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| Re: South West to the North East | A Senior Couple’s drive of 11500 km in a Honda WR-V
Posting the rest of the Travelogue in TWO parts.
I had made a mistake in the Day numbers by omitting day2. This has been corrected.
Part 2
Day 18 April 27 Upper Assam
We parted with my sister and BIL and we went eastwards, Our first stop was at Shivsagar, visiting the remains of the Ahom dynasty. Had an ethnic Assamese veg thali (Tupula bhat) at the restaurant, Juihal of Assam Tourism and proceeded to Dibrugarh for night halt at the Town House Inn. The roads were bad to very bad as widening work was going on with no proper diversions in place. This was the first stretch in Assam with bad roads, but any how construction for 4 laning, as anywhere in India, meant the existing roads were left uncared for. 220 kms for the day.
Day 19 April 28 East Arunachal
Ziro, Aalo and Mechuka are the places mostly visited other than the Tawang area. We had decided against visiting these to minimize hilly travel and on feedback of road conditions. So in the morning commenced our journey to Roing. First halt was at Bogibeel, the longest combined road and rail bridge in India. Nobody checked our papers this time on re entry to AP. We were now travelling to the upper Brahmaputra regions of Pasighat, Dambuk, Bomjir and then to Roing. We had breaks to enjoy the river side and the scenery. It was a pleasant scenic drive with good two lane roads,with not much traffic and good weather. 249 kms for the day.
Day 20 Apr 29 Around Roing
Roing is the eastern most town in India. The eastern Himalayas lie to the north and east till China border. Nothing much to see in Roing. We just drove and walked around. Weather was pleasant with the nights being chilly. With not many hotels listed, we had settled with the Yatri Niwas which was earlier government run, but now leased out. Basic but had parking and a good restaurant. Google had previously directed us to the residence of the Dy Collector as location of Yatri Niwas. The guard let us in thinking we were some relatives. The Dy Collector was a lady probably a young IAS pass out and she was not pleased on our intrusion to her private residence. Though we said sorry, she was not willing to smile or help us with the correct location. Obviously not a native, as the behavior of all Arunachal people had been polite and welcoming unlike her rudeness. To sum up, eastern AP has not much to offer by way of tourist attractions, unless you wanted to visit Tezu, Brahmakund and Namdapha NP. We, had after deliberations decided to skip these to shorten the trip. But it is a pleasant region to be in especially maybe when the orange season starts.
Day 21 Apr 30 - To the Hilly North East
So far we had driven around 5000 kms and now on we were entering the Hill states which were tagged as “problematic and different”. Whenever we met other tourists on the way, and tell them about our plans, the words, Nagaland and beyond would draw sighs of –“Oh not there; just the two of you, it is dangerous; be careful”. Even residents of Assam were sceptical about travel to Nagaland and even to Tripura. Driving all the way from Kerala, itself was adventure for them and beyond was probably perceived as madness! The fact was none of them had travelled there. The tourist circuits are mostly limited to Assam, West and Central AP and Meghalaya, with Guwahati, Tawang, Kaziranga, Shillong being the travel axis. Only explorer travellers can perhaps think beyond that. The tag of the earlier presence of rebels and the “unknown factor” would be the main reason for this misplaced apprehension.
We believe it is for the traveler to throw light on the real scenario and promote visits to such remote places to familiarize with the culture and traditions. People are generally same everywhere and behave friendly as long as you respect them as they are and their culture. The people in the plains are no different from those in the hills.
Having decided on our route plan we proceeded early morning at 0520, from Roing on to Sonari. Leaving AP, we were soon crossing the Brahmaputra over the Bhupan Hazarika Setu. One interesting observation we came across was, there were no tolls collected in Arunachal despite the roads being so good. After Sadia, Talap we were on to the tea estates in Doom Duma and had a breakfast stop at Digboi. The fear instilled about Nagaland had made Regie remove whatever little gold she had on her and I also limited my purse to have minimum cash and cards. Reaching Sonari in Assam by 1030, we turned off to Mon Village in Nagaland. We had taken ILP for Nagaland and when we entered from Assam, nobody stopped us. In fact the Policeman sat in his booth and waved us to go ahead. It could be either my white hair or mistaking the KL registration for NL (in fact from a distance it can easily be mistaken either way) that made him do that.
