Chandigarh - Shimla

After a series of unfortunate events in chandigarh - confining us to within 5 ft of the hotel toilet and teaching us the joy of a domino's pizza when you have delhi belly! We have moved onto Shimla.
The journey here took five hours on a railway that basically curled around on itself all the way up the mountain, stunning views!!! Some american travellers were moaning a bit but to be honest we can't fault the public transport, it arrives on time ish and it's cheap and relatively clean!! Shimla is much MUCH cooler than the rest of india, we're talking UK temps, lovely jubbly!! It's also peaceful because trasport in banned in the centre, no harrassment from the rick-shaws!! Alas it is hilly, very very hilly and with two huge backpacks, the walk from the station to our hotel (obviously we picked the one right at the top!) was challenging! We're thinking of going trekking in a few days, but for now enjoying some R&R and clean air is perfection!
Our room has a view of the himalayan foothills (i assume) unfortunetely it's foggy because of the monsoon our photos are slightly below par, (still searching for the one to knock your socks off dad!) There are also monkies everywhere! we want to go see the monkey temple but have to figure out a way to stop them stealing matt's glasses! Apprently they are so clever they steal from your pockets and will only return your stuff in exchange for food! Strangely enough, unlike other animals we have seen, these monkies are spotless, their fur gleams!
All in all we are now having a really good time :)
love to you all xxx

Chandigarh

Our first day of none stress, getting slightly more used to the heat and interesting aroma's of india. Had a power cut last night, well about four! The air con went on and off all night! At least we got some sleep. Glad we bought the torch!
Went to see the 'fantasy rock garden' today. It was actually really cool, unlike the vietnamese plastic animals everywhere, the more modern indian tourist spots seem to be somewhat more cultural. We discovered that the 'no displays of affection in public' advise is lies! The young indian couples just hide away from their parents eyes! It was romance city! Lots of waterfalls, crazy statues, and cool swing seats.
After that we went for lunch and matt has his first experience of an indian toilet, but i'm sure he'd like to tell you this story verbally with facial expressions!! Off to shimla tomorrow, a whole day of travelling, but hopefully some photo worthy views on the train. There is a shimla toy train, but we were advised by the train reservation office to book a regular train because it only has 15 seats. However we will def take the darjeeling toy train!
Matt found out he passed his exam today :) so we're going for cake and ice cream now!
Thanks you for all the messages, we miss home keep them coming! xxx

19 hours in Delhi

Hello everyone! So contrary to our original plan we are 'blogging' from Chandigarh, having had a disasterous first day in delhi. Flight was fine but the first auto-rickshaw we took to the hotel didn't take us there and took us instead to 'toursit information' where they rang our hotel and told us it was fully booked, and repeated this with several others. However the trusty lonely planet forwarned us of this and after about an hour of faffing they finally took us to our hotel! In the end that was actually over booked, but the 'tourist information' has been ringing other hotels on a fake line and encourgaing us to stay in expensive hotels instead. We then found ourselves at the Hotel Anoop pretty quickly.
Problem number two was the bed bugs!! We had to switch rooms, this one was also not as great as it appeared cause we couldn't sleep the whole night due to the intense heat and no breeze!
Problem three, having decided that we'd had more than enough we hot footed it to the train station to but tickets out of delhi and were accosted by a very angry man claiming to be the ticket collecter and take us to a fake booking office, we got out of that one though and found the real tourist office and booked tickets to Chandigarh.
Perhaps we will go back to delhi at the end but from what we saw it was a little too much to cope with, there are cows and associated smelly piles everywhere! Rats, roaches, scabies dogs! You name it.
So after a four hour trip on a nice AC train (leaving at 5:40AM!) we arrived in Chandigarh, which is apparently india cleanest and greenest city. It certainly is green and cleaner respectively than delhi! Plus points are far less hassle althouh we keep getting a bit ripped off by over paying cycle-ricksaws! However nice room (bit expensive but no bed bugs and a reasonable temp) professional hotel, not out to rip us off which is good!
We're going to explore more tomorrow, as we're fairly tired today. On the agenda is some shopping, a fantasy art gallery garden type thing and pedello's on the lake! After that we'll probs head to shilma on the toy train if we can get a reservation cause it's high season!
The weather is hot but less oppresive than delhi, we have been advised to visit rajasthan (our intial plan) later in the summer as the weather improves. So the back up plan is to head into Himachel Pradesh and absorb the ambience!! With a little mountain sports along the way!
Missing Everyone lots,
Love Lauren and Matt

P.S. Mum/Dad (Kenilwoth and Bournemouth!) We are safe don't worry.
Grandy - Culture shock, are you kidding me?! you did not prepare me for this!!!! However i do like the female attire, very pretty and colourful, although i get stared at SO much, glad matt is here they back off when they notice him.
To All - appreciate the lack of cow poop in the UK! ;)

Practise Post

5 days to go!!!