Good evening ladies and gentlemen
Not going to be such a long one tonight, which is a curse or a blessing depending on how much you like reading these and whether or not you get round to finishing them. The reason is.... I haven't really done much. One thing worth mentioning though is that, contrary to what I said last time, I haven't been to Dhamamsala. I got half way, after a 10 hour bus ride to Keylong, where I stayed the night. Then we (Tim was with me) got to the bus station at 5, as advised, and were told by the man in a slightly patronising tone that the 'direct' bus to Dharamsala was at 11, and to come back at 10 to get a ticket. A bit more sleep and some samosas were had, and then we bought our tickets. We were then told that the bus went via Menali, where it would arrive at 5, and then wouldn't get to Dharamsala until 4 in the morning the next day, so I thought 'sod this, I'm getting off at Menali.'
Menali was nice, still in the Himalayas but much greener than Leh, Hindu rather than Buddhist, and an old school hippy hangout. However, there's not much to do in the area except trek (which I didn't fancy again just yet after last time), so after a few days we took another 10 hour bus ride to Shimla, where we arrived last night.
Shimla was the summer capital of the Raj, and it's quite surreal being surrounded by old English-style buildings covered in monkeys. Now it's an Indian tourism and honeymoon destination, and its quite nice to be able to experience the more affluent, middle-class side of India as well as what I've seen so far. Having said that, you don't have to walk far off the main street to return to 'normality'.
Anyway, I have one more day here, when I think I'm going to have to watch the Chelsea v Man Utd game by myself in my room, (nobody here cares about anything but cricket!) and then I am going to Dharamsala. Definately. It's 10 hours on the bus again, seems like all the major Himalayan towns are exactly the same distance apart for some reason. Answers on a postcard.
Roger and out
PS I posted some photos on here the other day, just in case you didn't notice.
