The push of Delhi got to us before too long. By day four, we had completely had enough. Jake came down with a case of Delhi Belly, which might sound like the sexy bump belly-dancers have after too many jilabi, but seems something more akin to your insides turning into an explosive cement mixer. After a harried respite, we were clawing like rabid dogs to get out of the city, so despite Jacob’s cold sweat and delirium we got a night train to Kalka. Delhi Old Train Station was less train station more mass dormitory, with people stretched out on the floor in every direction. We finally made it through to discover our train would be late. No surprises there. When the train arrived later, we discovered our carriage did not even exist. The train system in India is, no doubt, fantastic but navigating it properly is altogether a different issue. We bribed our way onto the train and a few hours later arrived in the sleepy town of Kalka, where we too decided to stretch out and nap on the floor of the station. From there we took the wonderful toy train to Shimla, a 6 hour train ride on a narrow gauge railway. The train is not the fastest way to get to Shimla, but is the most beautiful and as a result most passengers were Indian tourists, mostly honeymooning couples. Excited as we all were, the atmosphere on the train seemed like one of a large and boisterous school trip. 40 year old men would whoop and scream as we passed through tunnels, we all hurried to look out the windows when we passed a gully and everyone would make a game of running for the leaving train after we made a quick chai stop. When a seller would hop on the train with a plastic bucket of lentils, the carriage would descend into school dinner-hall madness, only falling silent once everyone was happily munching their snack from circles of newspaper. The journey itself was beautiful, no surprise it’s a UNESCO site. The train climbs to 6,500 feet, and we watched the vegetation change from palms trees into pine until right at the very top no trees were visible, only an endless sea of opaque fog obscuring the sheer drops below. As is to be expected, all health and safety was out the window, so we swung and sat our legs out of the open doors as the train went over huge valleys, with barely a centimetre between the drop and the train tracks.
When we arrived in Shimla, already the atmosphere was one of calm and healing. The whole town is shrouded in heavy shreds of fog that descend from the top of the mountain and the rain comes down in fat droplets. The place is spotless and the food from the streets is clean and nourishing. The people are polite and relaxed. The streets are all tiny alleyways clinging to the side of the mountain, with little shops tucked into every crevice, mostly consisting of huge stacks of cloth with a man peering at you from the top of the 7 foot pile. If you so wish you can also buy singular shoes or collections of human teeth in little boxes.
The main attraction of Shimla is Jakku, a temple to Hanuman accompanied by a red colossos of the god right at the top of the mountain, reaching into the cloud level. The walk up is steep and gruelling but fills your lungs with good clean air. Reaching the top, you enter into a little shrine to receive puja, but I’m pretty sure I botched it as much as is possible, not knowing where to kneel or in what order to do things. At least I took my shoes off first. It is not all idyllic though- on your way up you need a large stick and a pocketful of stones to ward off the monkeys that run riot over the temple. Being western, we find these furry creatures endearing; that was, until they stole a roll of toilet paper, neatly opened the plastic packaging and proceeded to deftly shred the entire roll over a crowd of people. Indians, as I’m sure many know, consider toilet paper very dirty indeed and prefer to wash themselves with water, so you can imagine the pandemonium that ensued when toilet paper rained from the sky. Monkey thefts are probably the most dramatic thing to happen in Shimla as the whole town has an air of sleepy conservatism that is both soothing and invigorating.
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