We were not sad to see Amritsar rolling past our train windows as we headed for the Himalayas. Well past the city boundaries, the air becomes clear and the land changes to well cared for and maintained farms. Although the land here is flat, you imagine that these farms stretch to the horizons and up to the places where farms just can't go. There is a definite feeling of an un-ending space that is bordered by the snow capped mountain ranges in the north.

To get to this little hill station you have to take the bus. Trains just really can't go where this little place is at 2200m above sea level and sitting on top of 5 mountain ridges. In the course of 5 hours we wound our way up mountain passes that twisted and turned and clung to the sides of these steep slopes (and these where just the foothills!). No wonder people get sick. This is like the horizontal equivalent of getting sea sick! But each valley and view better than the last. Every which way you looked there was a house clinging to spur of a valley. How did they build that? They seem to be in the middle of nowhere. How do they get around? They get around by waiting on the side of the road and waving down our bus. Although the end of the train line and Dalhousie is only 80km as the crow flies, there is a lot of stop starting and plenty of steep uphill to get there!

Where the plains of Amritsar are a place where sweat just drips off you and the air is hot, dirty and humid, Dalhousie is a place that is cool, clean and pure. How could it not be where you are surrounded by old native and pine forest?

Getting to our place took a little effort but was well worth it. Going from sea level to 2200m over 5hrs really takes it out of you! We sounded like two fat lumps, huffing and puffing and resting every 5 minutes and the legs and lungs ached! Set beneath the road, Hotel Crags had a sun terrace that overlooked a valley and its companion mountain walls and the plains far in the distance. Here was home for the next three days; a place to take tea and breakfast basking in the warmth of the sun and revelling in the clear blue skies and green terraced mountain flanks opposite us. The air is so clear here, we could here the village below us celebrating their Hindu festival and warming up for Diwali! But best of all, it was run by the Indian equivalent of Manuel from FawltyTowers. He looked practically the same, except in an Indian skin, of course! Nothing was to much trouble and Indiuel made our stay!

Like the rest of Dalhousie, our place had seen better days when the British had ruled India, but it did not detract from the charm of the place and seeing how India has adapted, ignored or built over the old British hill station is always an interesting insight into the Indian psyche. Where you could imagine Dalhousie being absolutely pristine and well maintained under the British, it is now Indianised. Things are done enough to just get by. After all, it seems, why spend more money than you really REALLY have to? That attitude certainly shows in all sorts of minor ways.

But despite that, Dalhousie was a great place to chill out and relax, kick a cold and the sniffles, imagine life under the British here, enjoy the crisp clear mountain air and snuggle up under the covers when it seemed a storm was trying beat and thunder and lightning it s way into our bedroom!

More of the same please, Indiuel!