India: Shimla: Into the mountains

After 4 days in New Delhi of which one spend mostly in Agra we traveled on to Shimla. Looking forward towards the scenic trip on a toy train through the mountains, it ended as a bit of a hellish ride for myself.

What caused it all was probably the meal we received on our train ride from Agra back to Delhi the day before. The result was that my stomach disagreed with everything I tried to put into it the day after. Couple this with a 5, 5 hour long economy train ride from Delhi to Kalka and you know I wasn't very happy during that trip.

To put it into perspective. In the Netherlands there are usually signs on busses and trains which indicate the capacity of that particularly vehicle. Now take the capacity of a normal train wagon in the Netherlands but instead picture 3 or 4 times the number of passengers and you got the picture. Obviously a great experience, but the fun diminishes quite rapidly when you feel like throwing up all the time. In all it happened twice, all in good measure, but it left me weak, to weak to fight the bush fires.

Yes bush fires.

A couple of km from Shimla we encountered some and they had to be put out before we could continue. Sadly your hero on wet socks had not the strength but luckily Ilse heroically managed to take some pictures for your enjoyment. Obviously placing herself in considerable danger, but that’s what hero’s do right? On arrival we managed the 1 km climb to our hotel and at the time of writing I find myself in good health again, thinking back to our time in Delhi and Agra.

Delhi was definitely fun. It’s your typical Indian city, which means it’s extremely huge, extremely polluted and extremely chaotic. But navigating this urban jungle is quite fun once you got the hang of it. We did some sightseeing around old Delhi and booked a Delhi fort lightshow in Hindi. Obviously we didn’t understand a thing, but we met some friendly Indians, Including a Belgian/Indian, who were more than happy to translate most of the show.

The day after, we departed around 6 in the morning to Agra. On arrival we first explored the Agra fort which was pretty nice. After some tea, a light meal and a great view of the Taj Mahal and the busy streets on one of Agra’s roof top terraces we made our way towards the Taj.

I liked the Taj and can understand why people call it the most beautiful structure in the world, even more so because it was build for love. For the 2nd wife of some sultan to be precise (how incredibly frustrating it must have been for the 1st or even the 3rd wife). But even in all its beauty I can’t understand the extreme hysterics surrounding this monument. Maybe it’s the Dutch mentality, or just that I believe that man in all his skill cannot match the simple beauty of nature. Therefore I am thrilled to be in Himachal Pradesh, which bears the promise of the beautiful mountains and valleys of the Himalaya’s.

During the next few days we will be staying in Shimla which is a huge change from Delhi. It is just a bit larger than Maastricht and has much less pollution than Delhi for instance. Also the people, even the touts, are generally much nicer and laid back. Our next destination will probably Dharamsala and Mcleod Ganj, were I will probably reach the ripe age of 24 and were we can celebrate our first month on the road. After this we might travel to Manali for some paragliding and Kullu for a 3 days trek through the national park.

Also at the moment we are evaluating our next long term destination. Originally we planned on going to Nepal by land. Yet the lonely planet on Nepal, which we recently acquired, considers this period to be the worse to visit Nepal due to the monsoon. Evidently it is better to visit Nepal from September till January. Therefore we’re checking the possibility of doing 1) Malaysia and Thailand 2) Hong Kong and southern China 3) Australia, first. Malaysia and Thailand seems to be good choice at the moment due to off monsoon season in most of the country in August and September. We might for example fly from Delhi to Kuala Lumpur, trek to Bangkok for 1-2 months and from there catch a plane to Katmandu by Delhi arriving in September-November. After 1-1,5 months in Nepal we could then fly to Hong Kong (probably via Delhi again) to travel southern china, Vietnam and Laos. After which we fly Southeast back to Western civilization and Australia. Luckily we still have a few weeks to crack our minds on this one.

That’s it for now. So until my next writing I bid you goodbye.

Johan

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