Blogs from Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India, Asia - page 8

Wanted to go from McLeod Ganj to Manali to Shimla, but realize I won’t have enough time in Kathmandu if I do this, so decided to go directly to Shimla. This is all mountain riding, so the road curves and winds and rises and falls and is great fun on a motorcycle. Travelling in India can be a real challenge with the highway signs. Sometimes you’re not really sure you’re on the right road and can’t verify it by reading the signs, either. You ask people, but it’s always risky because of the Asian issue with “face”. Applies here, too. If you ask how to get to a place, and if they know, they’ll tell you and point. If they don’t know, usually they’ll do the same thing, even if it means they’re pointing in an ... read more

Ahh, the efficiency and speed of Indian trains made our journey across the plains of India from Kolkata to Agra just fly by. In the time it takes for an Indian train to cover 1200kms on European trains you could travel Edinburgh to Warsaw and be there in time for tea, as it was when we arrived in Agra at midnight (5 hours late) we were lucky enough to be confronted with a room full of beasties (luckily none big enough to really bite). However, there were several spiders putting up a sterling effort to address the problem. Of course the real purpose of visiting Agra was not just the joy of a 24hr train trip or the diverse wildlife in our room but the World Wonder that seems to be on every tourist's wish list ... read more

Just so no one decided to follow us and due to a rather bad feeling about the travel agent that ran the bus to Manali, we had a last min change of plan and took the public bus up into the western Himalayas to a beautiful city perched against the side of the hill called Shimla. We took the public bus over the deluxe tourist bus, other than the full load and people vomiting out the window we thoroughly enjoyed the trip. We met a lovely man who joined the bus part way through the trip who works in the local Johnson and Johnson factory (whats its doing in the middle of no where. I would be ashamed to think!!) He asked to shake our hands as he smiled at the idea of a honey moon ... read more

Rishikesh - Chandigarh - Kolka - Shimla. From Rishikesh we took a 7 hour bus journey to Chandighar which to start off seemed lovely (not very full) but then a couple of stops on we were rammed and quite uncomfortably sharing three seats with us (obviously) our two backpacks and a lady and her two children - but it was cheap so hey! Spent a night in Chandighar bus station (in the transit lodge above- don't worry mum) and then overslept to 4:30am yes 4:30am to get the 5:00am bus to Kalka to catch the 6.30am train to Shimla. Well that's what we thought anyway - we arrived at the station at 6:27am and jumped on the 'toy train' (a narrow gauge train) without a ticket as thought we wouldn't have time. We were then enlightened ... read more

Well, after 5 magical weeks in Manali (and almost 8 in India), we finally left yesterday with a heavy heart and even heavier bags. We cannot begin to put into words how much we have learnt professionally at the hospital, from the simply amazing staff. Being part of the community has also been a real priviledge, particularly being stopped in the street and thanked by patients and their families. We will treasure the memories and will return. Personally we have also had great times with some wonderful people and have made new friends, of particular mention must be Annie (Lizzie's shopping partner and the joint cause of Stu's poor financial situation), Gopi (Stuart's ice cream eating partner) and Dan (the worst card playing bluffer in the world!). We will hound you all in the months ... read more