Hiking up to Jakhu

Since Shimla is built on the side of a mountain, you have to trek up or down a steep road no matter where you want to go. Even just going out to internet café or to grab a bite to eat requires a little bit of a workout.

Jakhu, the sacred temple to the monkey god Hanuman, is Danny’s main research site here in Shimla. It sits at the top of a very steep hill: the closer to the sky, the closer to the gods. It’s only a walk of about a mile or so, but the incline is something like 45 degrees. Add the high altitude to the mix, and it makes for quite an endeavor to reach the top. Literally ten feet into the journey, my heart is pounding, my lungs are gasping for air, and I’m already feeling tired. There are stairs built into the side of the road, as well as benches periodically along the way. These are helpful to a tourist like me, who isn’t used to the traveling conditions.

There is a sign at the base of the road, which predicts your fitness level based on your age and how long it takes you to get to the top. Many of the locals, especially older ones, make the trek regularly – and therefore don’t need to take breaks on their way up. Since we’ll be going up to Jakhu fairly regularly, I’m looking at the walk up as a work out – one which I hope to be able to do without breaks by the end of our time here. I look forward to being able to make it to the top under half an hour and while still being able to hold a conversation.

On the way up, there are, of course, rhesus macaques. They hang out in the trees overhead, on the walls that line the road, and on awnings, roofs, and ledges of houses. Generally, they’re doing the sorts of things that monkeys usually do: grooming, cuddling, climbing up vertical surfaces, or looking off into the distance. The further up the hill you go, the more interested they become in the people making the hike up. These monkeys become a little braver and are more likely to jump into the road to try to take whatever goodies you might be carrying. Bottles of water and bags, which might contain foodstuffs, are especially intriguing. The macaques line up along the road and wait to leap out, hoping to frighten the humans into dropping their wares or, most likely, to steal these things right out of the human’s hands.

This leaves us humans to take necessary precautions against these little guys. A number of cafes and shops on the way up rent wooden walking sticks (for Rs.5 or US $0.10), which can be tapped on the ground to scare off the more assertive monkeys. Some people pick up rocks to throw at the monkeys. I had the bright idea of using my umbrella against the macaques, pressing the “open” button as they approached and hoping that the sudden unfurling of the umbrella would frighten them away. Instead, doing this just seemed to piss them off, and rather than backing off, they appeared more ready to go to battle against the humans with their strange tool. The sticks are more familiar to the macaques, and they have learned to be afraid of them. The umbrella was a new threat that I suppose the monkeys felt they needed to defend themselves against – so much so that one of the young males came running up behind us and bit Danny on the ankle! Fortunately, it was just a nip, and the monkey really couldn’t do much damage through Danny’s jeans. But we learned our lesson: stick with the sticks.