We had a month back contacted a local guide Longsha in Mon village for accommodation and help in going around as it was known that the Konyak tribe generally don’t like people from mainland to visit them. My main confidence to visit this remote place was hinged on this guide who did such jobs for foreigners mostly. Konyak is the tribe famous/notorious at one time for being the Head hunters of the Angh (King). The village is right on the border with Myanmar. More about that later. The distance to Mon village from Sonari is around 50 kms; but the roads were so bad or non-existent that it took us almost 3 hours to reach. The climb from Mon to Longwa is about 30 kms, narrow but was in better condition. Being a Sunday there was nobody to be seen on the roads in these parts and shops were all closed as everybody had gone to their churches. We had known of this and had carried food with us.
We reached Longsha’s homestay in Longwa by 3 pm without any trouble or hold up. Longsha had arranged his brother Nokao to take care and guide us. Nokao stayed here with his parents. They have built a concrete building opposite to their traditional house with basic facilities for tourists. We were the only ones staying there. An American lady was staying in a room of the house. Her friend was in another village. We came to understand that more foreigners came to visit this part of Nagaland, than main land Indians.
The supper which was of rice, dal(watery type) and boiled vegetables, (all locally sourced) was with the family in their main room around the kitchen. Black tea is kept brewing the whole day. The father had a stroke some time back and needed help to move round. Nokao’s sister had come down to help the mother, besides two younger cousins. Only Nokao could speak English or Hindi. The family was very happy to host us and we had a long conversation with them. The Konyaks are all Christians now as the rest of Nagaland. They were happy in some ways with being an Indian and unhappy in some other ways. Pros- roads, electricity have come, as has the internet and mobile coverage. Children were going to school. The Cons- takes time for development to reach and feeling of being neglected and ignored. Their main request was to treat them and respect them and their culture as they are and this is the translation of what Nokao’s father told- “We may be eating dog meat, worms, insects etc; but that’s how we have lived, with what we have and we are happy as such. But don’t look down on us because of that.” With these words ringing in our ears, we retired for the day. Before that Nokao entertained us by playing the guitar and singing English songs. Drive for the day 274 kms
Day 22 May 1 - In the land of the Head Hunters
The breakfast at our host’s house was again rice, dal and vegetables. We supplemented it with the bread we had. Soon after, we set off with Nokao to explore the village, The first place was up a hill to a view point at the Indo Myanmar border. There was a border pillar and nothing more. Any body could cross over and we did too. There are no fences, police or BSF patrols. The reason is that the Angh (king/Chief) of the Konyak tribe had dominion over 110 villages spread over India and Myanmar. The Konyaks have dual citizenship and could cross over either way any time. Ofcourse, there is a small army camp and a police outpost, but they generally did not interfere in the Angh’s rule or law enforcement. Nokao told us that the living conditions of the people in Myanmar side were inferior to the Indian side.
We then proceeded to the main village area to meet the only two surviving Head Hunters. The practice of cutting off the head of the enemy and bringing to the Angh was discontinued in the 1960s. The Head hunter will wear a chain around his neck with small wooden heads and the number of heads will indicate how many heads he had cut off! These two people were in their eighties and lived by dressing up and posing for photos.
Next visit was to meet the Angh at his palace. It was nothing more than a big round hut with bigger rooms and artefacts and gifts displayed, and no doors. This was half in India and half in Myanmar. He had two wives one Indian and one (you guessed it) Burmese. A small built unassuming person, speaking the local dialect, though understanding some English and Hindi. We presented him with a packet of dry dates (the only thing we had with us for a gift).
Close to the Angh’s palace was a house where the gun maker lived. He was building a long-barrelled gun in wood with his hands when we visited him. He makes pistols and rifles as per order and was willing to sell us one. Hunting of animals in the forests is still allowed in Nagaland and many people own guns. Nakao mentioned that hunting was now a days for livelihood and a peaceful atmosphere prevails in the area.
