K and J arrive in Shimla!

Hey Friends,
we surivied New Delhi, the heat and the traffic. Had a fantastic 9 hour two part train ride up to Shimla. Four hours of which were on this incredible narrow guage train, called the "toy train", and it was just slightly bigger, it was probably the slowest train ride one can ever imagine, (it was only 97 killometers in all, if we had taken the bus it would have been a 90 minuite ride!)but the views were spectacular and its a historic route, built by the British in 1903 with 103 tunnels to go through which were all numbered. We got a lot of long station stops so that we could be "introspective". The train is right out of the 19th century, except that its deisel electric and not steam, all of the switches, all of the communications were done manually, which could explain the lengthy stops. It rained when we got to Shimla, and during the night, Kathryn had expected stupendous views from our window but all we saw in the morning was thick white fog, but it cleared up fortunately by mid morning, everyone says its unusual for this time of year for it to rain, the monsoon comes a month or so later. Luckily I was prepared with raincoats for both myself and Kathryn who had not brought one, she was not expecting rain.

We HIKED!!! this morning, miles straight up hill and down, to the Hanuman temple, the monkey god, and we saw lots of ungodly monkeys on the way, which by the way, try to steal from you, fortunately I had purchased a large walking stick to help on the trek and to fend off the aggressive simians. Everything is up and down here, all the houses and buisnesses are perched on steep slopes with steps and paths between them. Shimla, being former British hill station, the summer capital, it looks like a piece of London (minus the monkeys) with a lot of old half timbered "lodge" like buildings and numers and well kept huge stone and wood goverment buildings everywhere, that the Indian government has kept the idea more than alive, and its packed with mostly Indian toursists, its clearly "the" place to be, and we have seen only about a dozen foreigners. Our room at the Spars Inn is very nice, and very very safe, across the street happens to be the residence of the general, and is guarded at the entrance, with a machien gun carrying sentry. This morning Kathryn met with her friend the miniature painter Vijay Sharma at the elegant state museum to deliver a painting Kathryn commissioned for her 50th birthday, it was a georgous work of art and she was trilled, an apt gift to herself. Vijay's students miniature paintings are on exhibit, we saw them as they were being hung, but unfortunately the opening is tomorrow afternoon and we have planned a day trip to some small villages that are picturesque with wooden temples Kathryn is here searching for. On our walk to and from the museum we both noticed porches balconies and house entrances and various machinery enclosed by small mesh screening, we thought at first these people must have a passion for small animals or birds, but we soon discovered the screens are to keep the monkeys out and not the pets in. Tonight we've made reserverations at one of the finest old hotels and resturanants not too far from our hotel, after today's strenuous hike we deserve a reward. I am looking forward to a real Bombay saphire martini and a cigar, they still fortunately have smoking sections here!

Everything else about the trip is sort of open ended, Kathryn is going to visit the tourist office tomorrow to talk to some experts about the region and the temples she is looking for as most cities they are listed in, in a book she has are not on our map, so we need a good driver and guide. So ournext blog probably will not happen for a few days at least, because we are heading into the frontier, the heart of the Himalaya.

Love to all family and friends,
John (and Kathryn who is typing this becuase I can only type with one finger)