[vijayols]

Close your eyes and dream of long curvy winding roads with a lilt of rain and enveloped in clouds wafting through mountains with the mist allowing you a few peeks into the dense green forests and meadows surrounding you. Now open your eyes and if you see your dream unfolding before you ,then my friend, you must be in Meghalaya. Truly the abode of the clouds.
Arguably one of the best mountain driving experience at least that we have experienced in India. Photos could never do justice to the sight your eyes witness but here goes a few of them nevertheless. Glimpse of what we drank from our drive from shillong=>Dawki->Cherrapunjee





















The story actually begins much before at the start of the year in our familiar settings. Planning for the summer sojourn begins with booking of flight tickets (pretty good deal it was) to Guwahati, the gateway to the North east states of Meghalaya, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.

The initial plan was to do a complete trekking trail of Meghalaya including the iconic Nongriat double decker living rootbridge and much of the east Khasi mountains. However the lure of the wild of Assam and the chance to visit the home of the Rhino was too tempting for me and little one, not so much for better half as she was inclined more towards soaking in only Meghalaya. Further research and we chanced upon the beauty which Arunachal Pradesh offered we had no option but to include AP in the list, there by bit of Assam too got in much to my delight!.

Wanderernomad virtually chalked our itinerary which we later found perfect to the T. Thank you sir, your inputs were invaluable to put it lightly. You truly know the North east like the back of your hands. Other minor preparations included applying and getting ILP (separately for all 3 of us online) for AP. The procedure is very simple, you don’t need to bother about going and standing in queue as most others suggested.

Long story short our trip plan looked like this
1)18th April Bangalore to Guwahati by flight. Hire self drive car (Ford Figo) from Awe Rides Guwahati. Drive to shillong appx 3 hours drive. See Umiam lake enroute. Stay night at old British Bungalow called Arlene Cottage.
We first stopped for lunch at Hotel delicacy in Ganesh Gudi (pronounced as Ganesh Guri which confused us big time as Google maps was equally puzzled!) Guwahati offering authentic Assamese cuisine (vegetarian for us).Ganesh Gudi seemed to be happening place much like MG road in Bangalore or Avinashi Road in Coimbatore which is a private joke between us as the only road which matters in Coimbatore.
Verdict: Me and Kanthi loved the food especially the big lemons (looked like sweet lemons) which accompanies all food served in Assam but for Smrithi it was a big let down.(She is hard to please especially with normal Indian food).

Our companion for the next 10 days.





Day 1
The road to Shillong was wide and smooth and allows you to cruise at 60 kms average even in hilly roads. Traffic was sparse though topography wise it wasn’t that great to make a big shout about.
We literally hit upon Umiam Lake (which features in the Airtel ad proclaiming signal reaches even here!).I guess we failed to find that spot on our phones as signal remained non existent.(Not that we were complaining what with no email and phone calls, life looked good).The lake was huge and beautiful but failed to elicit a special moment.. Any traveler worth his salt would vouch that nature has to smile on you with favorable settings to make any view magical from just being beautiful. But such is life isn’t it?

Night was spent well rested at Arlene cottage (one of the few stays on this trip where we had a really comfy bed to spoil us with a splendid garden to boot).

Day 2:
Morning lazed around the cottage, found this beauty!







Arlene Cottage :


Filling the tank


Smrithi was enjoying the garden and running up and down. We had super breakfast in the cottage met our hosts, and had to convince smrithi that we were going to be back after Meghalaya stint and dragged her out and we started off around 10 AM

.


Plan was stop wherever we felt like, go to Dawki and then to mawlynnong and stay there for a night and head back to Shillong.
Shillong to Dawki (82 kms appx 3.5 hours).Superb roads which went through gentle mountains. Pictures could speak much louder than words here. Nature was smiling on us and continued to throughout our entire trip and created so many innumerable magical moments for us to last a lifetime of memories. Light showers and mist enveloped us as we virtually floated over clouds which played hide and seek hiding a total green carpet of trees and meadows with an occasional glimpse. Visibility was limited to a few meters amidst white clouds which was thrilling to drive in but never felt frightening. We had earlier teed off for a short 6 km Rhododendron(lovingly called dum dum by us) trek just off shillong and the shillong view point before continuing on the drive.

