Shimla, Sunday 20 January 2013
It's not often you check into a hotel and get an information slip that says: 'Beware monkeys - keep your windows closed'. That's what it says on my YMCA check-in sheet. It's bizarre walking around town and seeing monkeys everywhere. Yesterday, I took a stroll around the tiny streets that snake all over this hillside, known as the middle and lower bazaars, and a monkey running around caught my eye. He'd obviously just stolen two naan breads from somewhere, and perched himself on the side of a building to eat them. He dropped one, and another monkey sprang out of nowhere and snapped it up. It was such a strange sight, seeing them there hoofing naan breads into them!
I walked (or, I should say, slipped and slid in the ice and snow) up to the Jakhu Temple (monkey temple) up above Shimla today. It's dedicated to a monkey god, and so you can't really complain about the monkeys running around everywhere up there. One was holding a very nice woollen scarf, which he'd evidently pinched off someone. They apparently nick your glasses and anything else they can get their little paws on, but I didn't see them bothering anyone.
I didn't go into the small temple, because it would have meant taking your shoes off and leaving them in an outhouse and walking through the snow into the temple in bare feet. I'd only just got mine warmed thanks to the walk up there and my shoes are still wet, so I opted out!
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