Shimla, Himachal Pradesh

Nestled in the Himalayan foothills, 7,467 feet above sea level and the capital of Himachal Pradesh, we arrived after a fairly long drive over a short distance travelling through the switched back roads with plunging mountainside cliffs to a city hugging the foothills of the Himalayas. It is much cooler here and the air is crisp and clean. The town boasts a 7 km vehicle free “Mall” which runs along the ridge that the city is built upon both above and below the ridge. Joyce is under the weather today so I headed off and walked my 10,000 + steps and checked out the mall. Clean, wide paved boulevard and vehicle free it reminded me of a Swiss mountain village and is such a difference between the north and south of the India we have seen so far.

Tomorrow we head to the town of Kullu in the Kullu Valley of the Himalayas but we’ll first have a short stop at Viceregal Lodge, the official summer residence of British viceroys. Completed in 1888 the entire Indian subcontinent was ruled from here for just over a half a year every year from April to October, coincidentally the sweltering months on the lower plains.