We had an early lunch by 1130, almost same as dinner and breakfast, and bid farewell to the Konyak family. The drive from Mon village to Sonari in Assam was again a worrying one for us and definitely a painful one for the WRV. But no damage done. Next destination was Kohima; there were internal roads from Mon village to Kohima via Mokokchung, but as advised by our contacts, these were too bad and risky and will take more than 12 hours. We hit the Assam roads for our planned longer drive via Golaghat and Dimapur. As we passed through Simaluguri, we saw a board for Kareng Ghar, another Ahom dynasty heritage site. Had a quick visit there. It is worthy to mention that the Archaeological Society of India is making efforts and helping the ignorant to remit the entry fees through e payments.
This was the only day so far where we hadn’t booked any accommodation in advance and finally chose to stay in Nazira at Hotel Brahmaputra, which turned out to be a good one. Drive for the day -121 kms
Day 23 May 2- To Kohima
I had come to know that one of my college friends (and fellow college cricket team mate) and wife were in Numaligarh visiting their son. So, we took a detour from Golaghat and had two hours break to visit them and exchange notes on their visits to Kohima and Tawang. There after we proceeded to Dimapur and to Kohima. Dimapur is a busy commercial town in Nagaland close to the Assam border. The presence of an airport and railway station makes it a vital cog in the transport connectivity to Nagaland and Manipur. The roads were good all the way. The 4 lane stretch between Dimapur and Kohima is almost complete and for a change we observed that the diversions made for the construction in progress areas, were fully tarred and comfortable to ride. The road keeps climbing up with curves but comfortable to drive.
Kohima is a hill town with narrow roads, where parking on the road side is impossible and one way traffic is the norm. The traffic though heavy when we reached by 5 pm, was disciplined and the police were active in controlling. Google had taken us close to our homestay but couldn’t identify the turn, which was at a steep acute angle and descending from the main road. So, we had missed the turn once and were circling again. One traffic cop took the trouble to come down from his post after holding up the traffic to guide us to our homestay. The access road had space for only one vehicle and steep too. We had booked a homestay through Airbnb, called the Oak room. It was a good clean place owned by a Doctor and his brother, located in the city centre. The room was spacious and there was a terrace floor with good views, used as the upper dining space. We took a walk around the city exploring some busy market places. All sorts of creatures were on sale in the road side shops, like worms, frogs etc. Street food shops were in plenty selling local, Chinese and north Indian items.
We met the Doctor in the night and told him our plans including our apprehensions to visit the Dzukou valley. Some bloggers reported it as easy while others said it is difficult. There are limited basic stay facilities there, if you do the full trek. We wanted to go up, see the valley and come back the same day. He said you can do it as its not too difficult. Then he told us that next morning, a young French couple staying in the homestay were going there and he had arranged a taxi up to the nearest main road and thereafter a Sumo for the offroad climb to the trek point. So, we decided to share the transport arrangement. Travelled 282 kms in the day.
Day 24- May 3- Dzukou valley Adventure trek
An Alto came at 6 am to pick us and we reached the Viswema village about 25 kms away from Kohima on the Imphal road. A Sumo was waiting for us as arranged and the driver Azoo who talks good English, took us up another 9 kms over bad roads with big stones, to the Dzukou trek point. The French couple told us that they also plan to come back if the staying arrangement is not good enough. It was agreed that Azoo after his shuttle trips, will come back at 4 pm to take us back to the Village. The four of us finished the breakfast packed for us by the homestay, before starting the trek.
