We decided to leave Chandigargh in search of somewhere a bit quieter and a bit cooler so we thought we would head north towards the Himalayas. We had heard from a lady on our plane to Chandigargh that the best way to go north was by the 'toy train' from Kulka. This seemed like the best option as the train ride is meant to be very scenic whilst the roads are windy and busy. The day started off well with a tuk tuk to the train station and we caught the first train to Kulka fairly easily. We arrived in Kulka and bought our tickets to Shimla- these were less than a pound for the two of us which we thought were fairly cheap but there was a stand on the platform where we thought we could upgrade our tickets to first class for a few pounds. The stall was closed so we waited for the train to arrive and when it did there was about 300 people trying to get into two carriages- the rest of the train was reservation only and was completely full. There was no way we could get onto the carriage that we had paid for so we were stuck in a strange little town trying to work out what to do. Luckily for us a student from Chandigargh was in the same predicament and told us about a bus to Shimla that he was going to catch. He organised a tuk tuk to get us to the bus station and when we arrived we found it would be more comfortable to get a private bus with two other people. We had a three hour bus journey ahead with very windy roads and busy traffic but at least our bus driver seemed competent enough! By the time we arrived in Shimla we were both shattered and had a huge climb up a hill to face- there are no vehicles allowed in the centre and the town is set on the ridge of a hill. We were just pleased to have arrived thanks to the helpful student!
The next morning we tried to see the sights in Shimla which again turned out to be a bit of a challenge as the maps are basic and there are no street signs or names! We quickly realised that the best thing to do was pop into the expensive looking hotels and ask directions! We arrived at the Viceroy Lodge which is an old British hill station ( used to escape the heat of the summer in the plains) and had a very brief tour ( literally 3 rooms!) and had a wander around the botanical gardens. We were asked by yet more indian tourists if we would pose for photo's with them and we started thinking that we should charge! When we returned back down to Shimla we decided to go for a posh coffee and cake for lunch at the Oberon hotel- the poshest place in town and also where Rydyard Kipling stayed when he visited. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around and eating some more curries before a few beers on a rooftop terrace and a relatively early night. The next morning we were up early as we had booked tickets on the 8am government bus to Manali. As seems to be the way in India things were not as simple as we had expected and on our way down to the main road to catch a taxi our planned route down the lift was locked and we struggled to find a route down through the tightly knit buildings. We eventually got down and the first taxi we found wanted 3 times the normal price but we didn't have time to haggle as we were getting close to missing the bus. He took us on what he called his 'small car route' basically a shortcut through some footpaths and people's gardens. He seemed to know what he was doing as he reversed down one section to avoid having to turn around the sharp bends and in all fairness he got us to the bus station in plenty of time. We managed to find our bus- which was not quite as 'executive' as we had been led to believe when buying the tickets and set off on our long journey north to Manila.