Nice little trek first thing in the morning - Trip is off to a great start!



Namesake




Elephant falls - One can skip unless you want to see Modis picture there




What a drive it was :



Stopping for a yummy lunch of chow mein and fried rice (nothing else was there in spite of the board proclaiming some alien stuff for that region!). By that time, the battery of our steed the figo gave up on us. Luckily Mr.Shapety (as I am popularly referred as) had packed a jump start kit. (Incidentally along with emergency tyre repair kit and tyre inflator kit). Worked like a charm and the car was up and running immediately.

Having fun - blissfully unaware of what steed is going through!


Idly/vada/Dosa picture on the restaurant board


On a side-bar, In the airport the guys were wondering where to place this battery pack, in hand luggage or check in much to the annoyance(towards me ofcourse!) of Kanthi and finally did a special check-in.

[vijayols]

Any stop over had a beautiful gazebo to relax


As always the journey to the destination was actually the highlight. A few kms of bad roads and we reached Dawki which borders Bangaladesh. Anticipating a crystal clear river giving the illusion of being bottomless where the boats seems to be suspended in mid air we were disappointed to see the beautiful rains playing spoil sport for us here as it appears the river turns in to any other normal one after rains.

Dawki River

What we expected - courtesy friend's


What we saw




Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable afternoon/evening, watching locals playing water-polo

However the short cut from Dawki to mawlynnong(35 kms) more than made up for the slight disappointment. Anyone, going towards mawlynnong, ask for it, short cut becomes a long cut as you would be simply soaking in the journey. It was breathtaking driving through a narrow path with trees flanking both sides only to be cut across by small waterfalls all along the route. Two gigantic falls including the boro hills falls compelled us to stop an admire its sheer beauty. The coup de grace was the view from behind a temple near the BOP falls where the river opens out to vast green meadows.That scene with the light rainfall was pure bliss! The army men were extremely helpful in providing us with umbrellas to protect us from the pelting rainfall. And they were all surprised that we ventured into the route as no tourists travel that route other than locals.

Unforgettable Afternoon









Winding road led us to riwai village where we did the small trek next day morning


From there, couple of KMs, we were in Mawlynnong .
Night was spent at Mawlynnong village(sports the cleanest village tag)in a basic cottage arranged by Rikki(ph 8014861151)who is an enterprising Rajnikanth equivalent resident of the village. As there was no signal and we had no address to fall back on to spot the cottage we did as instructed just asked a boy to take us to Rikki and Lo and behold he was with us in a jiffy. A very enterprising lad he could be contacted for any stay related concerns at Mawlynnong.

Day 3:
An early morning start and we reached the Nohwet view point via small trail route. Before that Smrithi had time to play with Home stay owners kid and could have good look at insect eating plant!.

Where we stayed



Smrithis moments

Insect eating plant!


All the kids we were going to see next few days were going to be this cute



She was running around with them wherever the they were scurrying

Smrithi trying her hands with fire wood

With Kanthi narrating how her Mom taught them to kindle the fire from coal/wood embers.

It was thrilling to climb up the view point



The view point built by a villager the bamboo bridge was our first of many such experiences in Meghalaya. The 270 degree view from the view point would be something we seldom get to see in our lifetime.

We then proceeded to the Riwai village living root bridge which was after a while crowded but was pretty to look at, and made us wonder what kind of trekking could we have missed by not going to double decker...







Later returned to the village and roamed around.

