The Golden Pentangle

After the brain scramble that was Varanasi I was quite thankful for the totally boring and uneventful 18hr sleeper ride to Delhi. I arrived at about 05:30 in the morning and after dodging the usual auto and rickshaw drivers found my hotel in a back street off the main Bazaar. I was lucky it was near a cinema so everyone knew the place. In the UK we use boozers as land marks, in India it's cinemas. I scoped the area out, ate dinner, sent some emails and went to bed.
Friday morning I got a taxi and off I went to collect Abi from the airport. It was great to see a friendly face after nearly 3 months away from home. I think after the long flight and coming from the calm of London, Delhi was a bit of a shock for her. For me I also discovered something new. Since I mainly travel alone I did not have 1st hand experience of how different western females experience India. On a cycle rickshaw over to "Old-Delhi" she was ogled at, touched , pinched etc. I am used to being stared at but for a girl it is much more intense.
After one day in Delhi and seeing monkeys, cows and my 1st Elephant we got the evening train to Agra the home of the world famous Taj-Mahal. The Agra auto driver told us that sunrise was a good time to see it, so I set my alarm clock of the millionth time to get up before 05:30. After paying the Rs800 each to get in (Rs20 if you're Indian) we made our way down. We were not disappointed. The Taj was magnificent, especially at sunrise. Made from Marble and costing about 4 cows and 11 camels to build. The Muslim emperor of the day built it as a mausoleum to his favourite beloved wife after she died giving birth to their 15 child. Once it was almost sold just for the value of the marble. The Taj dominates the whole sky line of the ancient city of Agra. There were plenty of roof top cafes to see it. We could also see it from the Agra fort which is also well worth a visit. Great history and architecture and a complete death trap if you have children. Thankfully the train back to Delhi only took 2hrs (3.5 to get to Agra). After starting the day at 05:30 we were tired, even more so since we knew we had another early start the next morning. We were booked on the 06:05 north from Delhi to Kalka.

The 6hrs to Kalka went pretty fast, but the next 6hrs on the narrow gauge "toy-train" did not exactly fly by. We met Craig, a nice 'India frightened' lad from Birmingham. He was booked in a Computer Hackers course in the mountain town we were heading for. He had not eaten in days and was pretty much in fear of everything. Of course I tried to calm his nerves with my stories of food poisoning, train drugging, and head burning. The scenery up to Shimla was outstanding. The train wound up the mountains through no less then 120 tunnels. 6 hrs to go 85KM. Shimla was a British Government mountain retreat from the unbearable hot Indian summers and was known as a 'little bit of England', I am not sure which bit, perhaps the one mock Tudor Indian restaurant or the Christian Church. The hill station is pretty clean and tidy by Indian standards and people much less energetic with their touting. When the night came though it was COLD. On the high point of Shimla is a temple devoted to the monkey God, and appropriately there are a lot of monkeys hanging around. On the walk up Abi wisely rented a monkey stick, and we soon discovered where the saying "more than you can shake a stick at" came from. The red monkeys were very bold and would try and open rucksacks if you don't wave them off, they bare teeth and can even attack. They were not too bad on the day we went, they were mainly drinking, fighting amongst themselves or pleasuring each other (bit like the Irish).
After a few days chilling in Shimla and with itchy/cold feet we got the local bus down to a town called Tattapanni. Tattapanni is further into the Himalayas but lower in altitude by 2000m. The bus ride took about 3hrs and there were moments where I was glad that the drivers brakes and horn worked so well. We really did not have much of an idea what would be in Tatappanni other than some sulphur springs that would cure all kinds of disease.

HINDI ENGLISH
Tatta = Hot
Panni = Water

The hotel overlooked a river of fast moving rapids and a hanging bridge. Each year the valley floods when the water rises, but we were here after the monsoon to the hotel was above the water. On the edge of the river the local women were washing their clothes in hand dug holes. The little pools would fill with hot water from the centre of the earth (well the crust anyway). The water was too hot to touch really and did smell a bit of rotten eggs (sulphur). The local men would wash themselves from behind a pile of rocks as the women did the same. In our posh 3squid a night hotel the water was piped into concrete baths, were we added some cold water so to avoid your skin pealing off.
On the third day in Tattapannie we celebrated Abi's birthday. We managed to cram a ridiculous amount in. We went rapid rafting for 2hrs on a 7 man boat down the river and got wet. We borrowed Val's (English lady in our hotel) Royal Enfield and after 10mins of me trying to remember how to ride a geared bike made our way up into the hills to hunt down the holy Shiva caves. We saw stalactites and stalagmites and stuff. I could have spent a week or more here, it was really relaxing and the food was great. Very lazy days and nights around burning wood so informal, and quite, but we had a train to Delhi to catch. There was no way we were joining a 3hr buss ride with a 6hr toy-train ride back to Kalka, especially on Abi's birthday. So we splashed out and made it back in 3.5hrs for around 20squid in two taxis. Six hrs of a midnight sleeper train later and we were back in the heart of the capital Delhi. Some shopping (found a Gandhi statue made of Sandalwood, could not find a life size one) and eating later and Abi's 10 days were up.
Last night we went to a 'posh' restaurant where I had fish for the 1st time since leaving home. Abi had Lamb. We were so impressed we went back there this morning for breakfast. We both had Beans on toast with an egg on top with ANY-TIME sauce. It was fab. I have just taken Abi to the airport and waved her off. It was great to have a travel companion, and great to share it with someone. I had a fab time, and was sad to see her go, but not too sad for we'll meet again in 2 weeks time in Australia.
Tomorrow I get the 7am train to Amritsar in Punjab the land of the turbans.