First few hours in Dharmsala

Dharmsala
It was great to ride the train again. Unfortunately I wasn't on the Shatabdi Express train, a train that truly gave me an understanding as to how the Indian Railway Company is the largest single employer in the world; one guy to check your ticket, one guy to bring you water, a different guy for tea, one guy to bring you an English newspaper, another one to bring you a Hindi paper, one guy to take your order....you get the idea? We got to the train station early (shocker) and my Australian friend Lisa thought she had time to run and get some snacks for our 12 hour overnight journey. SInce it was Holi, most things were closed and she ventured out of the station, thinking she had time. Indian trains depart with little to no warning and before we knew it, we were pulling away with Lisa's bags, but no Lisa! Luckily she hitched a ride with an off duty police office and rode about 45 kms to the next train stop! We were sooo shocked when she popped back on the train (well, we were and weren't!). (i'll finish this later, but at least here are the photos! i found a pretty fast internet cafe. lonely planet was right, DHarmsala has the fastest internet connections in the Himalayas. I have lots of funny train stories that will have to wait!)