Dzukou valley is at an altitude of around 2500 ms and the trek up the hill to the valley entrance is a tough one categorized as “moderately difficult”. We had earlier been on forest and hill treks of 5 kms and more and we were confident we could do it. We started by around 8.30 am and told the French couple to proceed as we will be slow in climbing. It was understood normal people take around 1 hr 30 min to climb up. The walk up to the rest house is over ridges over plain land takes about 3 to 4 hours. The flowering season we were told had not started yet and will take another month or so. The trek is through the forest, over stone steps partly and over loose boulders climbing up all the way. We took rests in between. It was energy sapping but we were managing all right and then as we were about 80% up the way, it started to rain. We had jackets on and were carrying rain coats too, but that was not the problem. The boulders had become slippery and that was proving tricky and dangerous. Regie was finding it tough to get her steps right and I too though not much better. We some how managed to traverse the climb we reached the top by around 11.15 am.
By then it was raining heavily at the top and with the wind blowing hard, it was chillingly cold. There was no shelter around except an abandoned shack with no roof. After another 30 minutes the rain subsided and we could see the views around as the mist cleared. The beauty of the valley was not to be seen as in published photos because the sun had disappeared. So, our pictures do not justify the true beauty of the valley. It was 1200pm now and we dropped the idea of walking further over the plains to the base camp, as it would strand us there with no preparations for an overnight stay. But we knew for sure it would be very tough to descend the hill over the wet stones.
Then an idea came up why not call up Azoo, and seek his help if he were willing. Immediately called him and luckily he had come up to drop tourists at the trek point. To our relief he immediately said “I will come up to help you down. Give me 30 min”. Relieved, we started to walk along the ridge for some time and after about 45 min, our savior of the day, Azoo appeared with a long knife around his waist. He took us further along the ridge and then back to the descending point. He cut some tree branches and gave us both 2 long sticks to walk with. The descend down indeed was dangerous as we were not getting foothold properly and slipping. But Azoo was around to help us and being well built, he was able to lift Regie over tricky boulders and then help me down. It was a cake walk for him and he said he had at some instances climbed up and down 3 times in a day. By 3 pm we were back near Azoo’s Sumo. I cannot say how we would have made it down without Azoo’s help. His attitude was clear, it is our duty to help guests who have taken the trouble of travelling so far, to see our place. We waited till 4 pm for the French couple, but getting no reply we travelled back to the village. Half way down he called to say they are now at the drop off point. Azoo called up and arranged another vehicle to pick them. Azoo arranged a taxi to drop the four of us back to the outstation taxi stand in Kohima. Before leaving I gave Rs 2500 to Azoo, in addition to the agreed drop charges. But he refused to take it. I told him you missed a trip or two by coming up to help us, so at least take that lost amount. Finally, he agreed to accept Rs 1000. No words to describe the helping attitude of a strange person in a remote land. He could have demanded any amount and I would have agreed. We will hold the Naga people in high esteem just because of this person.
While waiting for the return taxi to Kohima, we saw several tourist buses coming from Manipur side to Kohima. We did not think too much about it, until the next day.
Day 25, May 4 - Kohima sights
We spent the day visiting the World War 2 cemetery and the Naga heritage village Kisama. The tomb of an Unknown soldier titled as “Known unto God” made me take a photo in remembrance of the many who lost their lives in strange places and unrecognized. The cemetery is maintained beautifully, with gardens and flowers all around. A lot of Indians had lost their lives fighting for the British against the Japanese. Kisama village is famous for hosting the annual Hornbill Festival. We used the public transport consisting of city mini bus and shared taxi service, for the trips.
By evening when we got back, I got a message from the Home stay owner of Imphal asking me not to come there tomorrow and cancel the Airbnb booking straightaway. He informed that curfew has been imposed in Imphal after break out of violence the previous day. We were scheduled to leave for Imphal the next day and our host also confirmed it is not advisable to go there. He also remarked that it is an internal issue of Manipur between the tribes and the Nagas will not intervene.
Now the turn of events in Imphal explained the exodus of tourist buses the previous evening. We had planned for 3 days in Imphal as there were several places we wanted to visit. But now we had to think of alternate places and routes.
Day 26 May 5- Violence in Imphal and the Alternatives.
