Autumn in the Himalayas - Shimla

We had a 4-day long weekend for Thanksgiving in November and Lex and I decided to go to Shimla for this.  Shimla is the capital of Himachal Pradesh, in the Himalayan foothills.  Apparently at one point it was part of Nepal, and later it was also the summer capital of British India.  We took the whole day to drive up there, arriving around late afternoon.  We settled into our room, watched the sun set behind the mountains and then set out to explore the town.

The view from our hotel room

Shimla is home to a number of buildings that are styled in the Tudorbethan and neo-Gothic architectures dating from the colonial era, as well as multiple temples and churches. The colonial architecture and churches, the temples and the natural beauty of the city attract a large number of tourists. The major attractions include the Viceroy Lodge, the Christ Church, the Jakhoo Temple, the Mall Road and the Ridge.

Christ Church as seen from The Mall

The following day we decided to go to the Viceregal Lodge.  On the way we stopped at the Kali Bari Mandir.  There were great views from here and the walk was lovely along Mall Road and The Ridge.

The walk to the Viceregal Lodge took several hours.  We then stopped for lunch before going on a tour.  This beautiful building was the official summer residence of the British viceroys from 1888 until Independence after the Second World War.  The entire Indian subcontinent was ruled from here for just over half of every year (usually early April to late October).

  

Today the lodge houses a postdoctoral humanities research centre (now called the Indian Institute for Advanced Studies), but you can visit parts of it on a tour. The entrance hall is beautiful and lined in Burmese teak, though it wasn't possible to take any photos inside.

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It's incredible to think that the British ruled 1/5th of the world's population from this summer residence for over 100 years!

The following day we walked around Shimla.  We visited the Christ Church and looked out at the views from Mall Road and The Ridge.  In the afternoon we took a taxi up the hill to the Hanuman Temple on Jakhoo Peak.  The photo below was taken from The Mall looking up to Christ Church on The Ridge.

View from Mall Road

  

The highest point of the city is Jakhoo Hill. At the top of the flat hill is the colourful Jakhoo Temple and the Hanuman statue. On the walk up to the temple you have to watch out for monkeys that are waiting to rob tourists of food and shiny objects!  One ran off with my sunglasses - luckily the locals helped and I got them back.  It is very appropriate that Jakhoo Temple is dedicated to Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god, as the monkeys rule Jakhoo hill. From the summit there are great views to the north over the Shivalik mountain range of the Himalayan foothills and west over Shimla.

The Temple itself is colourfully painted.  On the outer wall of the temple is a lucky religious bell, if a visitor to the temple rings the bell the ringer will have good luck for the following 3 days. The statue of Lord Hanuman is next to the temple. The Hanuman statue has been painted a vivid orange colour and when viewed from Shimla this large statue can be seen towering above the natural greens of the pine tree canopy.

Gorgeous Goa

We had a long weekend off for Diwali, and it seemed like the perfect time to go back to Goa - to the same place I've been twice before on Palolem beach.  Almost the whole 4 days was spent on the beach - breakfast, lunch, sundowners and dinner.

Noble Silence

Today I went on the Health and Wellness retreat where we observed a day of Noble Silence.  We did some lying down meditation, breathing exercises, some walking in nature, yoga, sitting meditation and individual meditation.  Noble Silence comes from Buddhist teachings - it is simply keeping silent for a specific period of time - in our case the day.  It's a rest for all the senses and really needs to be done totally away from technology such as phones, TV, radio and so on.  It's all about turning off the thoughts in your head and experiencing the inner calm and peace of a quiet mind.  Out in the park today we could just listen to the sounds around us, open our eyes to nature and open our hearts.

Coaching and catching up with friends - Hong Kong

Right after getting back from Denver, and with just one day in school, I set off for Hong Kong for more Cognitive Coaching.  As I arrived in the morning, I was able to spend some time on the first day looking around a part of Hong Kong that I'd not been to before.  I decided to visit the Nan Lian Gardens and the Chi Lin Nunnery.

