alexhessler.com

The last place to visit was Dalohousie. It’s a small mountain village which is famous for its luxury Raj hotels. We decided to spend some money and experience some luxury at the end of the trip, so we got a suite in the nicest hotel in the area. Unfortunately it was the tourist off season, and none of the hotels or restaurants seemed ready for guests. We had an amazing balcony view though, and spend a day lounging around the hotel. We even improvised some gin and tonics. It was surprisingly hard to describe tonic water to the room service staff.

We then took the long train and bus trip back to Delhi to catch our flight home. It was the longest train ride of the trip at about 15 hours. The most dramatic part of the trip home was that all the trains were full, and we had to risk being on the wait list. We were exhausted at this point, and faced being stranded in an unfriendly city hundreds of miles away from our flight home. In the early evening, we found out that our train seats were confirmed, but the train itself was many hours late. In the late evening, as a monsoon thunderstorm was building, we ran down the black platform to catch our train back to Delhi. It was a dramatic day, and our small sleeper beds on the train were incredibly welcoming.