Guwahati to Siliguri - Gangtok, Sikkim; Last Phase of NE

May 30, 2011

We left Hotel Ginger at 09:30 hrs. Unfortunately we were misled to follow a road which was taking us in exactly the opposite direction to our today’s destination Siliguri. It took us about an hour to correct course and then we were on our way.

We were taking a different route this time around to go to Siliguri from Guwahati than which we had taken while coming. We crossed the bridge over Bramhaputra and headed to Siliguri by NH31. Initially the road was bad and the traffic too was very heavy. The progress was quite slow but then after a while things improved and we proceeded at a moderate pace towards Siliguri passing through Baihata Chariali, Rangia, Barama, and Nalbari. We had lunch at Chandranagar. Here in the garden of the hotel where we had lunch, we saw mango trees which were only two years old but had started fruiting! We were told by the gardener that these were Malda Mangoes which were allowed to ripen on the tree itself unlike is the practice in Konkan region where mangoes are plucked before ripening and the process of ripening takes place in hay.

After lunch we proceeded on our way. The road was good. We passed Barpeta, Boytamari, Chaphar and just before Salkocha we had tea at a small village. This was almost entirely a muslim village. Here Raju bought some local bananas. These have several big seeds and the fruit is slimier than what we have in Mumbai or elsewhere. Then we proceeded passing through  Manas wild life sanctuary. The entire drive is beautiful. The road was very good, and the jungle and the mountains were green.

The problem driving on these roads, which is the case all over NE, is that there are hardly any milestones and boards showing directions are almost nonexistent. So for very long stretches one really does not know if one is headed in the correct direction and the distance to destination or the nearest place on the way! So one has to keep on asking directions and then keep reconfirming since there is, as has been our experience right through this trip, the communication problem.

We reached Koochbihar at 20:30 hrs. We had got several estimates of our ETA Siliguri from people at Petrol Bunks, Policemen etc. At Koochbihar we were told that it will take us about three hours to reach Siliguri. The joke was that for almost three hours now everybody was saying it will take you three hours to reach Siliguri! We really did not know how far Siliguri was and how long it would take! The traffic too was very heavy now, particularly of commercial vehicles. The saving grace was very good roads. We made some phone calls to some hotels in Siliguri as we travelled and made booking at Hotel Conclave.

We reached hotel at 00:30 hrs of May 31, 2011. It’s a good room and with a good AC.

Good night. Meet you here again tomorrow.

May 31, 2011

Our today’s destination was Gangtok, 120 Kms away from where we were staying at Siliguri.

This journey took us about four hours. The road was good.

This being tourist season time we found it a little difficult to find a hotel. We checked out Hotel Mayfair but that was out of our budget. The hotel where Mr. Kshirsagar and I had lived, Hotel Chumbi Residency too was fully booked, some place which Uday Joshi had suggested also did not have any rooms available but finally we found a reasonably good place called Hotel Central.

The roads in Gangtok are very very very narrow. One cannot stop at the road side even to make enquiries lest you should obstruct the traffic movement.

We had our lunch and Phadke Ajoba and I set out to find a good travel agent for our trip to N Sikkim, Gurudongmar Lake and Nathula since we are not allowed to take our vehicle in this region.

So tomorrow off to Zero Point, Yumthang, Gurudongmar Lake, a three days two night package. We will be back in Gangtok on 3rd. The next day would be the Nathula trip, which is a one day excursion.

So now see you on 5th June when I will again have internet connectivity and meet you here again!

Ciao.

Bomdila - Tawang - Bomdila - Guwahati

May 25, 2011

We left Hotel Subanasri for Bomdila after breakfast.

This was a road in the planes and was fairly good as we passed Gohpur, Halim, Bahali, Chatia and reached Balipara, a distance of about 120 kms, at about 12:30 hrs. This is the point at which we took the exit towards Bomdila.

At the junction of the exit we had something to eat. I did not have lunch since I was not feeling too hungry. I just had some tea and bun. Raju gorged on Rashogullas and Rasmalai. After lunch we got going on our way to Bomdila.

The road was showing signs of this turning into another EXTREME experience. There is no point in talking about anything called speed!! After a journey of about an hour and a half we covered a distance of about 40 km to reach a place called Bhalukpong. Here we made entry at the security post. To go from one district of Arunachal Pradesh to another it is necessary to get in to Assam, connect to either NH 37 or NH 52 and then again enter Arunachal. We were told that the internal roads are being built.

The climb to Bomdila now began. The road construction work is in progress. The road was very bad, winding, and very steep. There were several landslides and bulldozers were working continuously to clear the debris of the land slides. There was mud and slush. Just imagine a very narrow winding road with a steep gradient, filled with mud and slush in which at times the car’s wheels were sinking almost half way down, and at times the car skidding and rolling! You have to maintain a constant speed keeping the car in the first gear. Things become worse on blind curves if there is another vehicle, particularly a convoy of the huge army trucks, coming down from the other direction. One side of the road is exposed to a deep valley and on the other side there is the mountain. At times the car skids so much that it goes too close to the edge of the road on the exposure side! The ‘road’ is like this for the next almost sixty kilometers, almost up to a village called Sipa. There after the road is fairly good.

As we came closer to Bomdila, we could see the presence of army was more and more perceptible. We stopped at one of the army posts; here we learnt that there is the regiment of Maratha Light Infantry at this location. We spoke to the Jawans who were from Jalgaon and Satara. They too were happy to meet us and talk to us.

Thus we reached Bomdila which is at an altitude of over 8000 ft above MSL. It was very cold and we were very tired. A journey of about 250 km from Itanagar had taken us about 10 hrs grueling driving. We checked in to Hotel Tsepal Yangjom which is a reasonably ok place.

Bye for now and meet you here again tomorrow.

