To Shimla by toy train

The Rail Motor Car leaves Kalka station at 5:25 am for the 97.7-kilometre trip to Shimla.

Well, that’s the theory. This morning, it’s past 6 a.m. and I am the only passenger sitting aboard this 14-seater bus on wheels. A connecting train from Delhi is running late, and the other passengers have wandered off, sitting on the platform or going to the loo.

That’s not a bad idea as there is no washroom aboard this Toy Train for the journey, which is scheduled to take 4 hours and 40 minutes. I’m 68 and alarmed at the prospect.

The Toy Train at Kalka. Richard Vines.

We finally pull away less than an hour late and there’s a holiday atmosphere, with Indian families chatting, unperturbed by the piles of luggage that fill what little space there is.

This route is astonishing: It’s a UNESCO-declared World Heritage railway line that climbs to more than 2,000 meters (6,650 feet) in the Himalayas from Kalka, in the Panchkula district of Haryana. The views are breath-taking.

The narrow-gauge railway is just 762 mm (2 ft 6 in) in width and was built between 1898 and 1903 to ease connections to the summer capital of the British Raj. As an engineering feat, it is highly impressive. There are 103 tunnels and 969 bridges.

The driver sits in an open seat at the front, and beside him is a woman who sounds the horn before each curve in the line. The only problem is that there are 912 curves, 70 percent of the route, so nodding off isn’t really an option.

Neither, I find, is reading. The train jolts and rattles its way along at 40 kilometres an hour and the book I try to hold sways around in front of my eyes like I’m drunk. Fortunately, the views are so majestic, the time passes fairly quickly.

And there is even what I shall euphemistically call a comfort break along the way, at Barog railway station in the Solan district of Himachal Pradesh. There are snacks on sale there, too. I’m a bit nervous about food poisoning and don’t buy one, only promptly to accept the potato fritter offered by my on-board neighbours as the train lurches out of the station.

Comfort break at Barog.

I’m the only Westerner and, indeed, I don’t see more than half a dozen others during my whole two-week trip to India, when I travelled to New Delhi, Chandigarh, Shimla, Jaipur and Mumbai. India now has a huge middle-class with the money to take vacations, while Covid has decimated foreign tourism.

Jaipur. Richard Vines.

(Visa restrictions may be another factor. There are currently no e-visas for British passport holders, which means you have to make an appointment to go to a London office in Clerkenwell, where there’s a lot of waiting about.)

I booked the train weeks ahead for a total of £11.25 and it is money well spent. The journey is such fun and then Simla itself is charming. The town sits on the side of a hill above the railway station and is home to elegant colonial buildings that speak of the confidence of the Victorian era.

You get the feeling of the old hill station this was, dominated by Christ Church, a neo-Gothic landmark built in 1857. But the streets are filled with Indians young and old, walking slowly along, enjoying the sights. And then there are the monkeys, which swing in from the surrounding forests to dine on the sweetcorn kernels sold by vendors from carts.

Street scene with monkey at Shimla. Richard Vines.

I stay at the Cecil Hotel, a magnificent property with extraordinary views across the mountains and valleys. It’s an Oberoi, and I need to interrupt my own narrative here to say that I have to thank the luxury hotel group for helping to subsidize my trip. Oberoi offered my several free nights and a media rate for the others.

That’s all fine. Indeed, I am delighted. But then when the upgrades start coming, I have to admit that my experiences may not be the same as yours.

I know that Oberoi service is first class, because I have previously stayed as an ordinary punter in Kolkata.

But I’m not expecting (for example) a private villa with its own swimming pool, as I had at the Oberoi Rajvilas, Jaipur, later on my trip. It was stunning, unbelievable. But I’ve just checked randomly and if you want to book it for Aug. 1, for example, it will set you back £3,669 a night.

Anyways, back to Simla. If I thought the Cecil was beautiful, hold on for the next stop: Wildflower Hall, a simply gorgeous property outside town, constructed on the site of the summer residence of Lord Kitchener of Khartoum. This hotel has outstanding views and the kind of tranquility that would in itself more than justify any hassles it has taken to get to Simla from my London home.

You can swim, you can go to the spa, you can take nature walks, you can play croquet or tennis, you can take day trips from the hotel, which sits atop a hill surrounded by dense forest. Know what I did? Absolutely nothing. I just sat and read and enjoyed the hotel and the views.

My villa at Jaipur. Richard Vines.

Oh, and ate exceptional food. The Oberoi group specializes in fine restaurants. In Delhi, for example, the hotel boasts a Chinese restaurant overseen by chef Andrew Wong, of the two-Michelin star A Wong in London. In Mumbai, the chef responsible is Vineet Bhatia.

I spent a lot of the trip eating but I did actually do a few other things, including archery at the Oberoi Sukhvilas Spa Resort in Chandigarh, a city I visited to see the architecture of Le Corbusier. And in Jaipur, I even made it out of my room for a leopard safari.

Other than that, my most strenuous activity was shopping at Fabindia in three different cities. I love the clothes, which explains why I often show up at parties in London wearing a kurta.

I don’t have figures for British holiday makers in India, but I get the impression we are far more tempted by other exotic getaways such as Thailand. I’ve been to Thailand myself a number of times and love it. But the country to which I keep returning these days is India.

OK, on this trip I didn’t actually do a lot of exploring the cultural heritage, But it is so rich, you can feel it in the air, in the sounds, in the smells. India is the most amazing country; with exciting towns and beautiful beaches and all the excitement you need from a holiday.

And the hassles are not great. When I first visited in 1981, everything moved as a slow pace, and booking a domestic flight (for example) involved a lot of time and uncertainty with the old Indian Airlines. Now, it’s simple and inexpensive to book online, and the domestic flights by IndiGo and other airlines are fast and reliable. The airports are also clean and well air-conditioned.

I booked all my flights and hotels, and the train, long before going, and every arrangement worked as planned. I’m already thinking about my next trip. There is so much to see, and if you want a greater challenge than somewhere like the beaches of Goa, try Kolkata, whose vibrancy I adore.

Some practical tips: For flights, https://www.skyscanner.net/ is excellent. For hotels, I generally check somewhere like https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ for options, but always book direct with the property. For trains, you can get the lowdown on https://www.seat61.com/India.htm, which directs you to https://secure.12go.asia/en/india to make the booking. For visas, use https://visa.vfsglobal.com/gbr/en/ind/attend-centre/London and beware of non-official sites.

So there you have it. I enjoyed this trip as much as almost any in my life. If you need any advice, I can be reached at richardvines@richardvines.com. Oh, and thank you Oberoi.