Most tourists seem to focus on the Mall and the Ridge, but there’s plenty to see beyond that as well. While I covered our forays along the Mall in Part 2 of this set of travelogues, here I’ll be describing something of what we experienced beyond the Mall.
My husband and I last visited Shimla in 2008, and one attraction I had especially fond memories of from back then was the Viceregal Lodge. Built as the residence of the Viceroy, the Viceregal Lodge was completed in 1888, built in a Scottish Baronial style. After independence, it was renamed Rashtrapati Nivas, and today it houses the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, where scholars in the humanities can come for research and study.
Visitors are welcome to visit the building and its extensive grounds, but to enter the building and look around, you must buy a ticket that allows you to join a guided walk. The walk, conducted every hour or so, takes about half an hour. We had to be at the front porch a few minutes in advance, from where a guide took our batch—there must have been fifty people or so—through some four or five rooms of the Viceregal Lodge, pointing out fine Burma teak panelling, old furniture and fireplaces, a clock from 1826, and so on.
His talk, conducted primarily in Hindi but with highlights also in English, focussed a good deal on the Shimla Pact, when the upcoming independence and partition of India was discussed. Many photographs of Indian leaders of the 40s line the walls, and the most prized piece of furniture is a round table at which Nehru and Mountbatten discussed the draft of the partitioning of India.
No photographs are allowed inside the building, but the vast and very carefully maintained gardens around are a joy to wander through and photograph. We spent more than an hour here (mostly because we had happened to reach Viceregal Lodge just after one group began its tour of the building, so we had an hour to kill before it was time for our tour). Frankly, though, that hour was no problem: we wandered past masses of colourful flowerbeds and fine views of the building.
We also walked through the gardens at the back, which were designed by Lord and Lady Minto. As we were walking down the terraces here, we saw a bunch of monkeys wandering through the trees, and the LO scowled. ‘I’m going to get my revenge!’ she said, remembering her snatched cotton candy. Wisely, though, she resisted the temptation to let fly at her simian nemesis.
Once we’d finished with our tour of the Viceregal Lodge, we walked to the nearby Himalayan Bird Park. This is a large aviary, where the resident birds are primarily pheasants of different species: kaleej, silver pheasant, peafowl, and guinea fowl among them. Rather shabby and small, not really worth a visit unless you have little children who are mad about nature.
The LO, incidentally, did not seem to think as poorly of the Bird Park as I did: in her travel journal, she described it as ‘absolutely grand’ and had more stuff to say about it, much of it (not all) in praise:
Just uphill of the bird park is the historic Peterhof Hotel, which has a very picturesque front lawn. We sat here and had sandwiches and lemonade from the Peterhof’s al fresco café, Café Cedar. Then we walked on, to the Himachal Pradesh State Museum, which is not very far from Peterhof, but which involves a very steep and exhausting climb.
The museum is a modest-sized one, which tries to combine lots of different types of artefacts. Across two floors and a series of galleries, there are small collections of everything from ancient stone sculptures to fossils and prehistoric arrowheads; traditional Himachali costumes and jewellery; photos of major examples of Himachali architecture; and so on.
Among my favourites here were the artworks: some stunning miniatures (both from Himachal as well as other parts of India, including Punjab), and some of the gorgeously detailed embroideries known as Chamba rumaals.
There was one last place I wanted to visit: Annadale, which is home to the Army Heritage Museum. Annadale lies below Shimla, nestled in a valley (if you look down from the Mall, you can see its distinctive green far below: a golf course and a helipad make Annadale very easily recognizable from a distance). Annadale is about 12 km downhill from The Oberoi Cecil, so on our last day in Shimla, we drove down here after breakfast.
The Army Heritage Museum is a small one, and covers pretty much everything to do with the Indian army, and with Indian military traditions and history in general. There’s stuff about ancient and medieval Indian weaponry and warfare, famous Indian commanders (Tipu Sultan and more), and lots about the army now: its uniforms, its bands and music, its medals and awards, its participation in sports, and so on.
While the LO enjoyed some of this, she was really far more interested in what lay outside: the Army Heritage Museum sits in the midst of lush green lawns, flower-filled beds, and deodar woods on the surrounding mountains. I think we spent more time wandering about outside than we did inside the museum. We also visited the small but pretty cactus house next door to the museum, and ooh-ed and aah-ed over the beautiful flowers here.
After a quick stop at the complex’s cafeteria for a Coke and a juice (and enough time for the LO to spend a few minutes on a swing beside it), we began the drive back up to Shimla. A few minutes out of Annadale, my husband decided he needed to check on the car tires. ‘It might take a few minutes,’ he said, so I told the LO we would leave Baba to handle the car while we went for a little walk (this was done mostly to get the LO—who can be a very impatient child—out of his hair).
We found more mock strawberries. And wild delphiniums, lots of ferns (‘I didn’t know they were golden!’, the LO exclaimed).
And plenty of glittery bits of mica that the LO gathered up and brought home.
