Blogs from Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India, Asia

Friday 6 April 2012. We were up early and collected by Mr Barun who took us to Delhi railway station. We were travelling light again with only a backpack each. Mr Barun negotiated with a youth to take us to the platform and get us on the train. We could have done this ourselves but the deal had already been struck. We travelled first class to Kalka where there was a guy waiting for us. He showed us to the correct platform where the train was waiting and found our carriage and seats on the narrow guage train ( known locally is the "toy train") to Shimla. We were booked on the Himalayan Queen. Our seats were already occupied by an obese Indian teenager. She moved to her correct seat (opposite)and we squeezed ourselves onto the ... read more

The train down from Shimla does not disappoint, seating arrangements change regularly including myself to allow a family to be together in the same carriage. There are monkeys and cows on the line, but no delays. Each carriage is independent with a door on each side and basic lavatory, but no connection with the other carriages. There is a kind of holiday buzz as we set off, and the children are excited and blowing whistles as we go through the first tunnel, then the next and the next etc. There are 102 tunnels on this railway built in 1903,with 988 bridges- an amazing achievement recognised by UNESCO as a world heritage site. The views are spectacular and everyone is taking photographs, sharing food and drink and generally having a lovely time. Health and safety officials in ... read more

We got on the bus early for another long, winding journey through the hills and thought we might be in for a pretty comfortable ride as the bus was only half full leaving Manali. Of course we should have known that we'd be picking up people along the way until we were crammed to capacity. We had reserved 2 of the front row passenger seats but it turns out that the driver's compartment in front of us held another 20 people anyway. This was unfortunate for us as there were a few kids up front that were having troubles stomaching the endless swithbacks and bumpy roads. We had to keep our window closed the whole time to protect us from projectile curry puke! We finally arrived in Shimla early in the evening. There was a mob ... read more

I had planned on getting up at 8am and heading to the bus station to catch the early bus for the 10ish hour journey to Dharamsala. This did not go as planned, it was mainly my fault on account of me turning off my alarm and going back to sleep till about 11. When i did finally decide to get up (and I wasn't happy about it, i seemed to have dreamed that I'd done all the things i was supposed to do that day and the realisation that i hadn't wasn't a happy one) i got my stuff together and checked out of the hotel. It was much nearer lunchtime than breakfast so i went to the place i had been for the egg, chips and mystery sausage. It was much busier today and i ... read more

Got up early(ish) as planned and went into town to find breakfast. Found a nice looking place, one of the nicest looking places ive been, the staff were wearing uniform suits with bow ties and there were old ships wheels and paintings decorating the walls. The food was good, i went foreggs, chips and more mystery meat sausages. After breakfast i decided to explore another part of Shimla called MIddle Bazzar, a jumble of winding streets working their way down the hill and jam packed with shops and stalls selling just about everything. I took the oppertunity to buy a few bits and after a few hours i worked my way back to the hotel. Soon after i got in it started to pour with rain (it rains at least once a day here but rarely ... read more

Woak up this morning to the sound of drums and cheering outside my room. I got up and went to the balcony to see what was happening, i expected to see a religious celebration of some sort but found instead that there was a school playground next to my room and it looked like the whole school was out, packing the stands of a 5-a-side basketball game. I watched for a while before packing up my things and going to check out of the hotel. The man behind the desk didnt seem to happy that I was leaving but I paid up and left to find somewhere else to stay. I had seen in the guide that there was a popular backpacker hotel called Spars Lodge, about a mile outside the main area of Shimla town. ... read more

So we left you with a cockroach in the breakfast, I'm glad to report I didn't get ill after that and we're both feeling very healthy at the moment. We spent a few more days in McLeod ganj. Most days we did the conversation classes with the Tibetans refugees which involved an hour and a half or so of talking with Tibetans about their lives, culture and where they've come from. Not only was it very interesting for us (neither of us realised how bad the suppression of Tibetan culture is) but it helped them improve their English and gain in confidence. We left and had the worst night bus experience yet, it had absolutely no suspension, (we were literally being shaken off our seats) and we arrived in Manali at 3.30am. Fortunately, after an hour ... read more