[vijayols]

The village true to its name was indeed clean. The sad part was, tourists come in as if it is a museum and litter it











Lunch done we drove towards Noh ka likai falls at Cherrapunji.( 2 hours / 73 kms)following google maps. The forest kept changing from pine tree covered to meadows and thick trees giving us the feeling of driving through different jungles. Stopping frequently for photography sessions we stopped for quick snack at Orange Root restaurant 8kms before the falls for dosas and ginger tea. Yummy.

En route to Cherrapunji



Pine trees and a feeling of you being alone in that beauty.










This spot was breathtakingly beautiful. We met a couple who were trying to capture the beauty with a drone.






The drive ahead was more and more enthralling..















This drive was one of the best in all of our road trips. Comparison is not done thing here. And our heads were going little light here.

By now., we have had our snacks at orange roots, and totally rueing the fact that we are not able to stay back in cherrapunjee. We were kind of thrown off by serenity of the place. So badly wanted to stay put but AP was luring us to stick to our program. And the double decker would have been the icing on the cake. Anyone., taking this trip, we will strongly suggest to spend few days in this godly place. Better would be plan a vacation only for this location.

Now., we are approaching the famous falls with the note from locals, it is not in full glory making us recollect tap water jog falls. But what a surprise!

Village Sports complex


The views before approaching the falls set the mood



Oh! the sad legend. It really transported us back to the incident


The beauty of the falls was eye catching..we were just mesmerised by the green pool and how the water was trying to reach it amid the smoke.






Apt setting for the day


With a kind of melancholy, we drove back to Shillong. Drive was again a pleasure with near zero visibility due to the clouds as we made it back to Arlene cottage by late evening.(55kms .seemed longer due to the frequent breaks)

We were famished by the time we reached. we were told by Sherlene the host, that we should try the local eatery Dylans. It was drizzling and we hurried with our rain coats on to walk to the place.

Dylan Café was fabulous, which is a must do when you are in Shillong what with good food and aesthetics paying a true tribute to the maestro(Now a Nobel Laureate too).Unfortunately both of us didn’t carry our phones to post a few snaps.

With stomach full and heart filled with memories, we retired for the night with a anticipation lurking in mind of tmrws,. drive to the land of big five.

[vijayols]

Day 4:

Shillong to Kaziranga.Stay at Kaziranga Nature hunt resort.(250 kms.appx 6 hours).Road condition superb.

We now bid adieu to the gentle slopes and company of clouds in Meghalaya to the wild of assam.The big 5 of Kaziranga the Great Indian One horned Rhinoceros, Indian Elephant, Royal Bengal Tiger, Eastern Swamp Deer and Wild Water Buffalo now beckoned us and the big 4 actually graced us with their presence as drove towards the resort.The vast grasslands and the dense canopy of trees on one side and acres of tea estates on the other side dotted the drive as we reached the resort for a night stay.

Lunch Place, thankfully we are family, otherwise only "Officers" were allowed


The food was nice spread


Place had cute kittens around


Yes, we could spot these TWO on the way!




The log house in nature hunt was very clean and the vegetarian platter was so elaborate, one would have been enough for all three. Authentic local cuisine was served, even smrithi loved it. Best place in Kaziranga to stay.

Day 5:
Full of anticipation as we made an early morning start on the elephant safari as on the previous day virtually everyone had spotted the tiger. The wait was finally going to be over.
The elephant safari was fun and took us up close to the one horned rhinos and other fauna of the forest where we had a satisfying view to our hearts content









We dashed back for quick breakfast and off we were for the jeep safari, with Kanthi threatening to call it quits for the day. She grumbled and joined finally!
Though we got fantastic sightings of the big 4 the tiger as always continued to elude us.Another day another story I guess.February was apparently the peak season for tiger spotting.

Noon sightings





Scene is little different. Nothing BIG about them but held us there for quiet some time


And then a wild one with lines


We returned back, had our lunch, after relaxing for an hour or so, moved towards Nameri eco camp.

Other unique sanctuaries in assam include the Manas sanctuary and the Hollongapar Gibbon sanctuary.(Gives a central Africanesque feeling being among the apes).