These are now at home, tiny chips of shine that the LO takes out every now and then to admire. Just as I, looking through our photos again, admire Shimla and its beauty, both natural and built. A lovely town, one of my favourites in this part of the Himalayas.
Dustedoff 
Really nice!
The LO has good handwriting and a firm hand.
How much did the trip cost if I am not being intrusive?
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I am so glad you enjoyed this. And thank you for the compliments for the LO.
The trip cost about 1.15-1.20 lakh, we haven’t added up some of the smaller expenses yet. About half of that is for the Cecil – that was pure indulgence on our part!
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Hi Madhulika. I belong to Shimla and just happened to see this in your Twitter feed. Beautifully covered. There is so much more to Shimla than just the Mall and the Ridge, and you have to be a lover of history to dig into its colonial heritage.
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Hi Sonia, thank you so much! I am glad you enjoyed this travelogue. Somebody just the other day, who had never been to Shimla before, was saying that everybody told her Shimla was ‘overcrowded’ and not worth the effort. But I was quick to point out that the swarms of tourists are what make it overcrowded – and that there is so much more to Shimla than the Mall (and so much more to the Mall than just parading around and getting selfies in front of Scandal Point). Even on the Mall, I saw that the number of tourists inside a heritage building – like Christ Church or Bantony Castle – was so limited. I guess most people go only for views of the mountains, or to shop and take selfies. :-(
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Loved all the essays Madhulika, including the extract from your li’l daughter’s write-up! 😄 Pictures are beautiful too! I loved the Viceregal Lodge and we did see the Army Heritage Museum in Annadale also. Idyllic days in a beautiful old town..
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I am glad you enjoyed this, Harish. Thank you so much. Indeed idyllic!
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Madhuji, my husband and I had visited Shimla in 2007. At IAAS I remember the guide mentioning that it was difficult to figure out how everyone sat at one table while discussing partition. I can perfectly connect with all your observations!! Mashobra and Naldehra not far from Shimla were delightful, with the apple trees lining the meandering mountainous roads. The India Coffee House on Mall Road was a good place to have coffee.
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Anitaji, thank you for reading and for commenting. I am glad you enjoyed this. From our 2008 trip to IIAS, I too recall the guide saying that the partition was discussed at that round table. But I think now they have changed the narration a bit, because they now specify that Nehru and Mountbatten discussed it, not everybody. :-)
We didn’t go to Naldehra or Mashobra this time, but I know what you mean – we’ve been beyond, to Thanedhar (which has lots of apple orchards) before, and it was wonderful.
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Lovely article. I visited Shimla in 2016 and I thought it was overrated. It was so crowded then. But I think I didn’t travel smart. I liked Kufri. These are lovely photos and such beautiful artwork. And not sure what but there’s something about that ‘A pheasant at the park’ photo.
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I think Shimla has a lot more to offer than some of the other popular hill stations of the north – Mussoorie and Nainital, for instance, have relatively fewer real ‘sights’ (just ‘view points’, as they’re called, and not very much else). But yes, really searching out the sights to see in Shimla requires going beyond Scandal Point and the more predictable places where the crowds go.
I have passed through Kufri years ago, but it was too commercial and touristy to appeal to me.
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Your LO writes in cursive!!!!!?
And her handwriting is SO good, it deserves to be converted into a font. (Or not, what I mean is I haven’t seen handwriting so beautiful and unique in ages)
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Isn’t cursive the ‘approved’ way of teaching children English writing? I think it was fairly early on – perhaps in Class I – that the LO was taught cursive writing, and they’re expected to use it in all their work.
I showed this to the LO:
And her handwriting is SO good, it deserves to be converted into a font.
… and she said, “This is serious buttering! Even too much butter for me!” (she adores butter). :-)
But thank you, from her, and from me.
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Ha ha ha ha…She’s humble. I meant every word. And no, cursive is no longer mandatory in all schools, I believe. My daughter says it’s ‘encouraged’ but ‘not enforced’. In fact she says she finds even reading cursive hard. :-(
And you’re welcome! Way to to go, LO!
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Thank you! My daughter did experiment briefly with writing ‘printed’ letters last year, but realized soon enough that though they looked pretty, it took longer to write. Now she sticks to cursive. :-)
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Excellent as usual!
Should plan a trip soon, may be next summer!
I visited Shimla Manali almost 10 yrs back and now remember very little of it.
:-)
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Shimla and Manali are both very pretty hill stations, though you have to make sure you go a little early in the season – say, late May. Once June comes, the crowds are horrific (we just about managed to make it before the crowd got really bad, this year). A reflection of this song! Mar gayi garmi se, le chal Shimle babu:
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Oh!
Thanks for rhe advice. I’ll see.
And, thank you for the song. Would you believe if I say, you added a song to one of my future lists!
One of the lists is in the making and the song is a perfect fit and I wasn’t aware of the song at all.
:-)
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I’m so glad I was able to help add to one of your upcoming lists! I am looking forward to that (and wracking my brains trying to think of a theme where that song would fit – ‘requests’ songs?) :-)
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Yes,
A sort of ‘requests’ songs list.
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Looking forward to that, Anupji!
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