To get from Dehli to the Himalayas we took a train from New Dehli station to Shatabdi and then from there took shuttle cars from Kathgodam to the resort.
(Side note here: the drivers of the cars that took us up to the resort were the equivalent of highly caffeinated billy goats—and we basically played chicken with other cars, trucks, and motorcycles all the way up the mountain. The Pig Trail’s got nothin’ on those hairpin turns, and I got a little green around the gills.)
The train ride wound up being a huge trip highlight. We started early morning, around 6:45 and rolled in early afternoon. But on the way we got a totally different view than what we’d been seeing from the bus. So far we’d only taken main roads as travel, and though we’d seen some different countrysides from Jaipur to Agra to Dehli, the train ride gave us an almost, behind-the-scenes look at towns and farm land. Something in particular that struck me was how the outskirts of one particular town we passed by was nothing but shantis and a trash dump, almost as if they’d been pushed to the periphery.
We passed over the Ganges (Ganga in Hindi), and I immediately saw how the great esteem for the river has come to be—there were people bathing and doing laundry, and the lushness that was grown up all around the river was indicating of how the river has attained a sacred quality.
I haven’t been as diligent at taking pictures as I should be… I apologize.
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