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 4th 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 29th 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.
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