Our breakfast was ready! The call came through to our room telephone for us to attend the breakfast room.
This time we enjoyed an English breakfast with coffee. There was a friendly girl from South Korea staying too and she joined us for interesting conversation. Her English was excellent.
We caught the local bus up to the old bus stand. It was so busy. We were packed in pretty tight for the 10 minute ride. We asked about a bus for tomorrow and then headed up through the markets to The Ridge. This is a lovely pedestrian area overlooking both sides of the valley. We studied many old colonial buildings before viewing the beautiful Gaiety Theate where many people have been on stage including Michael Palin and Lord Robert Baden-Powell.
The sun was out this morning which meant everyone was out enjoying a Sunday stroll. The locals were playing Bingo and had small stalls selling homemade products. We viewed a couple of art exhibitions where we watched one artist painting beautiful portraits.
Next was a steep climb to the Hanuman temple on the highest hill in Shimla. There was a cable car to the top but we chose a 30 minute uphill trek to keep us warm. We had heard that the monkeys can be a little tricky, so were advised to carry sticks. At the top was a huge Hanuman statue and a small Hindu temple dedicated to the God. We watched the monkeys carefully as we walked around the beautiful gardens. On the way back down we saw the monkeys go to work. We saw one that had stolen a shoe. We Saw saw another steal a scarf from a lady. Next we saw one jump onto a man's shoulders and steal his glasses! We continued to watch and were surprised what happened next. The man minus his glasses went to a street seller and bought some nuts. He threw the nuts at the monkey holding his glasses who dropped the glasses, picked up the nuts and ran away. Apparently the monkeys have been trained to do this and it is a bit of a scam! The ladies who lost the shoe and scarf didn't pay up and didn't get them back!
The walk down was a lot quicker than going up. We then relaxed over coffee and chatted to two men from The New Forest. There seems to be a lot of Chinese food in Shimla, so that's what we had for dinner before catching the bus down to New Shimla and a short walk to the hotel.
This time we enjoyed an English breakfast with coffee. There was a friendly girl from South Korea staying too and she joined us for interesting conversation. Her English was excellent.
We caught the local bus up to the old bus stand. It was so busy. We were packed in pretty tight for the 10 minute ride. We asked about a bus for tomorrow and then headed up through the markets to The Ridge. This is a lovely pedestrian area overlooking both sides of the valley. We studied many old colonial buildings before viewing the beautiful Gaiety Theate where many people have been on stage including Michael Palin and Lord Robert Baden-Powell.
The sun was out this morning which meant everyone was out enjoying a Sunday stroll. The locals were playing Bingo and had small stalls selling homemade products. We viewed a couple of art exhibitions where we watched one artist painting beautiful portraits.
Next was a steep climb to the Hanuman temple on the highest hill in Shimla. There was a cable car to the top but we chose a 30 minute uphill trek to keep us warm. We had heard that the monkeys can be a little tricky, so were advised to carry sticks. At the top was a huge Hanuman statue and a small Hindu temple dedicated to the God. We watched the monkeys carefully as we walked around the beautiful gardens. On the way back down we saw the monkeys go to work. We saw one that had stolen a shoe. We Saw saw another steal a scarf from a lady. Next we saw one jump onto a man's shoulders and steal his glasses! We continued to watch and were surprised what happened next. The man minus his glasses went to a street seller and bought some nuts. He threw the nuts at the monkey holding his glasses who dropped the glasses, picked up the nuts and ran away. Apparently the monkeys have been trained to do this and it is a bit of a scam! The ladies who lost the shoe and scarf didn't pay up and didn't get them back!
The walk down was a lot quicker than going up. We then relaxed over coffee and chatted to two men from The New Forest. There seems to be a lot of Chinese food in Shimla, so that's what we had for dinner before catching the bus down to New Shimla and a short walk to the hotel.