Kaziranga to Nameri Eco resort.(89 kms/3 hours).Beautiful roads.
A pleasant nights stay in the tent with soothing assamese dance in the late evening.Surrounded by a cacophony of chirping birds and two adorable dogs Tiger and Dikku.





As usual

The thing with the little one, we can tempt her with animals, then she is a game!

Our plan was to stay another night in Nameri, so next day was supposed to be lots of walking and adventure!!

[vijayols]

Day 6:
Next day morning we were all set for bird watching through a trek/trail route. after obtaining permission and an armed guard who doubled up as guide. Before starting we heard a girl complaining in english sounding exactly like ours. Apparently, the family was from bangalore and from whitefield that too our near by community. And we were meeting in Nameri!. what a "small" world!.

The trek/trail then became kind of easy for the kids as they kind of hung around together.
we walked through grass lands, river beds and forests. Nice trek and occasional spotting of birds and the giant Malabar squirrel









































Upon return, we had very tasty lunch in a nice cafeteria. Smrithi went off to play with the dogs and other two kids. Super happy to meet someone whom she could converse, signature bangalore kids

Mean while, we saw a scorpio with KA registration and we frantically searched for them, wanting to salute the drive team ( from karnataka to Assam) Well, it turned out be, ZOOM cars had opened their account in Gauhati and all their cars are KA registered!. So another option for self drive.

By now., we have met 3-4 families from bangalore and we were kind of gloating on brand bangalore and responsible tourism! One family was coming back from AP and they gave us tips on driving conditions of Arunachal. Another family was taking similar journey as us but in a chauffeur driven car.

We skipped the the water rafting and relaxed in our tents. Evening we ventured to the birds nest tree near the resort home to the great Hornbill along with our friends from whitefield!. As we all waited patiently for the papa Hornbill who was due to make the evening feeding trip to feed mamma and baby hornbill nesting in the hollow of the tree we had an amazing birds eye view of the loving family ritual. Apparently the hornbill makes 3 visits every day to feed his family.

Could not help clicking






On the verge of feeding





Nesting tree

Hornbills keep making those holes for their nesting/breeding, once that is done, these "homes" are occupied by other birds and hornbill makes a new one for the next one. We have to learn a lesson or two from them looks like. Such a heart warming experience it was for both the families. It kind of brought us together for the rest of the evening and we have made yet another friendship out of our travels.

Tmrw., is going to be real Big day. The much awaited Arunachal!.

[vijayols]

Day 7:

Again an early morning start as we plan to reach our destination Hotel Pemaling Dirang before night descends.(165 kms /10 hours).

We now moved from the plains of Assam back to the last stretch of our trip through the imposing Himalaya range of Arunachal Pradesh.
The latest update on the usual route through bhalukpong to Bomdilla was bad and had not improved even after the Dalai Lamas visit. Hence it was the Trans Himalayan Highway as suggested by Dhanush menon passing through

Orang-Mazbat-kalaktang-Gyuto Monastery- Shergaon- Rupa- Bomdila.

This involved a few extra kms as we had to again go back to tezpur and take the suggested route.
Thank you for suggesting this route the road less travelled(we literally hardly saw a dozen vehicles during our entire drive up to Rupa).Now no mention of Rupa can go without the oft repeated joke and tag line(Yeh andar ki baat hain).Agar Tum Rupa ka underwear pehnoge toh Rupa kya pehnegi!
The road condition as Dhanush mentioned was superb.

Wonder what AP had to offer us after the heavenly beauty of Meghalaya and the wild of Assam.

Let the pictures speak!









Only one sentence could sum up the experience.
It made us truly fall in love with Life again.

Stopped at a house to ask for bio break, she was more than willing to make us tea



We had practically the whole route to ourselves as we hardly even came across any restaurants on the way to stop for tea.Chikkis we had carried was the only available nourishment.
The Gigantic mountains demanded a lot more awe and respect from the gentle hills of Meghalaya.The gurgling crystal stream giving us company on one side with the thick green cover of forest surrounding us.