May 26, 2011

Hello,

We started our journey upwards to Tawang at an altitude of about 10000 ft above MSL, en route passing through the Sella Pass at an altitude of 13700 ft above MSL.

The road was just like or shall we say a little worse than yesterday with steep climb. At 29 km from Bomdila we passed through Munna, then at 42 km Dirang. Many people stay here and proceed towards Tawang. Dirang has a Yak research centre. It was getting cooler as we kept climbing and at 12:300 hrs we reached Sella pass at an altitude of 13700 ft above MSL. As per our GPS it was 13250 ft above MSL. This is supposedly the second highest motor-able road in the world. There is a Shiva Mandir here. It was quite cold. We had a cup of tea, took some photographs and started on our way to Tawang.

At about 14:00 hrs we reached Jaswant Garh. This place is named after Jaswant Singh serving in the 4^th Battalion of Garhwal Rifles who was martyred here in the 1962 China war. There is a Jaswant Singh memorial here and the Jawans call it Jaswant Baba memorial. Army personnel stop here pay their respects at the memorial and then proceed on their journey to the front at Boomla. There is small army run eating place where the Jawans have a bite as well. We too had some tea and samosas, and they were lovely. Then we started on our way to Tawang. We were all looking forward to visiting Boomla, the Sino-India (Indo-Tibet?) border.

We reached Tawang at about 18:30 hrs and checked in at Hotel Gakyi Khang Zhang. Tawang, the hotel at which we checked in, is at an altitude of 8812 ft above MSL as per our GPS! The name Tawang has come from Tamding – the horse god. In my opinion it must be the horse headed god or Hayagreeva, the avatar of Vishnu with the head of a horse, but maybe I am wrong.

We made enquiries at the hotel regarding visit to the Tibet (china)-India border at Boomla. We were told that we would have to fill up a form submit our IDs. Permits etc. and then it would be only the day after tomorrow after 10:00 hrs that we would get the permit. Boomla is 45kms from Tawang. So it would be about 90kms to and fro and knowing the road conditions it would take about 4 hrs to go and come plus another couple of hours there. That means it would take a whole day. Taking in to consideration the time factor we decided not to visit the border but just visit the gompa and the war memorial in Tawang tomorrow and leave.

That’s all for the day! See you here again tomorrow. Bye for now.

May 27, 2011

We left hotel after breakfast at about 08:00 hrs and visited the Gompa. Built in 1681, this Gompa is said to be the second largest Gompa in Asia. About 500 lamas live here. There is a school here which teaches the Buddhist philosophy. We saw small children wearing red robes and very short hair learning here. Being trained to be Lamas?! Were they here by choice? Were they given any training other than the Buddhist philosophy and learning of Buddhist scriptures? I don’t know! Just questions! There is a huge idol of Buddha inside a huge prayer hall. Lights are lit with yak butter. We also saw a small museum here which had a 1000 year old elephant tusk.

We then visited the war memorial. This is built in memory of the 2420 army men who lost their lives here while protecting the borders of our country in extremely adverse conditions completely ill equipped in the 1962 Chinese incursion / invasion into India. We paid our respects here and started back on our journey to Bomdila.

The sky was overcast. I was getting worried since if it started to rain then the journey would be very difficult on the treacherous road. I was trying to cover distance as quickly as I could. It was past 14:00 hrs by the time we reached Sella pass. It had started to drizzle. At about 16:00 hrs it started raining heavily and it had also started to get dark. This is an extremely land slide prone area. At some places on the mountain side I could see the soft soil slowly slipping. I was worried. One land slide and we would get stuck. It was quite dangerous situation I was driving as quickly as I could. Driving was a real challenge here. Another EXTREME!

We reached Bomdila at about 18:45 / 19:00 hrs and checked in to the same hotel as day before yesterday.

At dinner time Raka had an altercation with a local man over watching TV at the restaurant. The person, Mr. Jilikchand Sidisow, happened to be president of West Kameng Student’s Union. He claimed that he had done an MBA from Bangalore. Actually Raka kept quiet but this man was hell bent on picking up a fight. He was drunk and foulmouthed. But Raka kept his cool and any untoward incidence was avoided. This was the first bad experience of our trip so far.

Later when Raju again went to the car to get something, this man met him again in the lobby and apologized for the entire episode.

A long, tiring, and stressful day! Now I am off to bed. Bye and good night.

Meet you again at the same place tomorrow.

May 28, 2011 and May 29, 2011

Hi!

This is a blog for two days.

We left Bomdila at about 08:45 hrs and travelled down through Dirang and Bhalukpong. On the way we came across a lovely place built and run by the Army called Tenga Haat. Haat is a Bazar. Here there is a small restaurant, a gift shop, a grocery shop, a beauty parlor, a small children’s play area. We had some tea here and did some shopping. I bought a Buddha idol and a bar set. From Bhalukpong we came to Balipara, which is the exit one takes to Bomdila from the highway.

Bhalukpong finds reference in the Mahabharata. King Bhaluk of Tezpoor was the grandson of Banasoor. After, Krishana killed Banasoor and after the great war of Mahabharata, king Bhaluk moved his capital from Tezpoor to here and hence the name Bhalukpong.

I found some very interesting things in this trip of North East so far. This region finds reference in the Mahabharata and association with lord Krishana, starting from places like Guwahati.

In the present era, the student’s union seems to be the incubator for future politicians from this region. Also, the students unions seem to be very strong and have an influence on the state politics. The office bearers seem to consider themselves to be very powerful persons not only in the student’s community but in their respective constituencies.

At Tezpoor, we got our car checked at Tata Motors workshop for some sound in the left front wheel. No big problem, just some fasteners those had got loose.

Reached Guwahati at 22:15 hrs and checked in to Hotel Ginger. I had not spoken to Veena for the past 2 / 3 days so made a call home and spoke to her and Shriya.

