India Update

Hello again!

Just wanted to check in and say that I'm still here and am still enjoying India. Here's the latest update:

My friend Tom and I took what was supposed to be a 30 hour train journey from Mumbai to Chandigarh on the 2nd. The train was delayed by 12 hours, which was nice in a way, because we got to spend a whole other day in Mumbai with my friends from London. We went to another friend's house for lunch and got to meet his parents, which was nice. After eating dinner at one of my friends' favorite restaurants, Tom and I went back to the train station for our train that left at midnight. The train ended up running 20 hours behind, total, turning our journey into a 40 hour one instead of 30 hours. The good news was that we spent two nights on the train, and so didn't have to pay for accommodation for those two nights. It was also a very "Indian" experience and we were definitely the only white people on the whole train. We met a lovely family who had two great kids (a girl, 11, and a boy, 5). They ended up inviting us to their house to stay with them. We didn't take them up on that (because after 40 hours on the train we thought we might just need to shower and crash at a hotel, which we did), but we did go to their house for dinner in Chandigarh and had a really nice time with them. They were so lovely and were giving us gifts as we pulled ourselves away after a good three hours at their house.

From Chandigarh we spent one looong day (~ 9 hours) traveling by local buses (read: no heat and often missing panes of glass in the windows) to a tiny mountain town called Narkanda (north of Shimla). And I mean tiiiiiny. We stayed at this government run hotel for two nights and attempted to go "skiing," which was the whole reason Tom even wanted to go up to this area to begin with. Basically what we found were some hills a bit bigger than at the park across the street from where I grew up and some local kids with some really old downhill ski equipment. They "rented" it out to us and we walked up the hill in our skis about three times and skiied down and now consider that having been skiing in India. It was interesting. We (well, mostly me as a female, since Indian women seem to be fairly unseen that far north) got some very interesting, not particularly friendly looks, and although it was an interesting experience, I wasn't too sad to leave that town. It was freeeeeezing cold up there at night and none of these places have heat, so we had one ancient space heater to heat our entire room (where the windows don't even close properly) that probably hadn't been used in months. The mattresses were like blocks of ice. I don't remember the last time I was so cold for an entire night. 

Today we took a 2.5 hour bus ride back down the mountains to a tourist town called Shimla. So far we're loving Shimla! It has the feel of a mountain ski town in Colorado or something, just without the skiing or the rich people. We saw two other white people today - the first we've seen in a while! We're staying at the YMCA which has beautiful views right out the window. Again, no heat, so I'm kind of dreading getting into bed, but I think we'll rent a space heater, so that should help a little. The town goes all the way up and down the side of a mountain, so hiking up to the hotel with our packs was miserable, but since then we've really been enjoying all of the little alleyways and the markets and the shops. Surprisingly you can get everything here! Tomorrow we'll explore a bit more out of the town since there are supposed to be cool things to see a few kilometers away.

On the 9th we'll head down to Delhi and stay with a friend of mine. Tom needs to begin his visa process and will hopefully fly back to Bangladesh on the 12th or 13th. A friend of a friend is flying into Delhi on the 11th and we've planned to travel together some. Where next, I'm not sure, but probably further west and maybe a bit less north than Tom and I have been going.

So there you have it! Unfortunately pictures probably won't make it up until I get back to the states, but there will be plenty once I get to them. Hope you're all well and are enjoying your central heating.