The Himalayan Queen, an unexpected journey

Now that we're here, in beautiful Shimla, with a good night's sleep under our belts, we are already reminiscing about the journey to get here.  We spent 20 hours on airplanes getting to Delhi, from Portland.  Then after about 5 hours in a hotel room before we got on a train headed for Shimla.

The train trip from Delhi to Kalka took 4 hours. We had "Executive Class" tickets.  Everyone on the train had an individual seat with a tray, and an attendant constantly brought us food and tea. The other passengers were a mix of Indian and western people. It was a fairly boring trip.

Executive Class train car to Kalka.  Notice the big ass suitcases above the lady in blue.

When we arrived in Kalka we had to run to catch the Himalayan Queen to Shimla. The Himalayan Queen is a toy train, which is a narrow gauge train built during the time of the Raj, to get the 'government' (i.e., the Brits) from the winter capital of Delhi to the summer capital at Shimla. On this train our tickets were "Chair Car."  There were no chairs.  Instead there were small bench seats that seated two small people, and there were about 30 of us crammed in to fewer seats. The train took 7 and a half hours to take us 60 miles to final  elevation of 6, 811 feet.  

The Himalyan Queen. This is our Chair Car.

Most of the passengers were vacationing Indians, so the car was filled with a festive air. Here are the highlights of the cast of characters:

• British couple with big ass suitcases.  It became apparent to us later that night at dinner that when you have a big ass suitcase, you can have dinner in elegant evening clothes, as opposed to our wrinkled, frumpy travel togs.
• Indian mom and daughter taking a celebratory trip to Shimla to note the daughter's recent master's degree in physics.  We learned that the daughter is a single child, which is unusual in India, since cryptic methods are often used in India to ensure live borns are predominantly male.
• Family of 7 Indians who booked 4 seats for the trip.  This was a problem for us because they had assumed they could have our seats. Fortunately our guide Vikrant did the arguing that freed our purchased seats for us.  During the course of the journey this family continuously overflowed their 4 alloted seats.
• Indian gentleman who was enjoying sitting in the open doorway as the train traveled up and around tortuous curves.  It turns out he didn't have a ticket at all and disappeared when the conductor arrived to collect tickets.
• Family of Indians enjoying their takeout meals during the trip up the mountain, and without a thought throwing all garbage out the windows of the train: plastic trays, lids, foil wrappers, water bottles, etc.  Taylor spent part of the trip standing behind Jamar, and noted that folks had to walk past the garbage bin to get to the open window to throw the trash through.
• Mr Eat and Pick, who ate his rice and sauce with the fingers of his right hand, while occasionally reaching up to pick his nose with his left.  Interestingly, he also had a cloth napkin in his lap, and he wore designer eyeglasses.
• Family of 3 who got on the train at a later stop and had to displace 3 of the family of 7 who were again in the wrong seats.  The family of 3 had a great time taking photos.  Mom and dad took turns hanging out the open door to get shots of each other.  Then mom made snacks.  This involved pouring cereal onto a plate, then adding chopped shallots that she peeled, leaving the peels on the floor.  I don't know why she didn't use the window.
• A young Sikh man who spent the first half of the journey taking selfies.  Most of which involved hanging out the door. There are so many creative ways to use a selfie stick.
• An adorable baby girl who had multiple changes of cute outfits throughout the day.
• The train conductor who mysteriously arrived at one of our unexplained stops in the wilderness.  Because there is no connecting passageway between train cars, the train would stop and he would walk along the tracks to go to the next train car to collect tickets.  He was very nattily dressed in blue suit and took his job seriously.  His presence also got everyone into their proper seats  or off the train at least until he moved on to the next car.

When we weren't totally absorbed people watching, we remembered to look out the windows to see the beautiful views.

We climbed through the Himalayan Shivalik Hills foothills to reach Shimla.

Between Kalka and Shimla we traveled 60 miles and made a 2131 foot elevation gain.  It was a very twisty, scenic trip.

We didn't know exactly what to expect when we decided to come to India. So far both the people and the physical beauty has captured us.  If only we can manage to keep our minds open to the experiences ahead.