Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
After getting up early, washing ourselves we went to look for breakfast. We thought The Mall would be the best place but we were to be disappointed, nothing was open so we headed back down to the main street and found something there. We also hoped that it would not affect our stomachs and we would be caught short on the mountain.
Breakfasted and packed our driver arrived to pick us up at 10am. We headed out of Simla towards the peak. The views would have been spectacular if the mist was not so thick which obscured things. We could see the vague shape of the mountain in the distance but not much more. We drove for about 2.5 hours with a brief stop at a restaurant for the driver to have his breakfast and us to have a chai.
The road to the mountain goes all the way up the mountain but depending on the snow depends how far. Our driver took us up the first part about half way there. He almost didn't as when he tried to go round a steep curve the car could not get any grip. There were a few moments I thought we would rollback down the mountain and that would be my trip to India over. In the end we got out and walked and then he picked us up again.
I started to get bit worried our driver was going to take us all the way to the top. In the end the road was covered in snow so he accompanied us a little way and then pointed us in the right direction and wished us luck.
We followed the road nearly all the way as the rest of the mountain was covered in deep snow. It took us about an hour to get to the top, with no falls or accidents. There on the top we celebrated in style eating a pomegranate. However, with the mist it was not possible to get photos of the view but there a couple of me looking dashing.
The ride back was quiet in fact I slept a fair bit as even though we didn't walk that much being out in the fresh air seemed to take it out of me. Our driver dropped us off at the new Simla bus terminal. A four storey building constructed on the side of the hill. It is very new, the final touches being finished and not all business' have moved in. If the poster in window is to be believed a cinema will be housed there.
We were supposed to board the bus at 21:00 but there was no driver and as we had big bags we could not just get on. 21:15 came and went, I asked at the ticket desk what platform our bus left from, we had been right it was platform 2. There was a cricket match between india and Bangladesh so we reckoned until that was over or 21:30 came we would not be boarding. Which was right.
21:30 the driver came and started the engine and there was a rush to board. When I asked where can we store our luggage he moved his head in a sideways fashion of India, seeming to say "not my problem, mate" I could have punched him. Luckily there were othe Indians who had large bags do the ticket collect did us a favour and opened the boot.
Finally safely on our deluxe bus, which in Uk would considered basic, we set of for Mcloud Ganj a 9 hour bumpy ride to look forward to. I wondered if I would get any sleep and then promptly dozed off until a bump woke me up five minutes later. "Only another 8hours to go." I thought.
- comments