Up at 4 am but kept waking up before then to check whether it was 4 am yet! Thanks, body!

Checked out then headed back to the airport. I'd forgotten how much longer everything takes in India!

Even just getting into the airport is a process as you can't go in without a ticket (which must show your name) & your passport. It's a pointless check however as anyone could just write up something on their phone and show the guard at the door. He doesn't verify anything other than there is something on your phone that looks like a ticket and has a name that matches your passport!

Huge queues everywhere plus I had to pay for excess baggage since the ticket only allows 15kg. That took ages too!

Security also takes ages as they scan each person individually then pat them down as well! Separate lines for men & women.

Was one of the last people to board the flight but still made it ... & then we sat in the tarmac for the next 30min!

Arrived in Chandigarh & went outside to find the taxi I'd booked. After several phone calls, he eventually arrived about 45min late. Pretty sure they just organised a taxi when I rang - so why did I bother booking one? I should've just grabbed one from the airport taxi stands.

Stopped for petrol (he asked me to give him money for fuel - no!). I had to pay for the toll charges - that's fine, I guess as they hardly cost anything anyway.

Stopped for brunch at a dodgy roadside Dhaba - hope the food is ok!

Interesting things along the road to Shimla:

* Lots of rocks across the road - so they build another one next to it! Roadworks everywhere.

* Monkeys, cows & dogs everywhere

* Beautiful terraced hills as we wind our way higher into the mountains.

* Pine trees everywhere.

* The road runs parallel to the railway so we had to stop once to let the train go through. Amazing they can build a train line up here!

* Lots of colourful buildings on the hillsides

Finally arrived at the Airbnb I'd booked. it's about 15km out of town in a place called "Mashobra" but it takes about 45min to get there due to the roads and the quantity of vehicles etc on them!

There was cloud everywhere so I can't see anything beyond a few metres. I'm guessing there are some amazing views out there somewhere but I can't see a thing! Apparently, just about every hotel around here has amazing views!

Got myself settled into the room then decided to go for a walk to see the surrounding area then head into town.

I headed up the road from my BnB, into the forest, away from the main town. The forest looked so beautiful with all the clouds wafting through.

I walked to the end of the road, where it joins up with the main road again then started walking back towards town as I really wanted to see a bit of Shimla as well.

I was hoping there would be some taxis coming along that I could just flag down but unfortunately, there weren't any taxis out this far (plus it seems that most taxis here don't seem to have any signage & they look like every other car). There's no Uber here and as I found out later, you can't just call up a taxi company and get a cab ... you have to book!

Sidenote: the taxi industry in Shimla is going to get killed if Uber (or similar) ever do come here! There's a service called "Ola" in India but they only seem to have about 1 car available at any time and it won't drive out to Mashobra.

I walked past a couple of shops on the side of the road so asked one of the guys there how to get a taxi back into town.

He didn't speak much English but I understood he was suggesting I get a bus instead. OK ... so we both waited in silence on the side of the road, in the middle of the forest, across the road from his friend's shop.

After about 10-15min, he started muttering, probably about how long the bus was but eventually it turned up & we both got on.

As the only white guy on the bus, I got more than a few curious looks & imagine they were thinking "What is this guy doing on our bus!" but for Rs30 (about AUD 60 cents), I got a one-hour bus ride into town!

Fortunately, the sun sets quite late here (around 7.30pm) so I still had some daylight to take a look around Shimla's #1 tourist attraction: Mall Road.

Mall Road is a vehicle-free series of streets. "Vehicle-free" is such a delight after the constant honk-fest and smoke-belching fume-mobiles that comprise the normal Indian streets.

Everywhere in Shimla is either up or down. Because the town is built on top of a mountain ridge, there's hardly any flat space. The Mall is one of those flat places, but of course, the bus doesn't drop you outside the Mall, it drops you at the bottom of the hill you have to climb up to get to the Mall ... so up I went, all good training for the trek I want to do!

Mall Road is an open-air collection of random shops selling shoes, scarves, fruit, t-shirts and miscellaneous plastic junk. These are interspersed with cake shops and cafes.

I arrived around dusk and wandered around the streets a little, admiring the old colonial buildings that are still standing and are in remarkably good condition. They all looked very beautiful amongst the swirling fog.

The English used Shimla as their summer capital since they weren't terribly fond of the Indian summers. As it turns out, neither are the Indians, so most of the accommodation, shops and activities here are geared towards families trying to escape the heat.

Interestingly, it's also a big honeymoon destination ... probably because you could hug your loved one and not get all sweaty in 5 seconds!

I found the tourist office which listed some great ideas for forest walks out the front. Perfect! Exactly what I'm looking for ... maybe they have a map! But sadly, no, that would be too easy! The office is being renovated and the only people inside are tradesmen.

No maps or brochures to be found anywhere, no directions on where a temporary tourist office might be located ... a lot of things are just so much harder here than they need to be!

An old guy ("JP") saw me looking at the tourist office & called me over to offer his trekking guide services. It seemed quite expensive for what he was offering and I was a little worried about his ability to do any trekking but the main thing I wanted to do here was go trekking in the forest and without any maps of where to go, what else could I do? My BnB doesn't have any tourist information or maps at all ... of course ... why would you!

I wandered off to think about his offer and while I was looking at a beautiful church nearby, another person approached me to start talking about the multi-day treks he & his brother could offer me. I listened to them for a while & took a look at their maps, then gave them my details so they could send me some costs & plans.

I made my way back to see JP & decided that in the absence of any other way of doing a walk, I'd take him up on his offer. I tried unsuccessfully to barter him down a little then gave in & booked him for tomorrow & the next day.

Went & had some OK Indian food for dinner at a restaurant nearby, picked up a small cake from one of the cake shops, then headed down to find a cab so I could get home.

JP had offered to organise a cab for me (for about 50% more than I knew it should cost) so I declined and went to find my own cab home.

The driver I spoke to quoted a figure that was half of JP's price so I agreed, thinking I'd found a great bargain.

We got into his cab and then he spoke to someone else and suddenly the price increased by 40%. Dodgy b******s! I argued with him a little then gave up as I was too tired to argue over $4 so just gave in.

Got home about 10.30pm and went to bed.