Today, that is 29^th May is a rest day. I got up late today. All of us gave our clothes for washing at the hotel laundry. Raju and I went to Tata Motors service centre and gave the car for servicing which we got back at 18:30 hrs.

Now dinner and preparations for further journey and off to bed.

Bye for now and meet you here again tomorrow.

EXTREME drive! Itanagar

May 23, 2011

It was another EXTREME today in terms of driving experience!!!!!

I did not sleep too well last night as the circuit house room was not so good but was slightly better than the Teju’s Duda Lodge. We woke up early and it was raining cats and dogs.

We left the Chapakhowa circuit house at 07:00 am. We had to cross the river Brahmaputra twice today, first at Sadia Ghat and then at Bogiwhil ferry near Dibrugadh. The roads were very bad and the pace was slow. As we came close to the place from where we had to cross the river and noticed that the road simply disappeared and all we could see in front of us was a slushy, muddy dirt track. I stopped the car and took a closer look at the track and found the soil here black and sticky and all I could see were tyre marks of vehicles that had passed earlier, some showing signs of vehicles having got stuck in the mud! Ok, so that was that and we had to cross this at least 2 km long patch. I engaged the car is 1^st gear, increased the RPM and started driving the car through the slush and mud. The visibility was quite poor because of incessant rain. The car was skidding and rolling in the slush, at times giving way and the wheels just rotating at one place. The nature of the soil was not allowing the tyres to get any grip. On one side there was the fiercely flowing river Bramhaputra. There was no protection of any nature to prevent cars from plunging into the river. At times the car would suddenly skid too close to the bank for comfort. I was trying to maintain one steady motion of the car to avoid getting stuck in the sludge but at one point the width of the sludge was so much that I had to stop to decide which way to go. I decided to move in one direction engaged the 1^st gear and accelerated but the car wouldn’t move. The tyres were just rotating in one place and there was no point in trying harder since the more I would try accelerating the deeper the wheels would go in to the mud. Suddenly, two men appeared on my side and said that they would push the car out of this and come with the car till it was at the point of driving in to the ferry. They asked for Rs. 500/- for their services. Phadke Ajoba negotiated and the deal was fixed at Rs. 300/-. They pushed the car and I accelerated. The car came out of the slush where it was stuck. I maintained one speed and since these men were guiding me as to from where I should steer the car, I did not have to stop either. Whenever there was a possibility of the car getting stuck they would give a push to the car. This way we managed to reach the point at which were to drive the car on to the ferry, ‘jetty’ if you want to call it that.

Now this was another big ordeal. There was no proper jetty. It was just the bank of the river reinforced by stones at one point where the so called ferry would come along side. The ferry itself was one big joke. It was a small wooden boat on which three vehicles were loaded and parked at a distance of about six inches from each other. The vehicles were to be driven in to this contraption on two not so thick wooden planks. The width of the boat was such that the front bumper of my car was jutting out of the edge of the boat and the rear bumper was just about at the edge. I slowly and cautiously drove the car on to this boat. Along with the cars about 20/30 passengers also boarded the boat. The travel across the Bramhaputra took about 45 minutes.

The situation on the other bank of the river was no better but I managed to drive our car out of the boat and up to firm road without any help. Also it was not raining here on and the visibility was good.

From here we drove to Tisukia and then to Dibrugarh. The road was fine and we covered the distance quickly. We reached Dibrugarh at about 15:30 hrs. We had something to eat here and reached the Bogivil ferry crossing. En route we made hotel booking with Hotel Subanasri at Itanagar.

The last two kilometer’s drive to reach the ‘jetty’ was no better than the drive to the earlier ferry crossing. But here we followed another vehicle and managed to reach the ‘jetty’. The drive from the other side of the river to the main road was quite long and similar to the earlier drive but the soil on this side was sandy so it was a lot easier. From here we reached a small town called Dhemaji.

The road here after was by and large excellent and I was driving at a very fast pace. We reached North Lakhimpur at about 20:45 hrs and had dinner at Hotel Maple Leaf. We left here at about 22:30 hrs. The road was excellent. We reached Itanagar at about 23:30 hrs and checked in to Hotel Subanasri.

At all the ferry crossings construction of bridges was in progress. It is expected that the bridges will be ready by 2015. Once the work on the bridges is complete then Tisukia will be directly connected to Tezu and Walong

This was some day to remember!

There is another thing worth noting here. As we were travelling in the boat, there was a village marriage party travelling along with us. Some of them started talking to us. When we told them that we were from Mumbai and were planning to do a garland route along the border of India and that we had gone right up to Walong in Arunachal Pradesh they were very happy. One of them said to us that people in other parts of the country feel that there are only Junglees here. He asked now, having seen the place how did we find it? Similar to what we had been told earlier he explained that festivals like Durga Pooja, Ganesh Chaturthi, Diwali are all celebrated here with great enthusiasm. Then he asked us how different are we from anybody else? I feel I have heard this word Junglee too often from people here.  I think this is a common sentiment of people here. There is a distinct feeling of alienation.

We also observed issues like alcoholism. At six in the morning one can see people having alcoholic drinks! It’s difficult to get a cup of tea on some way side shop but one will find alcoholic drinks available ever so freely. Another person was saying that there is acute poverty. People just eat rice with water and salt since they don’t have the money to buy Daal or Vegetables or even Fish! He said in the same breath that whatever money they get is not spent on food but is spent on liquor.

See you here tomorrow!

May 24, 2011

Today we all woke up late. We decided to take a day’s rest.

We engaged a Taxi here to do some sightseeing in the city. Phadke Ajoba decided not to come with us but stay back at the Hotel and take rest.

We gave the car for servicing and general check up at Tata Motors Service Station and then started our sightseeing tour.

The taxi first took us to the Ganag Lake. This is a small lake with crystal clear water in thick forest like setting. There is boating facility here.

