbles were used to create human and animal figures as well as waterfalls and archways.

And there's also the fittest cakes ever in india! Blueberry cake with chocolate almond ice cream as i seem to remember ;)

Chandigarh - Shimla

After a series of unfortunate events in chandigarh - confining us to within 5 ft of the hotel toilet and teaching us the joy of a domino's pizza when you have delhi belly! We have moved onto Shimla.
The journey here took five hours on a railway that basically curled around on itself all the way up the mountain, stunning views!!! Some american travellers were moaning a bit but to be honest we can't fault the public transport, it arrives on time ish and it's cheap and relatively clean!! Shimla is much MUCH cooler than the rest of india, we're talking UK temps, lovely jubbly!! It's also peaceful because trasport in banned in the centre, no harrassment from the rick-shaws!! Alas it is hilly, very very hilly and with two huge backpacks, the walk from the station to our hotel (obviously we picked the one right at the top!) was challenging! We're thinking of going trekking in a few days, but for now enjoying some R&R and clean air is perfection!
Our room has a view of the himalayan foothills (i assume) unfortunetely it's foggy because of the monsoon our photos are slightly below par, (still searching for the one to knock your socks off dad!) There are also monkies everywhere! we want to go see the monkey temple but have to figure out a way to stop them stealing matt's glasses! Apprently they are so clever they steal from your pockets and will only return your stuff in exchange for food! Strangely enough, unlike other animals we have seen, these monkies are spotless, their fur gleams!
All in all we are now having a really good time :)
love to you all xxx