All aboard the Himalayan Queen! I was on my first Indian train all on my lonesome. (For like thirty seconds.) This sweet Indian family sitting next to me adopted me for the first leg of my journey from Delhi to Kalka. The mom spoke only Hindi but her teenage son translated. We chatted about all the usual stuff, where are you from? are you alone? are you married? etc. I stared out at the changing landscape and listened to music for a while. Then they fed me some breakfast, homemade parathas and some delicious okra/chili pepper concoction. And they invited me to go with them to visit their 14 day old nephew. Ohh how I love India. But i resisted. After five days in Delhi I was literally heading for the hills.
Shimla. The spot where all the Indian families head when the heat becomes too much. See in India people don't "summer" in warm places, they summer in the cool Himalayas. The two train journey began its second leg on the Toy train from Kalka to Shimla. This is like a Darjeeling Limited-style ordeal, goes totally slow and creeps up the hills to Shimla for about five hours. But it was totally worth it. I had an incredible time going up and up and up. And getting trivia from the Indian boy next to me on what everything was out the window. And watching the dad in the family across from me lean over his wife and son about every ten minutes to take the obligatory out the train window and scenery shot. The family was adorable and the boy gazed in amazement out the window the entire ride and him and his mamma counted all the tunnels we passed through. The fed me chips and thali and happiness all around -oh how I love trains! About three quarters of the way up it began to rain. And the cool, sweet smell of rain on dry land was intoxicating. I fell asleep in the long dark tunnels, I drank warm Chai and ate samosas and watched the monkeys in the forest as we trekked past. And Finally evening came and we arrived in Shimla.
Houses and Hotels are stacked upon the hills of Shimla and the place is like Dharmsala on crack there are so many people. I arrive in the rain and decide I don't have the energy to trek up to the Mall area where all the chill hotels are so I reluctantly overpay for this shit room near the bus station, buy a coupla mangoes and some noodles in a plastic bag and admit defeat. The night was spent reading and meditating and planning my escape. Which I did, morning came and I bolted.
What a workout. Up and up these winding streets and three hotels later I end up at my spot. So expensive but its high season and the Indian families have descended upon Shimla (and the cheaper spots. But for $us 20/night I have my own clean, quiet room and bathroom(sometimes with water) TV with tons of movie channels and balcony.
I wander all over the town during the next two days blissfully doing nothing. I read some books, ate some food, drank some tea, got stared at like no other. This being a mostly Indian tourist spot, I was pretty much the only western girl around. I a really good brownie one day, and even had nachos the next day. I went to the movies and saw this movie called Fashion. This crazy three hour long epic about a nice sweet girl from a small town who moves to Mumbai to be a model. And she doesn't drink or smoke or kiss boys. But after she starts getting into the fashion industry she starts drinking red wine, and smoking cigarettes and its all down hill from there. It was in Hindi but with enough English lines for me to get the gist and plus it was awesome to watch a movie about the Indian fashion world nonetheless. Ohh models.
Shimla was a nice, cool break from the hectic heat of Delhi. But too expensive to stay more than three days. Plus Rishikesh, the Ganges, and yoga awaits!
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