Shimla

On your first day at high altitude, the normal advice is to take things easy; drink lots of water, walk slowly, breathe deeply and get used to the change in atmosphere. Rushing around like a lunatic is a bad idea and can set off altitude sickness.

So, it would be fair to say that our decision to go to the Jakhoo Temple in Shimla on the day we arrived was pretty dumb. The temple sits on top of Jakhoo Hill at an altitude of almost 2500m, a good 300m higher than most of the city of Shimla which is already at 'nose-bleed' height. We had arrived that morning, settled into the hotel and been out for a substantial lunch and a good wander, when we came across the tourist office at Scandal Point. Tourist Offices in India can be quite tricky. They are seldom like European ones where you wander in, say 'What should we do?' and get given a bunch of pamphlets and some enthusiastic advice. In most parts of India they'll happily answer your questions but you need to know the right questions to ask if you are to have any chance of getting what you need. You also have to be aware that it's very unlikely that you'll ever get a firmly expressed opinion on what you should do it seems that just isn't the way things are done.

So Shimla tourist office was poor by European standards and pretty outstanding by Indian ones. The jolly chap at the desk handed us maps (which are incidentally almost useless because of the 3-dimensional layout of the city) and fired off lots of suggestions of what to do and see. It was mid-afternoon by this point and he said we should still have time to get to the temple and back before it got dark. We were feeling foolishly energetic and set off to have a look.

The Walk

The route starts from just behind the Christ Church at the end of The Ridge. There's a sign that warns you it's a tough walk in fact, it suggests that you can measure how fit you are by how long it takes. If you are in your 20s it gives one set of target times, 30s and 40s another and so on. For our age range I think 35 mins was super-fit, 45 was pretty good, and 55 minutes or more was a wake-up call that you need to get a bit more exercise. The four of us stood and debated whether we really wanted to do it.

Hubby's attitude was 'I'll do it if I have to', mine was 'I can never resist a target', our friend Kuljit really wanted to do it and her hubby Dal really didn't want to go'. As you can imagine, girl-power always wins out and so we got our own way and set off.

The route up is unremittingly steep but it's paved the whole way so take it steadily, flop on the floor when it gets too much, drink lots of water and you'll probably survive. After about 15 minutes, Kuljit was ready to die but determined to keep going. She and Dal got into a 'domestic' which resulted in him storming off in a huff whilst the rest of us plodded slowly, sadly and increasingly despairingly behind. I can only say that if you find yourself in Shimla and want to do this walk, don't do it on day one.

What you find when you get there

Marital traumas aside, we finally reached the top and found a pair of rather grand looking gates and a small side temple with lots of monkeys. All the way up we'd been seeing these little fuzzy primates sitting on walls, picking at fleas and bouncing around like demented things. But once they get into their temple area, they turn into proper little demons. As we were checking out the small temple and preparing to walk up a load more steps to find the main temple area, a bunch of stressed looking tourists came down the steps and warned us about the monkeys. One of the men was clutching an expensive pair of sunglasses which had been taken hostage by a larger monkey who wouldn't return them until he gave him money and sweets. They advised us to zip up anything and everything of value because the monkeys were taking no prisoners.

So off came our hats, our sunglasses and anything else they could grab and we zipped them all up in pockets or backpacks and we headed up the steps towards the temple.

Why there's a temple on Jakhoo Hill

Legend tells that Hanuman, the monkey god and a good friend of Lord Rama, stopped to rest on the Jakhoo Hill during his journey from the Himalayas where he'd gone to collect the magic herbs to save Rama's brother Lakshman. As a geologist by training, I'd have to look for a story based around plate tectonics and orogenesis (don't worry sounds rude but it just means mountain building) but it's a long time since I gave up all that malarkey so today I'll settle for monkey gods being as good an explanation as any other.

Reaching the top we found a number of small temple buildings. Our friends being Sikh rather than Hindu, were of no use whatsoever in trying to interpret what it was all about. Dal's a bit 'funny' about going into places holy to any religion other than his own so we left him outside and the three of us deposited our shoes in a small hut and strolled up for a closer look. The main temple building was decorated with brightly coloured pictures of Hanuman and a couple of the buildings had bells hanging inside.

Attack of Hanuman's Friends

I'm sorry to not be able to say too much more about the temple itself but for all but Hindu pilgrims, it's not that easy to know what's going on. The main reason to come up here is to have a tough walk, to see the views and to get attacked by the monkeys. Whilst they respectfully kept their distance whilst we were around the temple buildings, as soon as our shoes were back on, we were fair game. One monkey had stolen a newspaper from an Indian visitor who was not impressed at all. Another had lost his water bottle. As we approached a big male saw my hands in my pockets and got excited at the thought that I might have food. He leapt up scratching to try to find out what was in my pocket and I foolishly dug my hands in even deeper and he did his best to bite me through the pocket of my fleece. The monkey was literally hanging off my hand as I swung round trying to dislodge him whilst hubby was doubled up laughing hysterically. The Indians told me to take my hands out and let him have whatever was in my pockets and so I did and my maps from the tourist office were taken and ripped to shreds.

And so back down to earth
I can walk uphill all day but I've almost no ligaments on the outside of my right knee which means that going downhill is much more of a problem so hubby and I got a taxi back down to the town. Yes, it seemed a bit like copping out but still being able to walk for the rest of our holiday without being a miserable moaner also seemed like a good plan. The taxi took us about 80% of the way back before stopping because the centre of Shimla is a pedestrian zone.

And finally.

If you are interested, our ascent time put us firmly in the 'normal for our age' band which was reassuring. And I went back to the tourist office the next day to ask for another map. The smiley nice man asked what happened to the one he'd given me the day before and nearly peed himself laughing when he heard that the monkeys had stolen it. He gave me three more in case I needed more 'monkey food'.