Hotel de Park 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 ...

... aggressive - and climbed to the monkey temple. Queued to be blessed by the holy man in the shrine - a saffron dot placed on our foreheads. The holyman paused in doing this only to take a call on his mobile - new India v old India cliche. <br><br>Leaving the temple we nearly were nearly caught in the cross fire of a turf war between a troop of monkeys and the local stray dogs. Much baring of teeth, shreaks and barks. It was unclear as to who won. <br>

... there, it was scaring but come on! Then I wanted to take some pictures of the location. As I point the camera suddenly I feel a slap and understand that my sunglasses are not on my nose anymore - it was an evil monkey that just has stolen it. Gladly it was not only evil, but also a smart one. She climbed a tree and was looking down at me. An Indian guy next to me told me to wait, and thrown her a small bag with some snack. The monkey catch it and dropped the glasses - she needed ...

... of the Tibetan Plateau, a place called Ladakh. It was wonderful -- very rugged with snow capped peaks 20,000+ ft above sea level. We stayed in the valley of the upper Indus River, which is an amazing turqouise color. It's very striking against the steep barren slopes, as are the beautiful monasteries. The next part of the trip was in Himachel Pradesh visiting the Tibetan government in exile and all their ...

... get up there. It's 600m higher than the road and set on top of a rocky cliff! There seemed to be a path going up for a while, but surely it wasn't going all the way to the monastery through the rocks. Finally a local woman came by carrying something on her head and she told me to keep going. The only other option was the road, an 8km walk. So I kept going and finally saw a path. Man! I had to climb through all the rocks there and several time ...

... hat from the Tibetan handicraft shop it was that cold. All the same this picturesque town situated high up in the mountains seemed a world away from the hot, bustling Delhi. A part of India that I had never imagined existed. The local wildlife was also quite entertaining - very cheeky monkeys all over the place causing havoc. One thing I haven't mentioned yet regarding India in general is the driving and the lack of road rules. It ...

The heat of Delhi became unbearable, so we decided it was time to come north to the Himalayas. Our first stop was Shimla, which can be reached by toy train. Lonely Planet rates the journey through the mountains and 103 tunnels from Kalka (where we changed trains) to Shimla as one of the top 5 most scenic train rides in the country, and it really was beautiful. We could feel the ...

... out.I won't step into all the details, but believe me, it was really bad and i became so angry and frustrated with the whole situation that i wasn't able to help her in any way either..so we had to say goodbye to each other, no matter how frustrating it was. It's still in the back of my mind, and at the most inconvenient / weird moments it pops up again... It just sucks when an innocent person becomes a victim of some ******* who probably gets away with it in ...

... without Fran I'm even more hopeless!) but at least I found the all-important coffee shops - think I spotted a sheesha bar too :o) So I'll update you all again soon, probably next weekend - there is internet at Raphael but its so slow I dont think I can be *****! Keep texting me so I dont get too lonely :o) God I'm such a sad-case at the moment, if I get through the next two moths I'll be very impressed with myself! Miss you all loads and loads! Til next time, Han/Moses xxxx :oP

... the road is quite wide, though not devoid of the characteristic hair-pin bends that you would find all over Himachal. Dharmvir, looked a very skilful driver, had already accelerated our jeep into high 40s, making us sway in our seats as he maneuvered the vehicle swiftly around the bends. We had already started a conversation with him. My use of the word "conversation" might not be appropriate here, since he was doing all the talking and we were doing the ...