A 6.15 pickup took us to the main railway station to board our express train to Kalka where we were due to meet the narrow gauge railway to Simla,the so called toy train and one of the great train journeys of the world. The train started on time and whilst we were given tea,juice,water,corn flakes with hot milk and a hot savoury snack we were treated to a fine view of the poorer side of India. Picture this: beside the track lies the detritus of the tents and slums with a mixture of humans and animals all scavenging and defecating amongst it all and at the same time a massive infrastructure project to build an overhead metro system right out into the countryside is taking place. Thankfully soon the city ends and we travel through a very flat and fertile landscape of wheat,marigolds and sugar cane for mile upon mile. The more north we travel the more army camps we notice but still a mass of litter at each town or village we pass,far worse than what we saw in Jordan.Upon our arrival at Kalka we follow the rest of the passengers to the narrow gauge railway and board our carriage,very basic seats(40) to a carriage.A far cry from the executive coach we had for the previous 5 hours. With a loud blast of the horn the train stuttered off on our 5 hour and 60 mile journey climbing and corkscrewing our way up into the foothills of the Himalayas to Simla.The whole journey reminded us of the Ffestiniog railway with all the bridges,mini tunnels and the track climbing ever higher and looping over itself but Wales doesn't tend to have palm trees and agave cacti growing wild or Hindu temples everywhere for that matter.After a couple of hours we have our first stop when teas and snacks can be bought from the platform. The air is fresh and we can see our breath and all the Indians ( everyone else as we are the sole Europeans )are donning hats and scarves now,feels like home.There are a couple more pit stops to allow 2 other trains to pass us on their way downhill before we reach our destination. unfortunately fog has descended so we cannot appreciate the views but because we have seen the vertiginous drop from the railway that's probably a good thing. however we did see a monkey jumping on the roof of the train and a few more on our taxi ride to the hotel which was once the home of a head of the British imperial army.