Pavilion of Absolute Perfection and the Zi-Wu Bridge

Song Cha Xie on the Blue Pond

Across the road from the gardens was the Chi Lin Nunnery - a beautiful and tranquil place with many statues of Buddha.

One night after the coaching was over I decided to take a ride up to Victoria Peak.  It was easy to get there on public transport with amazing views both on the way up and from the top.  I then took the bus down and took the Star Ferry across to Kowloon.  What a great experience to see the sound and light show from the water.

On my last day in Hong Kong I went down to Stanley to visit Priyanka - what a lovely time this was and how special to see her new life here in Hong Kong.  I will have many happy memories of this trip for a long time to come!

Coaching and catching up with friends - Denver

For the September break I went to Denver to the Presenter's Forum - this is one more step towards becoming a Cognitive Coaching Trainer.  It was also really nice to catch up with Emily, who I worked with in Switzerland.

I was busy most of the time in a fairly out of town part of Denver (and I was also horribly jet-lagged for much of it), but one evening I did take a drive out of Lookout Mountain, near Golden, on the edge of the Rocky Mountains, where Buffalo Bill is buried.

Buffalo Bill was one of the most colourful figures of the American West.  He performed in shows that displayed cowboy themes and episodes from the frontier and Indian Wars.

Amritsar in August: Morning chanting at the Durgiana Temple

This 16th century Hindu temple in Amritsar has been rebuilt in the style of the Golden Temple. It's much more peaceful and serene than the Golden Temple, especially early in the morning when I visited.

The Durgiana Mandir is dedicated to Goddess Durga, one of the many Hindu Goddesses. Bhajans (devotional songs) are sung here just after the temple opens and just before it closes.

The main temple is comprised of the Durga mandir that is set amidst a tank of holy water. Around the tank there is a walking path called the ‘parikrama’. This temple is also famous for smaller temples of Lord Krishna, Lord Vishnu, Hanuman and Goddess Sita.

Amritsar in August: On the trail of Duleep Singh

I wanted to find out more about Duleep Singh and the Koh-i-noor diamond while I was in the Punjab (this fascination comes from the fact he used to live at Elveden, close to my mother). To do this, I needed to know more about his father, Ranjit Singh, and how he came to possess the Koh-i-noor diamond. Where better to start than the Ranjit Singh Panorama in Ram Bagh, which was full of dioramas about the life of "The Lion of the Punjab".  First, however, I spent some time walking around the Ram Bagh gardens looking out for Ranjit Singh's summer palace.

Ranjit Singh, father of Duleep, was the founder of the Sikh Empire in the 19th century. As a teenager he fought several wars to expel the Afghans, and was proclaimed as the "Maharaja of Punjab" at age 21. He rebuilt the Golden Temple and gilded it with gold.

Maharaja Ranjit Singh's palace is now in a state of disrepair. The inscription above the door says Summer Residence of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

Ranjit Singh was given the Koh-I-Noor diamond by Shah Shuja after he provided asylum to his wife and freed him from capture in Kashmir. The diorama below shows Shah Shuja giving the uncut diamond to Ranjit Singh in a velvet casket.

Ranjit Singh was popularly known as Sher-i-Punjab, meaning "Lion of Punjab". His son, Duleep Singh, was the last Maharaja of the Sikh Empire, which he inherited from his father when he was only 5 years old. A few years later, the British declared war on the Sikhs, and he was deposed and was exiled to England - along with the Koh-i-noor diamond.  This was then "gifted" to Queen Victoria, as one of the spoils of war.

The Koh-i-noor diamond really is "the jewel in the crown". After Queen Victoria died it was set into several other crowns, most recently the crown of the Queen Mother. There is a replica of this crown in the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Museum. Since Independence in 1947, the Indian government has several times asked for the diamond to be returned to India. In 2013, on a visit to India, David Cameron was heard to remark "They're not having that back".