Taking our time to soak in to our surroundings and the amazing multi colored birds we encountered the progress was slow.




As we approached Bhairabkunda up on the mountains the splendor turned into abject terror as we were on a bad stretch of single lane road and visibility had been reduced to a few meters with the skies opening up.The romantic feeling in Meghalaya with similar conditions was now an eerie frightening prospect as there was a sheer drop on one side with no safety railings and the other side had fallen rocks from the mountains.The low power of the Figo Fog lights did not help matter either.

A never better opportunity to recite the “Hanuman Chalisa” except that all 3 of us had never got around to learn it!Too nervous to take snaps(Not that anything would have been visible) we hope the SJ Cam has captured a few videos.The stretch was pretty long around 18-20 km with these tough conditions.

Its all nice and Misty






We were nicely comparing with Meghlaya

There it starts


Thankfully Smrithi slept off in the back seat throughout the stretch, with Kanthi and Me exchanging few heated words on as how to move forward. She was hell bent on stopping the car for some time to relax our tension. I gave in and then soon we realized it is not going to help in any way as the mist/cloud was so thick it was not going to give in to us. There was no else for company added to our tight sensation in the chest. We decided to be calm and I drove(?!) further. Finally we reached a check post. Phew..

The army folks were very warm and comforted(?) us that, only another 7 KM would like that. But seeing fellow humans really eased up some tension and we found the courage to drive the rest of 7 KM..

That done rest of the journey till we crossed Bomdila and finally Dirang was a breeze and fun to drive.

Dirang was a typical town sadly dirty and hotel pemaling was okay sort of place. Could have preferred a home stay but we could not get hold of one in Dirang. We relaxed and decided to walk/drive around.
Found a punctured tyre, to our dismay (thank god we had reached Dirang, shuddered with the thought what if …) the repair shop guy told us that someone had earlier tightened the nut with wrong treading and the screw had to be cut to remove the tyre. We were surprised to learn that the Figo did not have tubeless tyres which could have been repaired without having to remove them. Rest of the trip was with 3 nuts as the Maruti screw size which the mechanic had was smaller than the Figo one.

The Sumo Mechanic did it for us


Spent the evening after the repairs visiting the beautiful Dirang Gumpa (Monastery). Not to forget sipping on good strong ginger tea and gorging on spicy pakodas at the Bihari sweet shop on Market road

Beautiful Dirang Monastery





what a serene atmosphere inside

The place had such a calming effect on us

Dirang town from the monastery


Dinner at Pemaling took eternity to be served but the taste was fine. Super tired mentally and physically we retired to bed.

Day 8:

Plan was to drive up to Sela pass (42 kms away/13700 feet)and head back to Thembang village where we were to spend the night.Do Sangti visit if time permits.
The weather panned out to be just perfect.Bright and sunny. Road conditions were generally good with a few bad stretches



The wind up was really something




The puppies and kids all of AP, adorable lot

[vijayols]

We reached sela pass after a brief stopover at the military camp for natures call. Kanthi ended up chatting with her “home town” army guy, identified by her because of his features and “Vibuthi” on his fore head. And the name added up as Senthil
He was happy to meet folks from his home town and took us to the canteen, where we bought a nice military style jacket and sleeping bag.

Sela pass as the legend goes was named after the girl friend (Sela) of the heroic Jaswant singh who single handedly kept the Chinese army at bay.

Near the lake, spotted folks from Bangalore who we saw in Nameri and caught up with them here and got to know they were doctor/entrepreneur couple from JP Nagar And, to our delight we met couple of Bikers and couple from Bangalore (again?!) who had driven from Gauhati. They had all looked up T-BHP for directions and stuff. Felt a proud moment as TBHPian there

Hot piping noodles and samosas gulped down with ice cool lassi was just the right food to take on the biting cold and snow of the Sela pass.