Then we went to Itafort, after which this place was named as Itanagar. The ancient name of Itanagar was Mayapoor. In the 11^th Century this region was ruled by Jigari kings. King Mayamatta of this Jigari clan made Mayapoor as capital and built this fort with 8 million bricks. The total stone required was 4.5 million and it took 45000 man days to build it. The total area of the fort was 10 sq kms! Huge isn’t it? But now practically nothing remains of this structure other than two thick walls!

Next we visited a museum where old weapons, jewelery, old house hold items, and scenes created to show different tribes of Arunachal are displayed.

it was 16:00 hrs and I had to rush to the Tata Motors work shop to collect the car. There the service advisor and others were quite surprised to know that we had travelled all the way from Mumbai in our car till

May 23, 2011

It was another EXTREME today in terms of driving experience!!!!!

I did not sleep too well last night as the circuit house room was not so good but was slightly better than the Teju’s Duda Lodge. We woke up early and it was raining cats and dogs.

We left the Chapakhowa circuit house at 07:00 am. We had to cross the river Brahmaputra twice today, first at Sadia Ghat and then at Bogiwhil ferry near Dibrugadh. The roads were very bad and the pace was slow. As we came close to the place from where we had to cross the river and noticed that the road simply disappeared and all we could see in front of us was a slushy, muddy dirt track. I stopped the car and took a closer look at the track and found the soil here black and sticky and all I could see were tyre marks of vehicles that had passed earlier, some showing signs of vehicles having got stuck in the mud! Ok, so that was that and we had to cross this at least 2 km long patch. I engaged the car is 1^st gear, increased the RPM and started driving the car through the slush and mud. The visibility was quite poor because of incessant rain. The car was skidding and rolling in the slush, at times giving way and the wheels just rotating at one place. The nature of the soil was not allowing the tyres to get any grip. On one side there was the fiercely flowing river Bramhaputra. There was no protection of any nature to prevent cars from plunging into the river. At times the car would suddenly skid too close to the bank for comfort. I was trying to maintain one steady motion of the car to avoid getting stuck in the sludge but at one point the width of the sludge was so much that I had to stop to decide which way to go. I decided to move in one direction engaged the 1^st gear and accelerated but the car wouldn’t move. The tyres were just rotating in one place and there was no point in trying harder since the more I would try accelerating the deeper the wheels would go in to the mud. Suddenly, two men appeared on my side and said that they would push the car out of this and come with the car till it was at the point of driving in to the ferry. They asked for Rs. 500/- for their services. Phadke Ajoba negotiated and the deal was fixed at Rs. 300/-. They pushed the car and I accelerated. The car came out of the slush where it was stuck. I maintained one speed and since these men were guiding me as to from where I should steer the car, I did not have to stop either. Whenever there was a possibility of the car getting stuck they would give a push to the car. This way we managed to reach the point at which were to drive the car on to the ferry, ‘jetty’ if you want to call it that.

Now this was another big ordeal. There was no proper jetty. It was just the bank of the river reinforced by stones at one point where the so called ferry would come along side. The ferry itself was one big joke. It was a small wooden boat on which three vehicles were loaded and parked at a distance of about six inches from each other. The vehicles were to be driven in to this contraption on two not so thick wooden planks. The width of the boat was such that the front bumper of my car was jutting out of the edge of the boat and the rear bumper was just about at the edge. I slowly and cautiously drove the car on to this boat. Along with the cars about 20/30 passengers also boarded the boat. The travel across the Bramhaputra took about 45 minutes.

The situation on the other bank of the river was no better but I managed to drive our car out of the boat and up to firm road without any help. Also it was not raining here on and the visibility was good.

From here we drove to Tisukia and then to Dibrugarh. The road was fine and we covered the distance quickly. We reached Dibrugarh at about 15:30 hrs. We had something to eat here and reached the Bogivil ferry crossing. En route we made hotel booking with Hotel Subanasri at Itanagar.

The last two kilometer’s drive to reach the ‘jetty’ was no better than the drive to the earlier ferry crossing. But here we followed another vehicle and managed to reach the ‘jetty’. The drive from the other side of the river to the main road was quite long and similar to the earlier drive but the soil on this side was sandy so it was a lot easier. From here we reached a small town called Dhemaji.

The road here after was by and large excellent and I was driving at a very fast pace. We reached North Lakhimpur at about 20:45 hrs and had dinner at Hotel Maple Leaf. We left here at about 22:30 hrs. The road was excellent. We reached Itanagar at about 23:30 hrs and checked in to Hotel Subanasri.

At all the ferry crossings construction of bridges was in progress. It is expected that the bridges will be ready by 2015. Once the work on the bridges is complete then Tisukia will be directly connected to Tezu and Walong

This was some day to remember!

There is another thing worth noting here. As we were travelling in the boat, there was a village marriage party travelling along with us. Some of them started talking to us. When we told them that we were from Mumbai and were planning to do a garland route along the border of India and that we had gone right up to Walong in Arunachal Pradesh they were very happy. One of them said to us that people in other parts of the country feel that there are only Junglees here. He asked now, having seen the place how did we find it? Similar to what we had been told earlier he explained that festivals like Durga Pooja, Ganesh Chaturthi, Diwali are all celebrated here with great enthusiasm. Then he asked us how different are we from anybody else? I feel I have heard this word Junglee too often from people here.  I think this is a common sentiment of people here. There is a distinct feeling of alienation.

We also observed issues like alcoholism. At six in the morning one can see people having alcoholic drinks! It’s difficult to get a cup of tea on some way side shop but one will find alcoholic drinks available ever so freely. Another person was saying that there is acute poverty. People just eat rice with water and salt since they don’t have the money to buy Daal or Vegetables or even Fish! He said in the same breath that whatever money they get is not spent on food but is spent on liquor.

