19/08/2017 Kalka to
Shimla on the famous 'toy' train
We both had
comfortable window seats on the Shivaluk Express and were
quickly served a breakfast. The narrow gauge train slowly wound its way uphill
gaining almost a 1000 m in height. You could just imagine how this journey
would have been when Shimla was still a
famous British Hill station. The
signalling was still done by men with flags standing
along the line.
Some of the viaducts went over were pretty impressive too.
On arrival in
Shimla we asked some porters where the parcel office was ( as we had been told
to do) and a big lack of being able to speak Hindu on our part meant that a
fine miming episode followed. We were becoming increasingly anxious about the
whereabouts of our bikes but in the end all was well. The bikes and all our
luggage where waiting for us in perfect condition. It was a big relief.
Since there was an
absolute deluge we were in no hurry to leave and had a great time chatting with
some more porters. One of them proudly told us he had featured in a BBC
documentary and had all sorts of snippets of information.
Eventually we got
fed up waiting for the rain to stop and decided to brave it. We were completely
soaked through within minutes and had no idea how to find the hotel we had
booked in advance. Neither did any one else it seemed. The roads were
incredibly steep and we soon realised that Shimla really is a hill town. We did
find our hotel but almost wished we hadn't. Tiny, no window at all, incredibly
musty and smelly and as we were to find out noisy throughout the night. It's
one redeeming feature was its location. It was really lovely to walk out onto
the Ridge and along the Mall with it's mixture of traditional and very western
shops like Nike and KFC. We found a lovely dahba though where we had some
delicious food for very little money. ( 50 p per meal and a bottle of water for
half that price) We spend some time wandering around in the lower bazaar trying
to find a plastic cape to see if that would keep the rain out any better than
our goretex gear. We did find one but hope we won't have to put it to the test.
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