On Friday, we decided to travel to Shimla, which is quite close to Chandigarh to the north. The decision about travelling was made in an hour and had not planned anything beforehand. We aimed to visit Agra but there seemed only few people interested in going there and frankly, I was not very keen on spending a weekend in a crowded place as last weekend in Amritsar had pushed to my limits. Bus to Shimla takes normally 4 hrs but we faced up difficulties and delayed 2 hrs because of traffic jams. Sitting in a hot, crowded bus was not pleasant, though I had the best seat behind the driver by a window.

On the way, we called many hotels to ask a spare room but as we were arriving very late at night, hotels were not ready for accommodating us. Finally, we got one, which was more expensive but it had to do at that point. Due to that we learned to bring India lonely planet -book always with us, the other travelling books had misleading information and some of the phone numbers were not valid.

Next morning we woke up at 10, took a shower and headed to the shopping mall in Shimla for breakfast. Torben, Stephen and I had more company coming later as Marleen and Joris joined us on the Saturday evening. During the first day, the three of us visited Jashu Temple up in the hills climbing for 40 minutes. The temple itself was not amazing but the view was worth seeing and herd of monkeys. Actually, there were signs to beware of monkeys and we witnessed monkeys' aggressive behaviour towards us, since they don't like photographing or staring in the eyes. We landed down safely from the slippery steps after rain and the lovely atmosphere and small shops of the town fascinated us. We were lucky to visit Shimla a time of sale everything was cheaper. We were tempted by the restaurant where we were in the morning and went there eat again. I must say I have never tasted as good Indian food as I did there it was delicious. We ordered deluxe thali with different breads and chai, of course. I enjoyed every mouthful and Torben said I looked extremely happy while eating.:) So, I draw the conclusion that Indian food in Chandigarh had been only average compared to real, well done food. The food doesn't have to be hot, but it can be spicy. It is often impossibly hot and salty to eat and that has no purpose concerning the taste. On the contrary, when successfully mixing the spices, the food gets its incredible flavour and melts in your mouth. The restaurant is recommended in Lonely Planet though, and by me :)

On Sunday it was raining all day, nevertheless, we started walking to the museum but I gave up and turned back as my umbrella could not hold pouring rain anymore. I was very wet when reaching YMCA again. The others continued the sightseeing tour. In Shimla there are no rickshaws and it would be impossible to drive on the narrow hill roads. What a great trip, the Himalayas have captured me totally and are going to fascinate even more when visiting Manali in two weeks.