Mesmerising views all around the Sela Lake


















Smrithi had a blast running up and down. Eventually fell little sick with lips turning wee bit blue.

Piping hot Noodles prepared by them, brought the colour back on Smrithi


Bikers(hired from Awe rides) from Bangalore


The lake done with we made our way back towards Dirang. We went back to Pemaling, freshened up and had our lunch there. We had to reach Thembang village for that night. We had booked a home stay after talking to Pema Wang who hosts this site. https://bpwange.wordpress.com/ Kanthi did all the research and talked to Pema Wang and got us booked in Thembang (Monpa tribes) for local Arunachal village experience.

We started around 3 PM or so. We were little skeptical by now because of the time taken to cover the distance. The direction given by folks for Thembang also made us feel little anxious as they pointed well up in the mountains!. And for the first time in the trip, we saw the most anticipated steel narrow bridges across the river. One we crossed too!. With day light being the biggest concern, we drove up and up. The steepest drive of our drive in this trip or is it the mother of all other steep drives we have driven? Debate is still on. Even if one vehicle had come on our way, it would have been very tough.
We reached around 5 PM thankfully after curious encounter with a piglet Smrithi was super thrilled.

Climb down charm


BTW., Whomever we met, they were super surprised that we were not heading to Tawang but cutting it off by Sela!

Way up to Thembhang - The only narrow bridge we crossed


Piglet - straight from Winnie the Pooh!


Called Pema Wange with near zero signal. He asked us to reach out to Anju. Who Anju and where? Unanswered questions We were kind of walking up and down in the biting cold.. and was greeted by a tall girl with features so unlike of north east and of course by super cute Tommy!

Tommy Inviting us


The young woman turned out to be research student of WWF and from Chennai. She was on an assignment (mission should I say?) to bring in conservation and bring the awareness about the village to the world. She was so happy we had hit upon this place. She took us to the home stay and introduced Anju the helper girl of the head family in the village.
We were mutually thrilled and loved each others company. Janaki(name resonated with Kanthi again) gave us breathless summary of her experience in that village for the last six months and how she has become one among them. We could see that with kids calling her “janki Didi”.

We were in awe, with her being so much at ease among the natives and the way she was communicating with them. Totally commendable. Janaki herself made a mention that even though it was little tough to survive alone initially, that turned out be a blessing as she was forced to become one among them and they(villagers) embraced her well into their fold. All this while taking us up to the "time machine" (Dzong) where 50 odd families still live in traditional style.

Ah! the Monpa fort which has tucked in heads!


Time machine walk into the fort village





Thambang Dzonga is the high point of the place being over 700 years old and home to over 50 families besides being nominated to the Unesco to be certified as one of the oldest living inhabitant area. The village is home to the Monpas tribes who were originally head hunters. You can read all about this village and what a unique and wonderful place here.
https://bpwange.wordpress.com/about-thembang/ Kudos to Pema Wange who has quit his plush job in Bangalore and gone back to his roots and started this initiative with WWF. Also, here - http://www.livemint.com/Politics/T2z...-Thembang.html

Came back to Pema Wangs house for dinner. We had a very interesting and entertaining observation just then. Janaki had to leave that night for her exams to Delhi and she was waiting for one of the villager to return back to thembang and then proceed towards Dirang to catch the bus to itanagar. I asked her whether it was safe for to travel as it was already pitch dark, she was quick to point out, the safety wrt Driving skills of native as well as her travelling with one of the guys is absolutely assured. Folks are so simple and full of values and they live their lives based on so much legends!.

Janaki by now has given us complete account of her stay, she trekking up the hills to record her observations on the tribes, shooting pictures of various exotic animals/birds, the ecological imbalances happening in the place, how the monpa tribe is trying to revive the balanced living with animals etc., very very mesmerizing… She also gave us tips as what we could “do” next two days. After bidding adieu to her, re living her experiences in our minds, we retired for the day. Our stay was at Pema Wang’s homestay (Graced by Highway on my plate fame Rocky and Mayur during one of their episodes).
Our wishes are with this young woman to go places with her efforts on saving the ecosystem as part of WWF.

