Incredible India - Day 4-5: Sub-Himalayan Temple Monkeys

"Hindhi, Hindhi!", meaning the language Indians speak - but we used it as "Go, Go" or "Yes, Yes" or anything else that didn't make any sense at all saying it, let alone saying it twice... a dozen times a day. 

After a short night, every one was still tired from the previous' day trip, and packing a bag for a one-night stay, the whole group met up in the hotel lobby to leave for a two-day trip to the north. After, yet again, a loss of time due to latecomers, the group got split in to and we each hopped in a van not knowing what we had to expect. I can tell you, Indian roads and Indian drivers... not a joke... Shimla, here we come! 

As we had left very early, we didn't have time for breakfast. Our guide had the genuis (?) idea to stop at a "local" car park where we could have breakfast. As it was 9AM by that time we had two options: McDonald's or Subway. Very Indian indeed. In the middle of nowhere, and I mean: there was nothing else around for at least 30mins drive, there were these two american restaurants, right next to each other. Then it took us another 40mins to get out of there as the guy from Subway loved us (and Hans in particular) so much that he wanted a picture with almost all of us, while asking us a thousand questions in -to be honous- excellent english.

After an eight hour ride, for a mere 200kms!, we finally arrived in Shimla! This "small" city is situated in the lower Himalayan and it was great to visit this part of India, as the weather as well as the atmospher were quite different from what we've had experienced in Jalandhar (LPU) and Amritsar (Golden Temple). Our hotel, Bridge View Regency, was located almost at the top of the town, which gave us an amazing view over this city. And, finally, our first beer of the trip. A beer on a +2000m terrace with such a view... Simply amazing. As Hans stated it so well at that point: "YOIO: You Only India Once!"

Well received by the locals [Foto by MDW]

Even though we had just travelled for over 8hrs, we wanted to see a bit of the city. Under the guidance of Rajat, our Indian host/guide, we hired three taxi's and went all the way up the mountain. Here we discoverd a huge statue with a temple right next to it. and monkeys, monkeys everywhere! Simply said, for us it was a Monkey Temple! (but don't ever dare say that over there!)

Huge statue on a 2550m mountain

Monkeys, Monkeys everywhere!

We took the taxi's back down and went into the city for some shopping. Unfortunately it was already almost closing time and, apart from some cheap shirts and basic souvenirs, we had no other choice than finding a place for dinner -which happened to be a bad pizza- and a bar for another good beer. At this point it was only Hans, Michele (our Italian companion: Mike for the ladies) and me. We decided to find a pub and have a beer before heading back for the hotel. In a pub, which was to close at 11PM we had the luck to get one more beer before closing time. Right when we were about to leave, a drunk English man and his even more drunk Irish girlfriend came sit with us and we had a good laugh and talk about business, India and "world citizenship leading to world peace" as a whole. When heading back to the hotel, it was Rajat's plan to go to a local "Disc" as he states it. A disco, for those who don't understand. Well, at midnight it was closed... So we headed back home and went to bed, dreaming about monkeys, temples and crazy Indian driving.

We saw this sign all over the city, still not sure what it means in Indian.. 

Seriously, what is this?!

The next morning we got up, had another typical Indian breakfast (toast and tea), lost another hour waisting time and headed back down the mountain. A pitty to stay only so little in the town of Shimla. Not that there is much more to do, but I just don't think it is worth the 8hr drive (twice) just to see a temple with monkeys... Well, maybe it is...

After another couple of hours drive, we ended up in Chandigarh, were we would be visiting Infosys, one of the world's largest and most important IT-companies. To be short: the company visit was an awesome idea, the chose company as well, as it is a world leader etc. etc. But I think I speak for the whole group if I say that I would prefer having a proper company presentation and receive some insights on how the company works and will develop in the future instead of getting a tour through their swimming pool, fitness centre, snooker/ping pong/squash/... halls and kantine.. A company visit should be about how a specific company/sector does business and how it will tackle future developments or opportunities, not about how many people can sit in the company hair dresser at once. But maybe that's just me.

Another four hours bus ride brought us back to the hotel at 9.30PM and after another Indian dinner, with again the same ingredients, (and where we almost got kicked out for staying 5mins longer than the allowed 10PM in the school restaurant) we went to bed. Exhausted of having spent over fifteen hours in a bus in the last two days, to do as little as 450kms. Incredible India indeed.

A beer with a view!

Mountains always give you an amazing view.