After Darjeeling Mall Road and Dalhousie Mall Road, we will be revisiting Shimla Mall Road in this post. VJ spent two years of his graduation in Shimla and some of his fondest memories are that of the time he spent at the Shimla Mall road with his college friends. They were a naughty lot and often up to some mischief or the other. Some of their stories are hilarious. If you want to know, you are most welcome to join us for a couple of drinks.
However, the point of this post is different. Here we will talk about the overall experience of the Shimla Mall Road and why it is such a special place for us. Unlike the Dalhousie Mall Road, vehicles are not allowed on this road. This makes walking on this road very easy. On most evenings, the mall road is crowded, but on weekends it is bustling with college students, honeymooning couples, groups of boys and girls, tourists, and localites. You will also be able to see considerable presence of police here. They are there to maintain law and order.
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From my last visit to Shimla I especially remember the fashionable college students, both boys and girls, who make this stretch especially lively. You get to see hairstyles and attires that are difficult to spot even in the capital of India. Overall, it is an interesting place to observe the latest trends and the walk is anything but dull.
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Apart from the crowd, another interesting aspect of this road is the architecture. British Era Colonial architecture can be observed at every nook and corner. Gaiety Theatre, which has recently been renovated, still stands in testimony to the British Era Art and Culture. The exterior of the building has remained untouched, whereas the interiors have been restored to what must have once been its original splendour. The other such building is the Town Hall. No visit to Shimla can be complete without a visit to these two landmarks, both of which are on the Mall Road.
Other points of interest are the Kali Bari Temple and the Scandal Point, which is the point where the Mall Road meets the Ridge. A statue of the great freedom fighter, Lala Lajpat Rai stands here. If you are visiting the Mall Road, also climb up to the Ridge from where you can enjoy the views of high mountains and valleys and lose yourself in the clouds rolling around.
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One of the joys of the Mall Road is the sheer number of shops and the variety of goods available here. You can buy Pashmina Shawls, Sweaters, Scarfs, Gloves, and also the unique Himachali Topi. You can also purchase wooden curios, trinkets, and other mementos. While you are shopping, also remember that you will hardly ever find anything that you cannot find almost in all other hill stations, however, the experience is good here because of the lack of traffic. You can also bargain and get a good price.
On the Shimla Mall Road, you can enjoy a variety of food - from lip-smacking street food to continental cuisine at some of the most happening restaurants in Shimla. There are some local ice-cream sellers who sell locally made icecreams. There are cafes such as the Honey Hut and Cafe Sol that need no introduction. You can also walk into the Indian Coffee House for a more formal dining experience. You can try Devicos that is very popular with localites and tourists alike. Wake and Bake and Beekays are some other restaurants that you can walk into and have a good time with friends and family.
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Overall Shimla Mall Road is a cool and happening place where you can spend your time simply roaming around or shopping and dining, whatever makes you feel good. You can plan to spend all your evenings here and choose to explore different shops every time, and I promise you you will never get bored, provided you are interested in watching people and exploring local experiences.
What we missed on Shimla Mall Road when compared to Darjeeling Mall Road and Dalhousie Mall Road is the constant chirping of birds of various shapes and sizes. The Shimla Mall Road, with the exception of the Ridge which is anyways not counted as part of the Mall Road, is very heavily built up in concrete that manages to keep nature out in most of the stretches.
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In the next post in this series, we will talk about another Mall Road that we have visited - the Mussourie Mall Road. We hope you have enjoyed this series so far.
If you liked this post and found it helpful, I would request you to follow these things when traveling -
1. Manage your waste well and don’t litter Use dustbins.
2. Tell us if you went to a place and found it hard to locate a dustbin.
3. Avoid bottle waters in hills. Usually you get clean water in hills and water bottles create lot of mess in our ecosystem.
4. Say big no to plastic and avoid those unhealthy snacks packed in plastic bags. Rather buy fruits.
5. Don't play loud blaring music in forests of jungle camps. You are a guest in that ecosystem and disturbing the locals (humans and animals) is not polite
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