Morning views:

These two has become inseparable


Pema Wange's Family House - His dad is head of the village
Majestic Imposing Mountains

Could relate to Janaki mentioning, the mountains conversing with you when you are on your own in this space.

Day 9

Woke up and met Pema’s brother Chetan who is mini celebrity being a badminton coach in Delhi and having featured in lots of paper write ups. Also found the walls filled with literature clippings of what nature could offer around this place.

Mr. Chetans accolades


In and Around - Can be of interest to avid trekkers in T-BHP




Thembang offers various trekking options as well as view of snow capped mountains and deep gorges and thick forests besides a rich variety of flora and fauna.

[vijayols]

The stay truly took us back to centuries and felt we were on time machine. After lazing around and playing with Tommy till 10 AM or so, We were getting little restless as whether any trek is planned whether we should be prepared for something..

And then it hit us. No one, absolutely no one had any time based aim in their routine. They start their day very early, do all the work at home with impeccable routine, go to the farm, toil there till the sun reaches the top, have their meals, resume their work, return home for a drink and rest. That’s it. So much of physical meditative routine. Mentally absolutely relaxed and physically fit. In their style, they took us around for trek and eased us into their routine!.

Traditional farm fresh food besides the chance to savor the local drinks made of Rice beer and corn whiskey was icing on the cake. Smrithi had fun with the puppy Tommy who was thrilled to bits to keep biting us.
In the evening Pema’s dad (Village Headman) took us to near by village where they trade for cheese with the vegetables grown in Thembhang

View from the room



AhHa -Cheese made in the kitchen


Pema and Chetans Dad - Very methodical and religious


Around Thembang - we were on our own













Our Homestay

Mr. Chetan - All in all

What a delightful drink post lunch

Unforgettable farm experience - Smrithi plucked vegetables and the folks cooked them for us.

Short trek/Stroll - nearby village


Innocence - Touches your core



Traditional house built of stones

Day 10:
Previous day we bugged Pema’s Mom for Fatung (Buk wheat handmade Noodles) as advised by Janaki. By now., anything we were asking Chetan and others, they were laughing and teasing us whether Janaki has mentioned. We could sense so much of fondness in their tone when they were addressing her. So, we had super spicy fatung with little less spicy for Smrithi. They were so yummy that we just wiped off the bowls.

Sssss - Futung!




Felt Privileged!



After breakfast and bidding adieu, (tommy would have missed smrithi for few days at least) around us and started our drive back, the most grueling part of the drive to Guwahati(310 kms/11 hours). Took the same route again but the warm sunny day was a different experience to the cool rainy journey on the way here and a bit of the magical experience was sadly missing.

Stay was at <Bamboo cottage in the forest> run by Alok and his wife Tamara but in reality was run by aloks mom Nalini Pathak (Ph 9854394524/9613161099) who prepared yummy assamese food for us and pampered us. Stay is basic though but clean. We found this place via AirBNB

Tastefully done up house by Atul and Tamara



What an yummy food for our parched tummies



Night brought heavy rains but we slept like babies:-)

[vijayols]

Day 11:

Returned the car back to Awe rides.(The experience was wonderful and would definitely recommend them to any one looking to hire a self drive in Guwahati despite the presence of zoom cars now in Guwahati too). Their team is extremely friendly and warm. We did tell them about the missing nut and they took photos of the car, and never cribbed on the fine scratch mark we made on the car during our stay in Meghalaya.

Visit to the Ganesh temple at Ganesh Gudi completed our tour visits. Flight back to Bangalore was happily un eventful and we were greeted by pouring rains as we landed. Perhaps the rain gods were missing us and decided to tag along

Other Graffiti:
Look for a little more than basic car while opting for a drive to arunachal.For Aassam and Meghalaya any car would be fine.