See you here tomorrow!

May 24, 2011

Today we all woke up late. We decided to take a day’s rest.

We engaged a Taxi here to do some sightseeing in the city. Phadke Ajoba decided not to come with us but stay back at the Hotel and take rest.

We gave the car for servicing and general check up at Tata Motors Service Station and then started our sightseeing tour.

The taxi first took us to the Ganag Lake. This is a small lake with crystal clear water in thick forest like setting. There is boating facility here.

Then we went to Itafort, after which this place was named as Itanagar. The ancient name of Itanagar was Mayapoor. In the 11^th Century this region was ruled by Jigari kings. King Mayamatta of this Jigari clan made Mayapoor as capital and built this fort with 8 million bricks. The total stone required was 4.5 million and it took 45000 man days to build it. The total area of the fort was 10 sq kms! Huge isn’t it? But now practically nothing remains of this structure other than two thick walls!

Next we visited a museum where old weapons, jewelery, old house hold items, and scenes created to show different tribes of Arunachal are displayed.

By now it was 16:00 hrs and I had to rush to the Tata Motors work shop to collect the car. There the service advisor and others were quite surprised to know that we had travelled all the way from Mumbai in our car till here. They said that we were not their customers but rather their guests. They had attended to our vehicle on priority and out of turn without an appointment.

Now I want to say something about our interaction with people. As we were having our breakfast, one gentle man on another table started talking to us. The first thing he asked us was about Anna Hazare Ji’s agitation – did we support it? Then he spoke about issues like lack of unity among Indians, regionalism, divide on religious and cast lines, and most importantly about corruption. Once again we saw the same sentiment and anguish about alienation from main stream India and deep and serious concern about corruption.

We had our small meeting today and decided to go to Bomdila, Tawang tomorrow. Phadke Ajoba insisted that we should be on the road tomorrow at 08:00 hrs in any case.

Bye for now and meet you here again tomorrow.

Cheers!here. They said that we were not their customers but rather their guests. They had attended to our vehicle on priority and out of turn without an appointment.

Now I want to say something about our interaction with people. As we were having our breakfast, one gentle man on another table started talking to us. The first thing he asked us was about Anna Hazare Ji’s agitation – did we support it? Then he spoke about issues like lack of unity among Indians, regionalism, divide on religious and cast lines, and most importantly about corruption. Once again we saw the same sentiment and anguish about alienation from main stream India and deep and serious concern about corruption.

We had our small meeting today and decided to go to Bomdila, Tawang tomorrow. Phadke Ajoba insisted that we should be on the road tomorrow at 08:00 hrs in any case.

Bye for now and meet you here again tomorrow.

back to Tezu and and interesting evening followed by a dud day!!!!!!!

May 22, 2011

Hello,

Last night was very interesting! We went for dinner to Hotel Nancy. There we met Mr. Dipen Das, a friend of Mr. Kri, the owner of the hotel.

Dipen is a young man just twenty two years of age, very energetic, enthusiastic, and articulate. Dipen, a Bengali, was born inTezu, studied and graduated from Assam, spent a very short time in Kolkata and came back to Tezu. He said that he and his friend Kri want to stay here and do something here which will be an example for others to follow. It is with this intention that they have started this Hotel and want to make a success of it. Nancy is the only place in Tezu which stays open late into the night past 23:00 hrs while all other establishments close at or before 19:00 hrs. It hurts him when his peers from his college say that what the hell that he is doing here in this small place among ‘junglees’. As a matter of fact, having spent as little a time as few days, I too felt a little sad when someone from Mumbai asked me to get ‘feathers to put in the dress for a victory dance’ from here (NE), though in jest. Dipen said that the people of NE know everything  about what is happening all over India but the people of the rest of the country do not know what is happening in this part of the country and to their fellow countrymen here. The people here know about the most recent agitation in Delhi against corruption and the Jan Lokpal bill, they know about Anna Hazare and that he would be in Guwahati on 20^thor 21^st of May! The people here strongly support Anna Hazare Ji, as they call him. They are aware about what is happening in Maharashtra, the MNS agitation which took place some time ago, they know about the 2G spectrum scam and are concerned about corruption which has plagued the country and their own sate, they know about the happenings in Tamil Nadu, Jammu & Kashmir, they are concerned about the happenings at the centre!  I could see the pain and passion in his eyes as were talking to him and asking questions.

He said the people of Arunachal are NOT JUNGLEES. Yes they are tribals, illiterate, poor but civilized and ‘educated’. He made that fine distinction between being educated and being literate. He asked us that say if a person has big degrees following his name but is unable to behave in a civilized manner, is unable to be caring and sympathetic towards his fellow beings, would you call him educated? Arunachal has over 26 tribes which have their own distinct and unadulterated way of living not diluted over the years. These tribes consider themselves and are Hindus. They worship Hindu gods and goddesses like Shiva and Vishnu. They are and feel INDIAN at heart and head. Even a villager can sing the Indian National Anthem. They speak Hindi if you speak to them in that language. During the recent ICC cricket world cup as India was moving towards the finals, people from as far places as Walong (almost the last village on the Sino-India border) bought fire crackers from Tezu and there were fireworks and celebrations the moment India won the World Cup just like in Mumbai, every one shouting, congratulating each other, playing drums and dancing on the streets! That’s how INDIAN these people are and have no attraction, allegiances to any other country.

I think it is time that the rest of the country woke up to this far away part of OUR OWN COUNTRY and the people here who are as INDIAN if not more as in any other state. It is time we dropped that fear psychosis about extremist activities here. There have been bomb blasts and riots in Mumbai or Delhi or in Gujarat, a Prime Minister can be killed in her own back yard, a city like Mumbai can be attacked by extremists from foreign land then how different is it or shall we say more or less safe so to say than here? Yes it is far away from the western coast, yes it could cost you a little more to reach this place but don’t people take foreign sojourns and spend a lot of money?!

