Arrived in the clouds...

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Arrived In McLeod Ganj following a marathon day of trains and buses... The narrow gauge - toy train left Jogginder-Naggar at 7.20am in the morning, and we got off to a great start heading out across the paddy-fields, tiny villages and people working with their trousers rolled-up up to their knees in the stodgy-mud-filled paddies, stopping at stations that seemed like they were in the middle of nowhere - just a concrete bus-stand surrounded by a thousand fields....

Two hours in to the journey, we were getting a little hungry and thirsty, so were pleased when the train finally stopped for a while - chai and eggy-bread later we were ready to go... however the train engine had left us and didn't come back for another TWO hours!! we don't know where it went, perhaps another job to do... but there was a distinct feeling that this was planned, as the train suddenly filled up minutes before the engine came back.. hmm, something someone forgot to tell us about??

The following two hours of the journey was really hot, sweaty and cramped, we had virtually run out of water and we had no idea where we were.. "How far to Kangra?" I asked a friendly middle-aged lady who was dishing out the veg curry from a sandwich bag to her family members awaiting chapati's... She giggled, and with I'm sure a little pity for the poor wilting English folk, said with a sideway's nod "I'll tell you...". She kept to her word, and at the stop before ours she told us we were nearly there, i.e; start trying to squeeze yourself out of this one!!

We managed to get off the train and having crossed my legs for approximately 2-3 hours, I was really pleased to find that the station was brick-built, had a ticket office - an I was sure that somewhere there must be a ladies toilet... I asked a friendly lady who seemed to work there and on understanding me, though not speaking any English she showed me round the corner of the building to what looked like a derelict dumping area.. I innocently asked her where she meant - so she whipped down her trousers, crouched down next to me and, well, you know... I was so desperate by then, there was no other option than to join her...

Next we found the bus stop, it was at the end of a long track-road and again seemingly in-the-middle-of-nowhere, alongside the monkeys having a mid-afternoon scratch. Luckily there was a small handful of people also waiting for the bus, so in a whirl of broken English and Hindi and hand signals we were helped to the correct side of the road for our bus to Kangra town. When we got there, a short wait for the Dharamashala bus to the bus stand, then finally the bus up to McLeod Ganj.. It was a bit of a long slog and we're SO glad to be here, but it was also great fun!!

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