We thanked God that we had not scheduled our travel earlier. What would have happened if we got stuck in Imphal with our car? We had decided to take the flight from Agartala to Aizawl as the roads from Silchar were too bad to be risked. No bookings had been done for dates after Imphal; things were now open for review. We had identified dates with low airfares to Aizawl and working on that decided to proceed to Haflong, a hill station in Assam and one night near Unakoti in Tripura before reaching Agartala. Shibu, my son’s classmate in Agartala informed everything was normal in Tripura. During our study and planning we had observed that Tripura was the least chronicled in travelogues and some news about rebels holding up road travellers were floating around. But this was applicable only along the Aizawl to Tripura roads near Bangladesh border, which we had already eliminated from our route plan.
By 8 am we had booked a hotel in Haflong for 2 nights and drove via Dimapur, Diphu, Lumding (NH 27) and reached Haflong by 3.30pm travelling 266 kms along good roads in both states.
Day 27- May 6 In Haflong
Haflong proved to be a disappointment, as there was no cool weather befitting a hill station nor anything to see particularly. It is a small town with no big hotels. A lake is being renovated. We visited a local museum and a goodlooking government guest house built in the British era. Booked the Agartala Aizawl flight. Only one ticket was available at the low fare. The Imphal evacuation had led to increase in fares suddenly.
Day 28 May 7 - Worst road in Assam
To visit the Unakoti rock site, the nearest accommodation was at the Tripura Tourism guest house in Kailashahar. Online booking was done for 2 nights. We didn’t have much literature info about Tripura roads; but decided to take them based on Google maps. The route planned was Silchar, Badarpur, Karimganj, then on NH 8 till Patharkandi, turn right to NH 208 A into Tripura and continue till Kailashahar. After 20 kms of leaving the Haflong hotel by 7 am, the ghat section started and the NH 27 roads became horrible. Widening works were going on all the way till Silchar; and what a terrible and dangerous way it was being done! No deviation signs, narrow stretches and you cannot make out if there is a road ahead at the climbs. About the condition of roads, the less said the better. Slushy due to rains, big potholes, boulders and along narrow ridges with just space for a vehicle. The WRV with its ground clearance of 188 mm and with only 2 passengers managed the ride without a hitch. Only thing was that I had to use all my experience to negotiate this bad stretch of around 60 kms carefully taking about 4 hours. Then on, the roads were okay and good in the NH 8 portion. The 208A stretch was not too bad though widening was going on, but due to low traffic through villages, we could move on at a decent pace to reach Kailashahar by 2.45pm. Distance covered for the day 244 kms. This town is very close to Bangladesh border.
The Tripura TDC guest house was not well maintained but since we had booked an AC room it was ok. Food was bad and the staff indifferent.
Day 29 May 8 - Unakoti Rock Sculptures
Unakoti rocks is not known to many and we also came to know about it after we did our research on Tripura. Located 10 kms from Kailashahar, it is an ancient site, believed to be 8th- 9th century, where big rocks have been cut to make sculptures mainly of Lord Shiva, Ganesha and Durga. Unakoti means one less than a crore and there are that many sculptures here. It is now an ASI heritage place and application has been put up to make it into the UNESCO heritage list. It was an interesting to see flat faces sculptured on such big rock faces unlike the small human figures seen in other heritage sites in India. Being so big and flat, the perfection was missing.
As we had an early morning visit to Unakoti, we were able to leave Kailashahar by 9.30am- on our way to Agartala. After reaching Kumarghat, the route was entirely along NH 8. Unlike some posts mentioning bad and dangerous roads, we found the roads to be fairly good and did not encounter any problems. It was not an easy drive though, along the winding 2 laned roads. One has to climb up and down 3 hills on the way crossing forest areas and villages spread apart. There would have been dacoits operating in these lonely stretches especially at night, which had led to the bad reputation. I was told that these days the roads have become safe even at night. The traffic was thin, mostly trucks. We reached Agartala by 2.45pm after driving around 158 kms. For lunch we had a break at a small family run shack near Ambassa which served good local Thali.