To summarize, Arunachal, a young state, god’s own country, a beautiful place with extreme infrastructure deficit, horrible roads, hot and humid in the lower regions but absolutely cool and pleasant in the higher reaches at this time of the year, with beautiful locations strewn all over the state waiting to be developed in to lovely hill stations, quite, virgin, serene!, very thinly populated, with friendly and warm people once they know you. I feel that if the economy of an entire country like Thailand can survive and bloom only on tourism then Arunachal too can be developed in to a Tourism destination and the economy of this state too can boom and contribute to the growth of our country. Arunachal has tremendous untapped hydro power potential which can not only help the economy of the state grow but also contribute in alleviating the power crises in the country.

I think the media as a whole has a big role to play in bringing this far-flung part of our country in to the main stream. Work has slowly begun in terms of improving and expanding the infrastructure, basically the roads but it is too little and too slow. We were told that work on four lane highway has begun which will connect places like Walong, Tezu, Annini and Itanagar. So shall we say Arunachal is work in progress?!

By the time we took leave of Dipen and few other local people who were participating in the dialog and left Hotel Nancy it was past midnight.

I did not sleep well last night. I managed to a few winks early in the morning and woke up late. We left the circuit house at Tezu at about 10:45 hrs. Today was a complete dud. We moved towards Roing. To go to Roing we had to first enter Assam and then once again enter Arunachal. The road was simply HORRIBLE or there was NO ROAD AT ALL. We were trying to find a road among huge potholes. Our progress was very slow. I think I took over three hours to cover a distance of 40 / 50 kms. At the border we were told that the road between Roing and Pasighat, which was our destination for the day, was closed and that we should go to Passighat via Amarghat. So we turned from there and proceeded towards Amarghaat on horrible road. Suddenly we came across a stream and the road was passing through it. I was unable to figure out as to how to cross this stream since it was not possible to assess the depth or the soil conditions at the bottom of the stream. There was a risk of getting stuck in mud in the middle of the stream. A motorcycle came from the other side. When we made enquiry about crossing the stream and the road to Amarghat they said that we would have to cross the river at least two times and the ferry would not be able to take a big vehicle like ours across. Now we had a situation here. After giving a thought we decided that we would return to the junction at Chapakowa, stay overnight here and follow another route tomorrow.

We came to the circuit house and checked in. We now decided to cross the river at another point where the ferry could carry our SUV across then go to Tinsukia and then to Dibrugarh, again cross the river in a ferry on to the northern bank and try and reach Itanagar by tomorrow night.

To do the above route we will have to leave early tomorrow. So going to bed now!

See you tomorrow at the same place!

Cheers!

Parshuram Kund - Tezu - Hawaii - Indo-China Border - Tezu

May 18, 2011

Hello,

We had our breakfast and left Hotel Little Palace, Dibrugarh, at 09:00 hrs for Parshuram Kund and Tezu. The journey for next few days is going to be quite challenging since some of the proposed destinations are not frequented by tourists and even the people with whom we made enquiries knew very little about them in terms of correct route, road conditions etc..

So we decided to take things one place on the route at a time. We were still in Assam and the first place to reach at was Tinsukiya. This was really straight forward since Tinsukiya is a major town / city in Assam and falls on the national high way. The road was good and ran along railway line. I was able to maintain fairly good speed. On both sides of the road were tea estates. As far as one could see there were tea shrubs all of the same height as if it were a green shawl worn by the mother earth.

We entered a Tea Estate, Ahmadi Tea Estate, and spoke to the staff there. This was a 120 acres tea estate. An aged employee told us that the present owners are the fourth generation of the family who started this business! About 1MT of tea leaves are sent to the factory every day. The entire tea garden is divided in seven parts and one part is harvested everyday of the week.   There are 51 laborers, all women, employed for plucking the tea leaves. A mature tree shrub stays yielding for a period of 60 to 70 years under normal care however now a days the shrubs are replaced every 50 years. It takes about 3 to 4 years to cultivate a yielding tea shrub which is done using a green twig of an existing shrub. Mr. Kukul Gogoi gave us a lot of information which I video recorded.

After passing Tinsukiya we started asking directions for Parshuram Kund. We crossed the railway line at Dum Duma and started travelling towards Arunachal Pradesh.

The Border Roads Organization has built beautiful roads from Dum Duma through Makim & Dangori. We were travelling at a very brisk pace now and entered Arunachal Pradesh at 13:00 hrs. Hereafter the road was narrow and rough. We crossed the bridge over Mohading river and reached Cholipkhamla at about 14:00 hrs, where we had something to eat at a way side eatery – some daal chawal and noodles. The roadside eateries are very basic in these parts.

After the quick bite we moved on. The road was passing through thick forest. It was all enchanting beauty around us. There was very little traffic and the road was deserted. Villages and villagers walking the street were far and few as if we were getting cutoff from civilization. After a few kilometres we started seeing the outlines of mountains ahead of us and within a short time we entered the hilly region.

We reached Parshuram Kund at about 16:00 hrs. This is not a “kund” that one would perceive. The entire area is very clean. There are three temples. Concrete steps lead you first up and then down at a steep gradient to the flowing river and that’s the Kund. Phadke Ajoba decided not to come up to the river. There was not a soul other than Raka, Raju, myself, and the rapidly flowing river Lohit. Though the mighty river was roaring past the steps of the Kund, there was stillness. Honestly I am unable to express what I was experiencing so let us just leave it at that, shall we?

