After finally leaving the very relaxing and comfortable Old Manali I got the bus back down the valley to Shimla. Known as the summer capital of India it sits high in the hills along a ridge with views of all around, a busy little town very popular with indian tourists who venture into the hills to escape the heat of further down.
I had a pleasant morning stroll along the ridge out to the Viceroy Lodge, built in 1888 for British Viceroys, it looks more like an old scottish castle.
Shimla is also famous for its toy train that leads up from Kalka around 100km down the hills, it passes through over 100 tunnels and there are several hundred bridges as the train climbs up. I couldn't get a ticket to ride the train down as they were sold out but here is the local station, with a local clearly enjoying his work.
There is also the second oldest church built in india in 1844, it looks very english set up on the hillside.
And finally I should say the food in Shimla was good, nice and spicy curries as they were targeted for the local tourists, as I think many places don't make the food spicy as they think westerners can't eat too spicy food, but I certainly can and this was a really good thali, I had rice on the side too.
