O.K, so forget the last place....this is the best view so far. Even better than Nepal. We are now in Kalpa (elev. 2960m/9700ft) on the hillside of the Kinnaur valley. Our room view is of Mount Kailash (elev. 6050m/19200ft) and the Kinnaur valley below. Our trip here was not an easy one we got a bus from Sarahan via Jeori through the Kinnaur valley. We clung to the bus, while the bus clung to the road and the road clung to the edge of the mountains. We were lull...

We were off to Sarahan and we awoke 06:30 jumped a taxi at 08:15 after breakfast and goodbyes at Aapo Aap. I wasn't feeling 100% but was much better after Anti-biotics. Having to wait 1hr plus in an Indian 'queue' for a ticket for Rampur I did not need had my patience wearing thin. Boarding a 10:30 nearly full sweaty bus and THEN having to climb on to the roof of said bus to put on 40+ Kg of our bags had me steaming... Thankfully it was just 146Rp (£1.70 - che...

Shimla is at an elevation of 1950m plus. It was the summer retreat for the British from March to October when they fled the mosquitoes and 40+ degree temperatures of the plains. Viceregal lodge - the former home of successive British Viceroys of India - is here which was completed in 1888. Although Shimla was the base of British government during the summer months it was more reknowned as a party town for the British elite escaping the stuffiness of Queen Victori...

Chandigarh - the Milton Keynes of India. Built following the partition from Pakistan. As the new capital of Punjab, it would be a town planned from scratch that would have pedestrian piazzas, tree lined avenues, houses facing traffic-quiet roads, public gardens and an artificial lake. It would signal a new India, a democratic, community based idyll with a grid-like road layout separating residential sectors. Each sector having its own schools, community resources...

Paul held it together for the 18 hour (921km) train journey, still with upset stomach! I had spotted some cockroaches but managed to get some sleep on the hard bed. We shared a curtained compartment with two guys from Dehli - the one on the top bunk snored in an unearthly manner. Every few minutes he would wake himself up only to resume the racket seconds later. I initially thought it was Paul and was mortified, not that he has ever made a noise like that, but he...