Agartala being the capital is Tripura’s biggest city. Unlike the other eastern states, Tripura is mostly plain and climate in summers is really hot. Agartala is well spread out and again close to Bangladesh border. We had booked accommodation at Institution of Engineers guest house in the city centre. But going there we found that there was no parking facility and not even on the road due to some construction activity nearby. So, after consulting Shibu, our son’s class mate, we booked at Hotel Himalaya, a little away. They provided parking and a high security one as the DSPs car and a minister’s private car were always parked there.
Day 30 May 9 -Agartala
In the morning looking for a place to eat breakfast we spent some time walking around a heritage park. Here we met a group of youngsters who were thrilled to see a Kerala registration car and meeting the grey-haired couple, they wanted selfies with us. Such encouraging actions always urge you on further. The main tourist place is Ujjayanta palace and when we visited there it was closed due to death of a VIP in Agartala. Had a look from outside and then drove around the University campus and then went to the border check post. They have a change of guard function at 4 pm, when public will be allowed to walk to Bangladesh and back. Since it was a long wait and very hot, we skipped it. We completed the ILP for Mizoram, which was obtained soon online. In the evening went to Shibu’s house for a typical Tripura dinner with his family and parents.
Day 31 May 10 - Flight to Aizawl
After checking out from the hotel we parked the car in the airport parking where they locked the wheels and gave us the receipt. Maharaja Bir Bikram international airport is a modern one located about 10 kms from the city. The Aizawl flight by Indigo is an ATR aircraft –flight of one hour duration. The Aizawl airport is a small one among the hills and far away from the city. ILP was checked on arrival and there was an option to take it there also. We took a taxi to our booked home stay, about a kilometre from the city centre. But being a hill town at 1200 ms elevation,walking to the centre Zarkawt involved steep inclines. Like Kohima, Aizawl being the capital of Mizoram too has all the big branded show rooms and shopping centres in the city. The women are mostly dressed in western style clothes and only some older women wear their traditional dress. Again, the streets are narrow but traffic is disciplined. Alto cars are very popular and are the main taxis. We took a taxi to visit the State Museum and then walked back to the homestay. We met the owner, a retired Civil Engineer in the evening. He had travelled all over India including to Kochi having worked with Airport Authority. Regarding the Manipur issue which invariably came up in our discussions, he was of the opinion it has a lot to do with the drug smuggling being done by the Myanmar Arakan tribe who have the backing of the Chinese government.
Day 32 May 11 - Around Aizawl
The home stay people had arranged a taxi for visiting nearby tourist spots. The first trip was to Reik where the Mizo heritage village is situated. It gives an idea of how the tribes lived not long ago. Next was a view point at a hilltop. The whole state is made up of hills, not very tall but varying from 1000 to 3000 ms. Ther were a lot of small water falls on the way. Then we visited Solomons temple, a big modern church built by an individual. Came back to homestay by 3 pm. The city is full of buildings and houses built on terrace fields. Food options here are much more sophisticated and did not see any worms etc being sold. Even the interior villages we saw were more developed than in Naga territory.
Day 33, May 12- Agartala, Melaghar
By 8 am the pre-arranged car came to drop us at the Aizawl airport. When we reached the airport though it was past counter opening time, staff had not arrived and passengers were made to wait outside for half an hour. When check in was over, staff for security check were not available. Any how the flight took off without much delay. Reaching Agartala by 1130, we got our car wheels unlocked and proceeded to visit Ujjayanta palace and museum. It is an all-white building and the museum gives a peek into the lives of the Kings that ruled Tripura. After lunch we drove 48 km to Melaghar and checked in at Hotel Polo Grounds which is close to the Neer Mahal. This is an old palace surrounded by water. We took a shuttle boat at 4pm that drops you at the Neer Mahal. Returned back after enjoying the sunset there.
Day 34, May 13- Udaipur and Karimganj
The last place in our list in Tripura was Udaipur, an old city of the Manikya dynasty, on the way back connected by good roads. The main attraction here is the Tripura Sundari temple. Another attraction we visited was the 3 Gunavati temples built with bricks in a dome shape and adjacent to each other. We had not seen such an architecture for temples anywhere else. These are 17th century structures being maintained well by ASI.
