Palampur July 29th- August 5th
What a horrible trip in such a lovely part of India.
We took Jammu Mail from Old Delhi railway station on Saturday night. My classes got over at 7:45PM. We had thought that the train was from Nizammudin or New Delhi and had decided to stay at Bharti Nagar. This turned out to be a really bad move, when at 8PM, we found that the train will leave from old Delhi at 9:10PM. Ketaki was dead tired from packing and preparing for the trip and feeding the babies and everything else.
We drove from Bharti Nagar to Chandni Chowk and were doing well on time until we entered the road towards the train station from Kauriya Pul. We were stuck in a jam for 10 minutes and reached the station at 9:10PM. We then took a coolie and ran to platform 1A, which was the farthest from where we were. Somehow we boarded the train.
After much coaxing, Anya agreed to climb on top of the top birth
and had a fitful sleep. We found out that we will have to take a taxi from PAthankot to Palampur (1350/- 4 hrs of terrible time)
Pathankot and Palampur were both hot. we had packed wollens. Silly us. We enjoyed as much as we could before Anya fell ill. Anay was also getting clobberred amongst all the other kids in the household. Anya had 103.5F fever by the time we returned from McLeod Ganj.
The McLoed Ganj drive was ok but it kept raining and we could not do much. Ketaki and I had an umbrella and a kid and bags in our hands. We ate; Had ordered too much, as usual. We were really surprized to find Gnocchi and pastas and tibettan soups on the menu for cheap. Rs. 50/- each.
Coming back from McLeod Ganj, we had to rush to a doctor so that Anya could be diagnosed. We had to give her Nimuselid at 11PM to get rid of her fever. It was then, when we decided that we are not going on any more vacation with both the kids unless they are bigger and more independent.
We were happy to get out of Palampur on Friday. The taxi (Maruti van) took only 2.5 hrs to bring us back. I would have puked had he taken longet to bring us back. And, then there was the incident of the watch and the banana at the station, etc.
