Vikrant Hotel Shimla

... of the region.

The drainage systems of Himachal Pradesh are Sutlej, Ravi, Chenab, Beas and Yamuna. This Hill Station experience three seasons hot weather season, cold weather season and rainy season. It is considered as a fruit bowl of the country. Himachal Pradesh is a well known habitat to a variety of animals. There are around 1200 bird and 359 animal species in the state. Himachal Pradesh is divided into 12 districts ...

... papers were signed to end British rule, and split India and Pakistan. As we left we saw something even more jarring on a building that looked like it should be in Scotland - a monkey walking across the ramparts of the lodge.

On the subject of monkeys., Shimla has a lot of monkeys, a lot of very confident monkeys. Its main temple is dedicated to the monkey god, so they have the run of the place. We hired sticks to ward off monkeys - they can ...

... diesel engine pulling us up hills no train should be able to manage, crossing hundreds of bridges and passing through dozes of tunnels. All built to take the British to Shimla, which during the summer months was used as the British Raj's capital. Each small quaint station enroute has two signs, one telling you how high you've climbed, the other a quote promoting religious harmony.

... got referred to as hermione.

Arrived at shimla after the train appeared to go around it 5 times like it wasn't sure where it was at. Our hotel was amazing. Mine and Tom's room had a massive bedroom about twice the size of mine at home, a dressing room, and a bathroom. Dude! While Tom was confined to the toilet, I went and got 4 massive bars of dairy milk, 2 packs of cookies and a fanta for about $3.

After lunch (curry.) me and tom passed ...

Himachal Pradesh, nestled in the bosom of glorious Himalayan ranges the land of eternal snow peaks thrives in exotic valleys, magnificent green hill-slopes, snowcapped mountains, gushing streams, pilgrimages, trekking, adventure sports destinations, wildlife and the hills of Himalayas attract a wide range of tourist from all over the world. Today, Himachal Pradesh has become one of the most important tourist destinations in India ...

... we met our hired taxi driver who was going to drive us for three days onto Manali and Dharamsala, further up into the Himalayas. Sadly, we had sort of miscalculated the latter days of our India trip somewhat so ended up with only having 1 night in Manali and 1 night in Dharamsala. Annoying, as these two places completely sold India to us. After our hysterical and horrendous experiences so far, eventually we reached Indian utopia!! Love Lois & David xx

... like of before, we were taken by taxi to the New Delhi train station, which was a horrendous place. With thousands asleep on the roads surrounding it, and on every space within, it was so confusing we nearly fell foul of a con man, who took us to a "Government" tourist agency, where we were told our tickets were invalid. Thank God for Barry and his well tuned London cynism, who caught on immediatedly and got us back to where we needed to be. Platform 10, the Himalayan ...

... squalid room on the bed that her, her husband and their twin daughters sleep in; being force-fed a ton of snacks that probably cost her entire month's wage! The problem is that its incredibly rude to refuse anything, so even though we were probably eating her out of house and home (literally) we didnt have a choice! When Sandra tried to politely refuse her millionth piece of papad, Geeta looked at her like she'd come into her house on Christmas Day and ****** on ...

... of his moped. It still wasn't quite the place, and I began to accept the inevitability of another bus ride to continue this impossible search. I made a last reconnaissance around the town for an even nearly bearable domicile, then took a local bus down the river until reaching the beginning of the walk to Tosh. Two Israeli girls were also trekking up there, so I joined them in the hike up the hills, tailed also by a cortege of village men who kept ...