Now a little about the legend; the story goes that Sage Parshuram beheaded his mother at the orders of his father, Jamadagni. When Sage Jamadagni asked him to ask for a boon Sage Parshuram asked his mother to be brought to life again without the memory of Parshuram having beheaded her and so Sage Parshuram’s mother, Renuka Mata came to life again. However Sage Parshuram had still committed the sin of killing his mother and hence the Parshu with which he had beheaded his mother stuck to his hands. Sage Jamadagni asked Sage Parshuram to undertake a pilgrimage to wash his sins. When Sage Parshuram came to this place the Parshu dropped from his hand. Water flowed out of the place where the Parshu fell which turned red because of the blood on it and this became the river Lohit.

It was 17:30 hrs by the time we came back from the river to the temples. The priest gave us some tea. By the time we left Parshuram Kund it was past 18:30 hours. From here we proceeded towards Tezu. It had become pitch dark. Just look at this combination – having travelled thousands of kilometres continuously for fifteen days away to a region completely unknown to us, narrow and rough roads, hilly area, not a soul on the road for kilometres together, forest all around us, complete darkness all around us, only the headlights of the car showing us the way, no other sound but that of our car engine …..How does it feel….eerie? No, not for us, we were enjoying every moment, absorbing and internalizing each experience.

We reached Tezu at 20:30 hrs and tried to find accommodation at the Circuit House but were told it was full. We now had a situation here. Although Tezu is the number two towns in Arunachal Pradesh it is still a small place. The place closes down early. No hotel was open. We were quite tired and hungry too. After making some enquiries we headed for the inspection bungalow (IB). After booking two rooms here, we asked the person at IB to guide us some place where we could eat even before unloading our luggage. The man came with us to show us to Hotel Nancy. We ordered some noodles and stuffed parotha and as the food was being readied spoke to the manager there who gave us some valuable inputs on our journey ahead.

After a meal we came back to the IB and entered the room. There are only two buckets full of water kept in the bath room and no running water on the tap. It is very hot and sultry and we are sweating profusely. The fan in the room is not working properly. There are cockroaches roaming around in the room and an onslaught of mosquitoes. Even the mosquito repellent cream is of no help. Let us see how the night passes off and if I can get even a wink of sleep!

Bye for now.

May 19, 2011

Last night was bad. The heat and the brutal attack of mosquitoes did not allow me to sleep for till past midnight though I was quite tired. To add to the woes the power tripped some time after mid night. I was able to sleep sometime early in the morning out of sheer fatigue and woke up at about 06:00 hrs. There was no water available so could not bathe. Left the IB at about 06:45 hrs. Refuelled the car, The odometer read 5012 Km. We started on our way to Walong and Dong.

We had our first cup of tea of the day at a village called Huangum at about 07:45 hrs. It was an uphill journey with narrow winding roads. The road conditions progressively became worse. The road was with blind hairpin curves and the terrain was difficult and a test of one’s driving skills particularly when in a convoy. There was enchanting beauty of the lush green mountains around us with waterfalls and streams. We were trying to capture as much beauty as we could on our cameras. It is worth noting here that as we were making enquiries about the route we realized that not many people, not even the locals, knew much about the places like Dong & China border that we wanted to visit.

We were travelling alongside the river Tullu. Some of the mountain tops had some snow even in this season.

We reached a place called Hyuliang. Our average speed was less than 25 kmph! We made some enquiries about the route to Dong and proceeded to reach Hawaii at about 16:30 hrs. We decided to halt here for the night. The weather was good. The only place to stay here was the IB or the circuit house.

We got rooms at the circuit house. The accommodation here is good. The rooms are spacious and clean. There is no problem of water. The care takers here have told us that there is no power problem either. The problem is that there is no mobile connectivity on networks other than BSNL, even my data card does not work here. So this post of mine is going to reach you late.

I am going to bed now. Bye and see you here as soon as I get internet connectivity!

May 20, 2011

Hi,

I slept very well last night and woke up at 07:15 hrs this morning. There was tea in the morning as soon as I woke up was very good.

The weather was very cloudy and it had started to drizzle. We were experiencing rainy season after the summer of Maharashtra, Andhra and Assam. Today we were going to reach an important mile stone of the trip. We were going to reach Walong, then Dong. The last minute entry destination was the Indo-China Border, the MacMohan Line, if possible. This is the easternmost EXTREME of the country up to where a civilian can reach.

We had breakfast and left the circuit house at Hawaii at 09:00 hr. Hawaii is actually 8 km off the Tezu – Walong road. We reached Chuwanti to join the Tezu – Walong road. Walong is about 50 km away from Chuwanti. Walong is the last village of North Eastern EXTREME of the country. Beyond Walong up to the border there are only 3 / 4 small hamlets or Basti of 3 / 4 huts each. In fact Dong, which is about five km away from Walong is also one such basti.

The road was very very narrow and completely broken for long stretch because of landslides and powerful waterfalls turning in to rapidly flowing streams on the road. The terrain was very difficult to drive on and one needed utmost concentration and skill to manoeuvre one’s way on this winding road with blind curves at every step. There was no traffic other than that of Indian army trucks. If there was to be an oncoming vehicle then one of the vehicles had to go off the road. There were only the lush green mountains with many waterfalls surrounding us. It was drizzling all throughout the drive. We reached Walong at about 12:00 hrs. The average speed was about 20 kmph!

The plan was to check in to the IB or Circuit House at Walong, go to the Indo-China border which is about another 50 kms away from here, come back by 16:00 hrs or so, then sleep early and then go to the sun rise point near Dong, a hamlet 5 kms away from Walong tomorrow. It is said that it is at Dong that the sunrises for the first time in India and the sunrise can be seen from a point atop a hill. One needs to trek for about 3 / 4 km to reach this sunrise point. So we had decided that we would leave the circuit house in Walong at about 01:30 / 02:00 hrs so as to reach this point in time to see the sun rise.

