Recent reviews Shimla
[koshkha, 17/04/2008] 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
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[koshkha, 21/03/2008] If I were to tell you that one of the top attractions in the Himalayan city of Shimla is the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, a place so rarefied that it takes only a few dozen students, all of them doing post-doctoral studies into esoteric topics that few of us would understand, then you'd probably think:
A. I was wrong
B. I was lying
C. Shimla must be a pretty dull place.
To be fair, I'm being a bit dismissive. The IIAS takes only students who are the best of the best; Burmese Nobel Prize winner Aung San Sun Kyi was a fellow here in 1986 and is just one of many exceptional acad
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[koshkha, 02/01/2008] When we were planning our trip to northern India and hunting for hotels, we decided to treat ourselves to one good hotel and decided it should be in Shimla. I spent a lot of time researching hotels and our first thoughts had been to go for the Cecil, a swanky place with a spectacular spa. But the hotel was just too far out of town. Shimla's a city for walking and much of the centre is barred to vehicles so it doesn't make sense to be at such a distance that you can't walk to the centre.
So I checked out the lists of so-called Heritage Hotels (i.e. those independent places with a bit of hist
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[koshkha, 01/01/2008] Background
In the days when the British ruled India there were many problems for an expatriated Brit to contend with but one of the most serious was the heat. The average chap sent out to make his fortune or defend his nation's economic and political interests wasn't bred to deal with saturation humidity and thermometer-bursting temperatures. To cope with these extremes, each summer the government, civil service and everyone with the wherewithal to do so would flee from the then-capital Calcutta and literally 'head for the hills'. Many so-called 'hill stations' provided respite from the sum
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