Udaipur is on NH 8 and we had to now move onto Meghalaya. This required a night halt and we had booked for the same at Karimganj in Assam. Taking the Agartala by pass the drive was a repeat along NH 8 all the way till Karimganj which is a commercial trade centre close to Bangladesh border. The roads were all good, but time consuming because of hilly terrain and bends in between. We reached our hotel by 5 pm after a drive of 315 kms.
Day 35 May 14- Meghalaya - Dawki
The plan for the day was to go via Badarpur and the up north to Jowai by NH 6, then south to Dawki and again up north to Chirrapunjee(Sohra) by NH 206. The drive was mostly uphill and downhill along winding roads generally in good condition till Dawki except for few bad stretches. On the way we stopped to see the Krang suri falls, which proved to be a disappointment with little water flowing through. At Dawki after parking the car we went to the river bed to see the crystal clear water. There was a big crowd here, being a Sunday. Some pebble stones were seen laid in a line. We were about to walk over them to get to a more secluded area, when somebody called out, if you cross the stones, you will have to show passport to come back. Yes, the pebbles marked the Indo Bangladesh International border here. Sure enough there was a police man on either side. We did not take a boat ride as there was a queue and we were short of time.
The roads beyond Dawki were very bad and so we dropped any idea we had of visiting Mawllynnong, the cleanest village. As we travelled further up towards Mawjingih valley the views became very beautiful on either side. But a cyclone in Bangladesh was causing strong winds with drizzle blowing across the road, forcing us to stop for a while. The views were amazing as it was nearing dusk time. We reached the junction joining Shillong Sohra road. Moving south, the Dyampep valley view point called for a stop and a coffee break. By the time we reached our homestay it was 1830 and getting cold too. This homestay, in the village Laitryngew, was owned by a young girl, MSW holder and also working remotely for a Bangalore based firm. She directed us to an eating place nearby and we walked there and enjoyed some hot noodles. Drove 282 kms.
Day 36, May 15 - Sohra, Living root Bridge and water falls
The plan was to see a Living root bridge and some waterfalls in the area. The Double decker bridge was the famous one. But that involved climbing up and down 3000 steps, which we did not want. We were happy enough to settle for a single root bridge but then the known one was half the way down to the double decker one. We searched in google for all single deckers and found one not too far away and with minimal walk. This was the Umkar single root bridge, which needed just 15 minutes to walk from the parking area. It took us some time to locate the place as it was not well known, but it was worth the trouble as we could walk easily to this fully grown single decker bridge. Interestingly the woman who managed the parking lot had come to study hotel management in Wayanad some years back.
As the water falls in the area were mostly without much water, we restricted our visit to the Weisawdong falls. This needed some climbing down in 2 stages. We descended to stage 1 from where one could see the falls and did not go down to the base of the falls. There was enough water to cascade down in 3 steps and it looked beautiful. We then made our way to Shillong reaching the booked home stay by 1730. Distance covered 121 km.
We had booked the Heritage Nook Homestay in Shillong which belonged to Ashley Lyngdoh and his sister Rachel. He led bike tour groups in the North East besides being the founder of Green Route,a society promoting rural tourism promoting tribal agriculture. Ashley being my son’s colleague’s relative had helped me in giving inputs about road conditions.
Day 37, May 16 - Shillong City
The home stay was on a hill top and we had to walk down to the city centre. The day was spent exploring the city by foot. We covered the Capt: Williamson Sangma Museum, All Saints cathedral, Police Bazar and Lady Hydari Park, all on foot. After dinner we spent some time with the Lyngdohs exchanging travel experiences. All these days we had not experienced heavy rains, but this night it rained heavily. When it starts raining it is time to start getting out of the North East, and our plans in this regard were on schedule. After discussions with Ashley, we decided that we route our return via the Garo hills, a less visited part of Meghalaya. Wherever we had gone so far, was in the Khasi hill region. Based on his advice we booked a room at a homestay of his associate in Tura.
