Thursday - Himalayan Queen

Although our adventure has finished, we are travelling back to Chandigarh with an adventurous nature. The HQ is a narrow gauge railway that would make the health and safety brigade faint. The railway itself seems sound, if a little rickety, but with wide open windows and doorways you can hang off to your heart's content.

However I wouldn't advise this, as the many tunnels would squeegee you from the train in an instant, leaving only your reservation. But it's only your common sense that tells you it's a bad idea - have we lost this common sense where we live, does someone need to tell us it's dangerous?

The train travels at no more than 35kph and stops frequently. Mostly this is at stations for ten minutes at a time to let the train travelling in the other direction pass by. As a single track this is the only way a bi-directional service can be run. The stops are a good opportunity to replenish supplies and you'll find a range of food stuffs for sale at the bigger (a relative term) stations. You can buy some of these without leaving the train as they are offered by the vendors walking up and down outside the windows.

The stops are also useful for relieving yourself - although the on-train facilities are similar, the bouncing carriage makes it fraught with difficulty. Before the train leaves each stop the driver blows the horn. This creates a rush of last minute transactions before people jump back on board. At one station I had to jump on to the moving train after a toilet stop - but it was hardly a challenge at those speeds.

As we descend the mountains it becomes decidedly warmer and stickier inside the carriage despite all the openings being agape. The whole journey takes about six hours and the last few in the heat at lower altitudes become a little uncomfortable, with only a brief respite when it rains.

Still this is a very special train journey with UNESCO recognition, and if it hadn't been for our days above the clouds I would be glued to the scenery outside. As it is, sitting on the step in the carriage doorway was a nice way to spend some of the journey, but staying aware of the scenery proximity is essential or parts of you will be squeegeed.