Travel

The day began with a solitary hunt for a better hotel, while Wala went on sleeping on account of not feeling too well. The hunt was successful and the prey was of prime quality.

The hotel I hunted down was the Regent Hotel, right next to the venerable and lush Taj Mahal hotel. I walked up to reception just as three guests were checking out. After enquring about double rooms and rates, I was told that there were two rooms available (no doubt the ones vacated by the leaving guests at the reception) and that I could see them and decide which one I wanted.

Early start today, we coudn't afford to miss the famed and reknowed Rock Garden.

After having breakfast followed by checking out, we flagged a rickshaw down and asked to be taken to the Rock Gardens. The driver just laughed back at us and left.

This morning I had to make an emergency unscheduled stop to the toilet. Is the indian water finally getting to my stomach?

We hurried up the packing and had a bit of breakfast in the restaurant. While Wala finished drinking her tea and paid the bill, I collected the bags from our room, checked out and ordered a taxi to the Main Train Station, where our tiny toy train to Kalka was waiting for us.

The day began very late, in order to catch up on some much needed sleep. Lhasa House hadn't been very conducive to good nights sleep, so being able to sleep without being woken by unexpected loud noises or screams was a welcome change.

After breakfast at the hotel restaurant, we ventured out in Shimla. Contrary to our expectations, we were not greeted with idillic mountain views, but rather with scene of abject poverty. The traffic, noise, beeping and street commotion were as incessant as in Delhi. Our confidence that Shimla would be a relaxing experience shattered.

As soon as I woke up, I went for a squatting shower to try and wash off the feeling of sickness and the pain in my throat. It didn't work, but I realized I had got quite good at showering under the tap.

TODO

I blame my Psion for losing all I wrote about today.

TODO

I blame my Psion for losing all I wrote about today.

aerlingus (operating for KLM) flight to Amsterdam, nice airport, hanging around for connecting flight to India
KLM flight, quiet and surprisingly quick, spicy and excellent indian food, given this is airline food.

I couldn't believe we were in India. The flight was so smooth and uneventful that it seemed like flying to some other european destination, rather than goin\
g all the way to a foreign subcontinent.

Walking out of the airplane and through the walkway connecting the plane to the airport building revealed that we were in fact somewhere very hot. I felt th\

Thoughts and stories about our trip to India.