Day 38, May 17- To Guwahati
Most tourists to the North East start their trip from Guwahati, being the capital city of Assam and the biggest in the region. But we had so far avoided Guwahati, for two reasons; we were circling around Assam from west to east in the Upper Assam area and east to west in the lower area. Then we didn’t find much places of interest in Guwahati. Now was the time to touch Guwahati. So, we set off in the morning from Shillong stopping on the way to enjoy the views of Umiam lake. The 90 km distance is indeed through good roads as reported by all travelers.
Our homestay named Three Little Birds near GS road in Dispur was quite a surprise at the rates offered. It had a very clean big bed room with attached bath room, a dining/lounge area and kitchen in one floor along with washing machine, fridge and microwave oven. Only drawback was, there was nothing of interest close by except big shops across the road. As shopping was never a preferred activity (except for souvenirs or unique items) we did not have much to do except walk around for dinner. The Kamakhya temple is among the most visited spots in Guwahati and we decided to skip that.
Day 39, May 18 - Western Assam and Meghalaya
After breakfast we crossed Guwahati city and proceeded westwards along NH 17. The route took us initially close to the river Brahmaputra and then onwards away but parallel till Paikan, where we turned south to Tura. Soon we were in the Garo region of Meghalaya, which is often mentioned as less developed and ignored. This appeared to be true though roads were good and scenic. The hills are smaller and weather hotter than the Khasi hills. Valleys were less and forests were not so green. Tura is the district HQ and reached our home stay by 2.30pm, driving around 220 kms. It started raining in the evening and we had to remain indoors. Tura is not a big town but the only one in the region. Our home stay was 4 kms away from the city in a village.
Day 40, May 19- Garo hills and rural tourism
The owner of the homestay had met us the previous night and suggested some place we should visit. As these are interior places outside Tura and being not marked in google maps, he suggested that he can send one of his drivers to drive our car to visit these spots. This seemed a good idea and we had agreed. After breakfast the driver took us to the West Garo hills area and the first halt was at a small river where fish farming was being done. Next was a visit to the Sonja wildlife rescue centre for the Western Hoolock Gibbons. Gibbons are a different species of apes found in India only in Kaziranga and the Garo forests and are endangered animals. This centre rescues injured apes from the forests and after rehabilitation sends them back to the forest. We saw gibbons from the forest coming to see their friends or partners kept in the cages of the sanctuary.
Then we were taken to a valley view in Noka-chik, which was being developed as a tourist village with local style huts. On the way to Nokrek National Park we had lunch at a small dhaba like place and met a local man who had come to study in Kerala and now was a government employee. The park entrance and area around has been opened for tourists. The NP which has the Clouded Leopard as its main attraction,but has no safari or trekking facilities yet. We reached back to the home stay by evening. Though the roads were bad and slushy, the driver was careful to drive the car understanding it was our lifeline to go back home.
Day 41, May 20 - Good Bye to the North East
By today we were to exit Assam and the North East after entering on April 18th which meant we were in the North East for 32 days.
In our routing back to West Bengal we added Jaldapara National Park as we were travelling near to that. The route chosen was Paikan, cross Brahmaputra at Goalpara, Bongaigaon, Alipurdar and onto Jaladapara. Being weekend, we did not get accommodation near the sanctuary. We reached the hotel by 3.30pm driving 330kms. The roads were generally good. We managed to book tickets for the morning safari at the counter in the evening. The place is close to Bhutan and the hotel person told us that if you have a Voter ID, you can enter Bhutan from here in the car.
Day 42, May 21- Jaldapara safari
The morning Jeep Safari at Jaldapara proved to be a waste of time. The safari routes were short and all that we could spot was a rhino from a distance. The guide and driver were not interested in spotting birds and were interested in the coffee at the VIP Guest House stop. The forest also was not appealing.
We took it easy to travel the 113 km to Jalpaiguri where we had booked to stay at the WBTDC Teesta Sundori. Again, we got to stay in a comfortable room with AC working fine.
------to be continued in PART 3 |
12th February 2024, 22:26
(1)
Thanks
. More power to you and more inspiration for people like me!