At Walong we met the circle officer Mr. Vimal and went with him to the circuit house. He was very courteous and offered us all help. He said that he would arrange for a local guide to take us to the sunrise point. However, he said that given the weather, which was cloudy and it was raining as well, we will not be able to see the sun rise at all and all our effort of trekking up to the sunrise point would go a waste. So we decided drop the plan of going to the sunrise point and to visit the Indi-China border which is another 50 km away from here and drive back to Hawaii by evening. We were told that we had to go up to a place called Kibithu, which is the army base and Indian border, and from here we would be shown the China Border through a binocular which we could see only if the weather were to be clear.

We started driving towards Kibuthu. We could not reach Kubuthu since the road was completely blocked because of landslide. We were advised by an army truck driver not to take the risk of trying to find a way through the blockage. We took the advice of this experienced man but drove up this road blockage which was just 5 kms away from Kibuthu. So near yet so far! We all were a little disappointed but were happy as well since we could at least reach up to this point beyond the last village of the North East – the North Eastern EXTREME.

As a matter of fact the plan made in Mumbai before we set off on this journey  was to reach only up to the last village Walong; the MacMohan Line was last minute add on after we reached Tezu! 

We turned from here and came back to Walong. We visited the war memorial constructed in memory of the martyrs of the 1962 Indo-China war which they fought valiantly. In that war the Chinese tried to capture the Indian Territory up to Walong. Our brave army fought for 22 days without being suitably equipped; they did not have tents, suitable footwear and warm clothing, adequate ammunition. These brave men protected the border and prevented the Chinese from capturing this part of our country. This was called the battle of Walong in which about 4000 Chinese soldiers were killed and 400 of Indian army men were martyred. We paid our respects here and started back on our journey to Hawaii.

We reached Hawaii Circuit house at 17:30 hrs. I drove fairly fast on the way back!

We shall attempt to reach Roing by tomorrow evening. Bye till then!

May 21, 2011

Hello there, Namaskaar,

Today was a special day for the crew of tour EXTREME. It was Phadke Ajoba’s THIRTY NINETH wedding anniversary. The day began with wishing Phadke Ajoba a very happy wedding anniversary and many many happy returns of the day.

We left the circuit house at Hawaii at 09:15 hrs. This was going to be a drive back to Tezu. I wanted to cover this distance as quickly as possible and attempt reaching Roing by late evening.

The monsoon seemed to have set in over Arunachal and we had to think very seriously as to whether we should be doing the destinations that were on the agenda or to drop some of them in view of the weather conditions prevailing in those regions. Phadke Ajoba had almost made up his mind about dropping certain places but I was of the opinion that we should take this call once we reached Tezu after talking to a friend we had made there, Mr. Kri, a young boy still studying in college and the owner of the restaurant where we had eaten while going to Walong.

So we began our journey. It appeared that it had rained very heavily over the past couple of days in this region. The road conditions had worsened dramatically. Again there were long patches of completely broken narrow winding roads allowing hardly one vehicle to pass at a time, with sharp hairpin bends, mud and slush, streams flowing on the road. It was really tough driving in these conditions and a test of driving skills. It was cloudy and drizzling, at times raining heavily. But all this was more than counter balanced by the beauty of the blue and green misty mountains all around us and the thick jungle through which the road was passing. Another thing worth mentioning here is that we saw many buffalo like animals but much larger stronger and very much more ferocious looking. They looked almost like Bison. Later Raju was reading out something from the material that we had collected on Arunachal, which read that there are a species of “large mammal called Mithun is a majestic animal which is indigenous to the state”.  I have a feeling that it is the Mithuns that we saw but I am not too sure. I have taken a video of these animals and maybe I can confirm this by showing it to somebody here.   

One observation which I would like to make here is that the local people as in the natives (or maybe the native tribals) are really not very comfortable interacting with unknown visitors. They are a little skeptical, look at you with, may I say, suspicion (?), on the way we saw a tribal lady and her companion were walking on the road. We were cruising at a slow pace on account of the bad roads. The old lady’s young companion was walking a little ahead of the old lady. Seeing our car she moved to the edge of the road and stopped. I could distinctly see she was scared! The old lady had those distinct tribal features and was walking quite briskly smoking a cigarette. I thought of taking a photograph of the lady so I suggested to Raju that he could go to the lady ask her permission a take a picture. I stopped the car and Raju got out of the car with his camera. Now I could see fear in the eyes of the younger companion of the old lady and she was ready to flee. Raju approached the old lady and tried to speak / communicate with her. The old lady stepped aside and drew out a large sharp knife, which almost everybody here carries with him, from its sheath and walked away briskly almost breaking in to a run. In the meantime, seeing all this, the younger one sprinted in to the forest and disappeared. Raju got in to the car thanking his stars that he was not killed. We moved on.

It was tough manoeuvring the car over stones, debris of landslides, slush, puddles of water, and bushes and shrubs washed down from the mountain by the rain. Added to this I was trying to push the pace. In all this I suddenly hit a stone and after a few minutes I realized that we had a flat. We quickly changed the tyre and proceeded to reach Tezu at about 16:00 hrs. We could not get the puncture fixed but had to put a tube in the tubeless tyre since the tyre had got cut. In doing all this we lost our tyrebolt spanner and the spare tyre fixing bolts which we bought at a local automobile spares shop.

We had lunch (!) at Hotel Nancy where we had eaten the last time we were here. We spoke to our new friend Mr. Kri, the owner of the restaurant. He said that Anini is extremely land slide prone area and one can get stuck for several days in case of a land slide. We now decided to drop Anini, and Along from our destination list and decided to proceed directly to Passighat tomorrow. By now it was 17:30 hrs and there was no point in proceeding further. Mr. Kri helped us to get accommodation at the circuit house here. Now we will have dinner and retire for the day.

Today we have internet and mobile connectivity and hence I will upload my blog after dinner. Raka has already uploaded the photographs on his facebook account.

Bye for now and see you here again tomorrow, of course subject to connectivity. Bye!