So another lovely ten hour bus ride and we ended up in Shimla, the fantastic countryside and a bloke who looked like a toad kept us amused though. Shimla is a busy mountain resort set along a ridge at 1700m. The bus station is conveniently at the bottom and it's a steep climb through little streets till you get to the top of the ridge and where the accomodation is. As per usual we got chatting to a guy who was a walking guide and said he'd show us the way to the main street....he also happened to work at a hotel and could show us a room. We were feeling friendly and seeing at the view from the balcony (over the rather hazy eastern himalayas) was as good as he said it was, we went for it; despite a very strange smelling bathroom.

We took a wander down the ridge, through an area of pinewoods which resembled areas of Scotland then circled round and took a walk down the busy main streets and sampled a few indian sweets. They're seriously sickly and even I only managed 2, I'm pretty usre they just boil down sugary milk and then add a load of food colouring, nice in small quantaties. Being a domestic holiday destination the curry was good but we couldn't hang around and before long it was time to catch the bus to Chandigargh...