Off to Shimla

It is not easy to leave Kalpa after a few days. The view together with the clean air and almost no car noise makes it a place where you easy can spend some time. But Sandra was on the way to Rishikesh for some more Yoga stuff and I wanted to visit The Professional in his natural habitat. So we took the small bus early in the morning to get to the bus station in time for the big bus towards Shimla. Since we reached the station early we had the two seats in the front. Great!!

Update on the finger – getting better…

Our trusty old bus

These are the roads here in the mountains – now add dust – a lot of it!

We stopped in the middle of nowhere for lunch. 50 Rp for Dal Bat with an endless refill. Best tasting lunch on that whole trip! Btw 80 RP is 1€.

So far so good!

Shimla

After a few weeks in the mountains of the Himalayas, it is not easy to come back to “civilization” And if you get into Shimla at 5.30 in the afternoon you wish you had stopped somewhere before for the night. Traffic was a nightmare. The bus station a big joke. No information nowhere and best of all – no light but lots of stairs. So you walk down the dark stairs inside the building and look for a bus towards town. Somehow we could not manage to stop one and had to take a taxi. Sure enough, you have to get the expensive ones from the “union” and it is so so far and that is why the taxi is so so expensive. In the end, it is not really far but welcomes back to the city. Took us a while to find a place but with the help of a friendly tout. He carried my bag all over the place – which resulted in me hauling Sandra’s bag. The man was in a hurry so we raced across town to the Dreamland. Nice hotel, hot water and all. Good view over the too many buildings and sure enough there is a monkey on your balcony in the morning. So leaving a window open while you explore the city is not a good idea.

Finally in Shimla – the old part looks of the city a bit like the one from your toy train

But why not save the few houses that are left and preserve its charm? Nobody repairs anything. All is plastered with advertisement. Sad to see that nice part of the city go down the drain.

The Indian Coffee House – we had breakfast here a few times. The coffee is not really good but the waiters still serve in the same uniforms they did a long time ago. And it is full of locals on top of that.