The ILP was not needed even once during our entire trip.

The army guys were extremely warm and friendly and even remembered us on the way back and greeted us as family members. Hats off to them and their spirit.

Last but not the least: The hilarious road signs along the stretch of roads kept up our spirits. Wonder whether the BRO has an exclusive team to come up with innovative slogans.

Here you go!



























May be Team-BHP could leverage some of these for the stickers!

On that note, I am ending the long pending travelogue (got spread over months). Its been 4+ months, we talk about Tommy, Janaki and other folks we met, the unforgettable chilling drive we had and its magnificent imposing beauty of Arunachal. Of course the most of romantic and beautiful drive to Cherrapunjee.. Ever lasting memories. Again thanks to T-BHP for all the route information and guidance.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to Travelogues. Thanks for sharing!

[roy_libran]

Excellent thread Mr. Vijay. You brought back memories from 2016 October, when I also did a trip to Upper Assam and then Meghalaya.

And by the way, Mrinalini from Awe Rides had booked me a brand new Hyundai Excent for our trip, but I couldn't bear the thought of driving a Hyundai for 5 days, so do you know which car I chose to take? - 6469. Yes, the very same one!

What a coincidence.

A few memories from last October (if I may) -

[vijayols]

Originally Posted by GTO

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to Travelogues. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks GTO for moving it. Looks like name got messed up. Intended as "North-East Reloaded". Is there a way to change it?

Thanks
Vijay

[vijayols]

Originally Posted by roy_libran

Excellent thread Mr. Vijay. You brought back memories from 2016 October, when I also did a trip to Upper Assam and then Meghalaya.

And by the way, Mrinalini from Awe Rides had booked me a brand new Hyundai Excent for our trip, but I couldn't bear the thought of driving a Hyundai for 5 days, so do you know which car I chose to take? - 6469. Yes, the very same one!

What a coincidence.

A few memories from last October (if I may) -

Wow! That is indeed coincidence Pictures speak for themselves. Thanks for sharing, Roy.

[sub.g84]

vijayols- I see you have brought back many memories from my hometown(Shillong). Truly a moment of nostalgia for me, now that I live in Bangalore. Well April to Sept is usually the rainy season in Meghalaya and while the rain may be a spoil sport once in a while, I hope it kept you good company with the hot momos, chowmein and the black tea. Oct to Dec is the best time to visit Meghalaya as you can enjoy the perfect blend of clear sky, slight rain and the crystal clear river which you missed. Oh and not to forget, it is the time of the Autumn festival in Shillong when the city erupts into a confetti of festivities.

The photos have simply given me an urge to go ahead and start counting days before I head home on vacation in late September. Thanks a ton for sharing.

[vijayols]

Originally Posted by sub.g84

vijayols- I see you have brought back many memories from my hometown(Shillong). Truly a moment of nostalgia for me, now that I live in Bangalore. Well April to Sept is usually the rainy season in Meghalaya and while the rain may be a spoil sport once in a while, I hope it kept you good company with the hot momos, chowmein and the black tea. Oct to Dec is the best time to visit Meghalaya as you can enjoy the perfect blend of clear sky, slight rain and the crystal clear river which you missed. Oh and not to forget, it is the time of the Autumn festival in Shillong when the city erupts into a confetti of festivities.

The photos have simply given me an urge to go ahead and start counting days before I head home on vacation in late September. Thanks a ton for sharing.

Thanks sub.g84!. We love monsoon drives! and this was best of all for sure. The drive from Shillong to Cherrapunjee and back, took us to another world. Yes Dawki river view was disappointment. But rains made it up more than enough. And same rains and mist made us tremble too in Arunachal. We saw colors of nature
Enjoy your vacation in September and post back with photos (Especially Dawki). Wish we could redo Cherrapunjee for double decker.