Hotel Dreamland Shimla

... for anybody who wanted to cool their mind and senses off the heat and sultry of Indian summers. Himachal Pradesh has been bestowed with picturesque beauty that is incorporated in the various hill stations. You can experience peace and serenity by visiting various pilgrimage destinations like temples and monastery in Himachal Pradesh that are really stupendous. There are many colonial monuments that form the monumental ...

... Victorian mock-alpine fancies, theme park gothic, and modern concrete Indian all fighting for space on the cliffs.

The main attraction is the old Vice-Regal lodge - a very grand building built in Scottish Baronial style, with a neatly manicured lawn and tidy flower beds in really looks out of place in India. Build in the late 1800s - with ducting ready for electricity long before it came to India. The brief tour takes you to the room where ...

... rail-tracks.

In Kalka we changed trains for a very different, but very pleasurable, rail experience. The "toy train" up to Shimla. This is something of a colonial relic, a narrow gauge railway that winds its way from the plains into the Himalayan foothills up to 2,150 metres above sea level. Crammed in tiny carriages for 6 hours, through spectacular scenery, an ancient ...

I was one of the first people up and so I went downstairs and had some breakfast. I ordered the 'eggetarian' breakfast with an omelette. It came with three pieces of dry/stale toast and a very tiny cup of black tea. I ate it because I was hungry. They also brought me Eyal's breakfast...even though he was still upstairs sleeping. I texted the girls to see if they were up...no response. I took Eyal's breakfast up to him. He took a few bites then put it back down and ...

... to happen in Shimla ever as far a most people could remember. After a slightly strange start with a long winded soundcheck the first band went on. The kids went WILD! Most bands would KILL for an audience so enthusiastic. There was mayhem. Kids in Turbens got bottles of beer and were spraying people (nobody cared), kids at the back were moshing and breaking tables (and quickly exiting after they did so - obviousy an unintentional mistake) and the ...

Hello Again, I am glad to say that I am writing this from the cool of Shimla in the Himachal Pradesh region. We were very glad to say that we've left Delhi behind although it wasn't as straight forward as we'd hoped. Somehow (and we still don't really know how) we managed to board the wrong train and we were halfway to Jaipur (west instead of north) before the conductor saw us and alerted us to this. We ...

... So we rolled back down the hill and went the round about way. Shimla is very hilly. The taxi dropped us off at the foot of a hill where we took 2 lifts and then had to walk the rest of the way. The 1st hotel the tout showed us was horrible (it stank) so we left the bags and the boys and went further up the hill to another hotel which was much better so we booked into there.

God I havent written in a WHILE! I'm sure nobody even noticed (sniff) but oh well... Here I am, in Dehradun... Alooone... Have been quite busy the last couple of weeks though - I'm even starting to enjoy being on my own and having my space etc! Its still a bit lonely sometimes though :o( Recent developments at Raphael are: - I seem to have become Snow White and am attracting a small zoo of animals in my little flat - as well as the mosquitoes, spiders, evil crickets, huge ...

... to do anything with his money?" said Peter, sighing; "Sonijee has daughters and four sons, he's got big responsibilities, and he has dowries to pay and a future to think of - there's no pensions in India. And what is this Western notion that you have to do something with your money, always have more, always buy things, never be satisfied? Sonijee lives in constant view of the Ganga; he has his guru, his wife, his business - what more could he want?" We were walking towards Ram ...