Shimla and Delhi

We arrived in Delhi, but only for a night on our way up to Shimla. Delhi is huge, and I felt a little jolted to be back in such a mad place again but grateful that it has a spanking-new metro system (my favorite method of city travel) that will eliminate the need for rickshaw-haggling and the like. Ravi happened to be in town for business, and he met us at the station and took us to our hotel in the Paharganj area of the city. We stayed there because Delhi is expensive, and it's the main budget-tourist area, but centrally located just off of a bazaar. Since it was too early for us to check in, Ravi took us to breakfast and then out of the city center by Delhi Metro to where he lived for two years, and where he stays with his cousin when he comes to town. After a few hours, we came back and I crashed in our really comfortable hotel room while Ravi took Nathan out for a shave and a haircut (cost: $1.50). In the evening we met up with one of Nathan's long lost friends from his Mississippi grad school days, Angshuman (and his wife, Sulukshana). They treated us to several beers at their apartment, and a nice Tandoori dinner in the popular Connaught Place neighborhood of Delhi. Nathan and Angshuman haven't seen each other in 5 years, but they seem to have the kind of friendship that picks up right where it left off as if they just spoke last week. After hours of reminiscing and catching up, they dropped us off at our hotel and invited us to stay with them when we would return to Delhi the following week.

We left early, and hungover, the next morning for Shimla--the capital of Himachal Pradesh (a beautiful northern state). It's a hill station where the government used to retreat to and from where it would rule the rest of the country during the unbearably hot summers. The train station in New Delhi was madness, with touts and scammers around every corner. We had heard stories of them, and it really was as bad as we had heard. We got to our train without any real problems though, and headed to Kalka on a 4 hour journey where we would switch trains. From Kalka to Shimla we took a "toy train" which is an old steam train that chug-chug-chugs up through the hills at a very slow pace. Although the distance is only 90 kilometers, the trip takes 5 hours. We passed through beautiful hills and valleys, through 100 stone tunnels, over narrow bridges and finally into the cool climate of the northern state. We loved it immediately--the cool dry climate, the hills and forests all around, the cleanliness (littering, smoking, spitting and plastic bags are banned in public places), and the fact that the main drag in town is a mall, so no cars, rickshaws, busses, nothing except walking.

Shimla is really beautiful, and was the perfect way to end our trip in India. It looks like a quaint alpine town--it could have been Aspen. And although the town has several buildings that look like old haunted houses (including the one we stayed in which felt like the hotel in The Shining), they really add to it's charm. We spent almost a week in Shimla, lolling around the streets, taking a long hike down to some waterfalls, visiting a beautiful old government building and gardens that have been turned into a post-doc research center, and relaxing in our room (where we had to warm up with a space heater, it actually got that cold and was a welcome change).

I think if I ever come back to India, it would be only to explore the rest of Himachal Pradesh, and the states of Jammu & Kashmir, and Ladakh which are even further north. In Himachal Pradesh we didn't get to make it up to Dharamsala (where the Tibetan refugees are), Amritsar (the famous golden temple), or Manali and Spiti which are supposed to be amazing. And although Jammu & Kashmir are in political turmoil, everyone said that we have to go, it's just so beautiful. And Leh, in Ladakh, sounds like a fantasy-land. The rest of India is too hot for me, and I really enjoyed the culture and environment of Shimla more than anywhere else we traveled to, so I'm interested in seeing the rest of the Himalayan region.

We arrived back in Delhi, just a couple of nights ago and stayed in the Majnu Ka Tilla neighborhood northeast of the main city. We didn't want to stay in noisy Paharganj again, and it was recommended as a fairly quiet place that is a Tibetan colony, so the people and food and markets had that flavor. We weren't there long enough to explore it as much as I'd like because we headed back to Angshuman and Sulukshana's apartment to stay with them for our last two nights. Other than some last minute shopping for gifts at the government emporium and bazaars, we've been mostly lazy here (happily!), playing poker, ordering takeout, and last night going to a party (since today is a government holiday). They've been awesome hosts and I'm glad it all worked out (as they are moving to Chennai next month).