Today we leave our travelling companions and with a guide we negotiate the chaotic comings and goings of people through Delhi train station. Even though there are many platforms and thousands of people moving through the station the general population of Indian people seem at peace with these circumstances.

We board our train and head north through rural landscapes and small villages, we note mixed paddocks of wheat, sugar cane, flowers, fruit trees and vegetables. There are even agroforestry plots of eucalypts. When we reach Chandigarh we are met and taken by vehicle up what seem like vertical hills to Shimla. These are the foot hills of the Himalayas.

Our home for two nights is the Oberoi Cecil, a beautiful setting and building with helpful and wonderful staff, we feel like royalty here.

The Himalayan cedar, Deodar, are majestic, known as the “Tree of the Gods,” this is the dominant species and the state tree of Himachal Pradesh. It thrives on north-facing slopes and is prized for its majestic, horizontal branches and durable wood. It is such a contrast between Australia and India, trees can’t be harmed here even if they are weedy species like the American Redwood. In Australia farmers and urban developers have chiefly poorly managed the Australian landscape with impunity, Australia leads the world in native vegetation clearance, soil and biodiversity degradation is not much better, I wonder which is the more advanced civilization.

We take a short walk and then head down to the centre of town. Shimla seems to be entirely built on the side of an extremely steep mountain. Local residents here are fit and lean. The night life is abuzz with shop keepers selling their wares and dining venues of many and varied culinary styles.