shimla pinks
despite having sold out in a big way to corporate law i'm still a big mincer at heart, and as such i am really liking shimla... fair play clive of india and his gang. the pace of life here is stroll, occasionally rising to amble when required. it is moreover the most posey place in india i have ever encountered: lots of quasi-gap polos and minxish salvar kameez, and even more parading from one end of the main thoroughfare (the Mall) to the other and back again. there's a pervasive, but faint, hint of (a)sexual tension and i've even seen a few couples, who are clearly not married, walking about holding hands! i had to have a pretty strong cup of tea after that one. the setting's pretty jawdropping too. the city's surrounded by buildings and tall conifers, yet every now and then you get a gap and suddenly see this succession of hills and valleys, vibrant green until arriving at a wreath of clouds. stunning.
the cloud is a bit of a pain though. i walked up to the highest point on the shimla ridge, at 2,500m, where on a clear day you can see the snowcapped peaks to the north west. sadly all that was visible today was the vaguest of hints of mountains and a very sweaty bicrom. 45 minutes of walking up a stupidly steep path almost killed me: why did i bin the gym for the month before i came here? doofus. either way i'm heading further into the mountains tomorrow so hopefully i'll get a proper glimpse in a bit. or a heart attack.
off to show these natives a thing or two about posing... time to get the beater out!
and no nazi's anywhere
they may not be alive with the sound of music but the hills around shimla are actually rather beautiful, surrounded by a kind of verdant greenery that i initially found very hard to associate with india. for me this country's always been about the noise and smoke of the cities, so the peaceful ride up through the mountains on the little toy train was a real eye opener for me. actually peaceful may be a bit of an euphemism: deathly slow is probably more accurate. having said that the look of the roads filled with me dread... in another subcontinental anomaly they look pretty good, smooth and with line markings and all sorts. the concept of hurtling around them, all blind corners and ridiculous sheer drops, in an antiquated bus driven by some maniac is, however, a little disquieting. maybe it's head in the sand time again.
shimla is actually rather nice too, full of super trendy young indians (again, no tasches) and monkeys. i'm going to have a proper explore tomorrow: right now, i haven't got round to eating since about 7 yesterday, so it's time for foodages.
mmmmmm
double chicken single egg roll. that is all.
delhi: briefly
i blame rupert murdoch. i never thought that the seemingly invincible moustache hegemony that held sway over all indian youth (male or female) for years would be vanquished, but a couple of years of the bold and the beautiful and every youthful lip is bald. gutting. fortunately, some things never change, and i was graced with a particularly lunatic bud taxi driver (with, i'm pleased to say, a corking tasche) for my drive from delhi airport to paharganj. clearly a devotee of some cult of the cabbie, he seemed hell bent on achieving martyrdom in the taxi driving cause and taking me with him. somewhat hilariously delhi now has traffic lights, cars with indicators/ brakes and even a bus lane (unsurprisingly bereft of buses... they get to drive wherever they want anyway): as if schumacher singh and his driving pals take the slightest bit of notice. never has 40km/h felt so quick.
that's the thing with indian driving, you're always going at ridiculously slow speeds, which is why only ten people a day die in delhi. it's a bit of information you have to remember when crossing roads: there are never any actual gaps, so step out onto the road and back the onmeandering vehicles to avoid you. actually maybe it's only wise to remember the former fact (people go slow) rather than the latter (people die anyway) if you want to get anything done.
after an hour and a half of bureaucracy, i now have a rail ticket up to shimla so i'm going up to the hills. tomorrow. at 6am. damn! i'm going to bed...
