May 15, 2016
two days in Shimla: enjoying the cool and getting ready for Kinnaur and Spiti
Day one:
Yesterday's adventure of getting the Inner Line Permit was an ordeal.
Why is this necessary? The Indo-Tibet area, Rekong Peo to Tabo in Spiti Valley, is under disbute as to whether it belongs to India or Tibet so the government wants to control who goes into the area. (Tibet is also claimed by China and requires an Autonomous Region Permit in some area.In 2007, we crossed eastern Tibet from Dequin to Lhasa without the Autonomous Region Permit by sneaking past 3 checkpoints at night.)
Foreigners travelling into the protected Indo-Tibet area from Shimla are required to have this Official Inner Line travel document issued for a limited time (usually 15 days) to travel. In Shimla, they have insisted on a 4 person minimum and became a stumbling block for us. We hear getting the permit at Rekong Peo is less strict to the 4 person minimum requirement. In searching online for the permit, the page also indicates that it's easier to get the permit in Rekong Peo. This was confirmed by our friend Ramesh from Rishikesh. We were just hesitant to believe that and didn't want to get to Rekong Peo and not be allowed to continue.
So here is the Saga of the Inner Line Permit:
"We will solve your issue" we are told after much waiting. The issue is Indian bureauocracy.
First challenge was locating the Additional District Magistrate office. This took asking directions going in the direction indicated by a wave and asking again, then asking again. We find the office on the third floor. A woman at the first desk says yes, when Patrick asked if this is the place for the inner line permit, then she leaves. The man at the next desk (this is man #1) is heating his chapati on a heater by his desk and then eats. We watch and wait. Finally, the man addresses us about what is needed. He gives us the application and we give him copies of passport and visa. Then the woman comes back and gives us a blank sheet of paper, after much confusion, we realize that they want us to write a statement that we will be responsible for ourselves at our own risk with our signatures. The rule is there must be 4 and the issue is there are only 2 of us. We wait.
Eventually we are taken into a big room with lots of chairs and we presume the man (#2) sitting behind the big desk is in charge. We explain that there are only 2 of us. He wants a travel agent to give him information about us. We wait. Other people come into the room giving him papers to sign. We wait. Finally, he makes a note at the bottom and sends us back to the other office. The papers are given to the man (#3) standing by the desks, we wait. Then the papers are given to man #1 to take us to yet another office.
As we enter the office there is man #3 and he shows us to a desk with another man (#4). He wants us to write a better disclaimer letter and dictates to Patrick what to write and we both sign. We think this must be the legal department. Then we each sign the paper copy of our passport by our pictures. Then we are given the paper again to sign by the visa. We take these papers back to the original office. And we wait.
Then man #1 takes all these to man #2, the man in charge, and the papers come back to man #5 who sits at the third desk in the room. We wait. Then we are given the papers to take to the office downstairs. We find the correct man (#6) to give the papers too. He checks the papers, wants to see our passports, takes our photos and 600rupees for the permits, and leaves. When he comes back, he sends us back to the third floor again and wait. Then we are sent back to the office downstairs with another group of foreigners and given the Inner Line Permit by man #6. This all took 3 hours.
This morning, we go for breakfast to the Indian Coffee House, a chain in India, we ate at the one in Jaipur. Then wander around the many bazaar streets some very steep and many have steep stairs that connects the lanes. We do most of the shopping for provisions we will need heading into Spiti Valley. There's not a supermarket, we find what we need at different shops. In the evening, we go back for dinner at an associated restaurant of Cafe Sol and have pad thai. The streets and mall are crowded with Indian tourists.
Day two rest day, we explored a little more going to the Kali temple but mostly just resting and organizing for taking off tomorrow into Spiti Valley.
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