Aside from the tigers and our wonderful stay in Ranthambore, Rajasthan - Shimla is, undoubtedly, our favourite place in India so far. The elevation - about 8000 feet - is superb - we feel like we’re breathing fresh air for the first time in a very long time. The air is very crisp and it was only 2 degrees when we got up - bracing enough for me to wear my fur coat and for James to have multiple layers - long sleeve T-shirt, jumper and down puffy jacket - alo...

Breakfast in our Chandigarh hotel proved that things can be accomplished in a professional and efficient manner and the chef was a very friendly man indeed. A very good breakfast altogether crowned with a personal visit from the hotel’s GM and a small entourage to apologise profusely for their hotel. Yikes. That dealt with, we were back on the coach and an hour or so later arrived at Kalka Railway Station. It is becoming apparent that it is a physical impossibi...

To say the roads in India aren’t bad, presupposes you’ve travelled overland in Eastern Africa (which we have). In parts of Tanzania for instance a decent pothole can swallow a Mini. But if your only claim to fame is ‘At least our roads are better than Africa’, well, you’re coming off a very low bar. Today’s journey started with a quick 200 kms from Amritsar to Chandigarh... a couple of hours anywhere in the world with real roads, but on the Indian h...

We had a very relaxed start to the day with departure scheduled for 10 am out of deference for the folks who didn’t arrive until 11.30 pm last night. The coach took us to close-ish to the Golden Temple and then we had our first extreme ride of the trip - an electric / battery tuk tuk - just amazing and really in amongst the back streets of Old Amritsar. We have difficulty believing how resistant Australia is to electric vehicles when ‘even India’ has emb...

We were sad to farewell our home amongst the tigers, The Ranthambore Regency Hotel. It’s well over a year since we’ve been sad to say goodbye to a hotel and it’s amazing staff - there’s a fair chance we’ll break Tripadvisor with the glowing review we’re leaving for them. But there you have it, within a week they felt like family - the good kind mind that you actually want to stay with and who spoil you rotten! We spent the morning of the 10th doing...