A train to Shangra La? Wait.. sorry, I meant Shimla

To get from Delhi to where Rahul went to school, Solan City, we took two separate trains. First we took a sleeper train to Kalka, which sadly had no AC because we did not book our tickets in time. I blame Rahul for this, but I have since forgiven him for making me suffer in the night heat. :P

The first leg of the ride was riddled with a few stops, at each I woke up because there was no wind to cool me off, but I was kept company by the ever smiling Rohit. Rohit being the younger son in the family is usually asked/told to help out in all things the family does. Even though this is an extra burden on his shoulders, you cannot seem to wipe the smile off of his face. He is a pretty jovial cat indeed. This made the up and down of the trip not so harsh but still tiring.

Sweaty and worn out, we arrived in Kalka. After a short wait at the station, we boarded what Rahul called a short train, probably because it is only about 7-8 cars long, opposed to the at least double for other trains. This ride was much more pleasant. Did I mention that every ten minutes of the 3 hour train ride it dropped about one degree? If not, that is important to note, as leaving the sweltering temperatures of New Delhi behind for the cool reprieve of the mountainous state of Himachal Pradesh was a welcomed change.

Although I was quite tired from the lack of sleep over the past few days, I was not able to turn my eyes from the view. The rise to Solan City was littered with small stops at hill stations, places to grab snacks, stretch and use the restroom, making it a bit longer then it needs to be. I enjoyed these small ten minute rests though. It gave us a chance to look around at the scenery minus the blur of motion from the train. The mountains are covered in a lush jungle composed of many rare species only found in this state. As we continued to rise, we started to pass through a large amount of mist, did I say mist, I meant clouds. That is right, we were surrounded in low level cloud cover, making the ride just that more serene.

The cool breeze, the lush scenery, and the quiet ride made for a great trip up the mountain. It gave me a good amount of time to finally contemplate what I have seen in the past few days.