arunachal pradesh

place: bhalukpong, bomdila, dirang, jang, tawang
district: west kameng, tawang
state: arunachal pradesh

location: tawang is some 350 km from tezpur via shuttle or bus

average cost per head: coming soon (in a group of four)

mode of transportation: shuttle, bus

stay: hotel hornbill (bhalukpong), yatri niwas (bomdila, 03782223005), hotel gan chin (tawang, 9436692465, 9436674585)

food: local and continental

fame: culture, tribes, monasteries, wildlife, river kameng, wildlife, himalays, passes, lakes etc

TOUR OPERATORS:

Himalayan Holidays (Tezpur-Bomdila-Tawang) 9436228628, 03794223151, 03794222483 (tawang office), 03782222017 (bomdila office), 9864364153, 9957178796 (tezpur office)
Shangri La Tours and Travels (Bomdila-Tawang, Bomdila-Tezpur) 03782222433, 03782223151, 03782222255, 9402232009, 9402241029

prayer flags: a constant companion

It was the night of 17th October, a night that was never to be but a night which made us realize what “in the middle of a moonlit night” actually was. A night of fervor, a night of chill, passion and I would go on to say my best bight ever. The quaint little town of Bhalukpong was never really in our plan. We were supposed to have headed straight for Bomdila on the morning of 18th but then as fate would have it, due to unavailability of regular shuttle from Tezpur we had to make decisions in haste and landed up in the town of Bhalukpong where a huge concrete head of Mithun, Arunachal’s state animal, welcomed us with its imposing colossal horns. We were told by the driver who had dropped us till there that we would get regular shuttle and buses for Bomdila. It was our folly we believed him but then we hardly had any other option. There was of course no one ready to drop us till Bomdila and we were left stranded in a place where everything was dark and reminiscent of Stone Age. In any case, a trip towards Bomdila, making way through serpentine hill roads, with valleys and ravines plunging deep into heaven didn’t sound good and we better gave it a miss and thought deciding the future of the trip the next morning. We paced ahead for hunting a hotel to hide our heads from the ravaging cold. There were hardly a couple of hotels there and we luckily found one, Hotel Hornbill, named after an exotic bird, the one that had till yet eluded us with its mystic stories and fame. We had countless cups of tea and then set along to scout for alternatives of reaching Bomdila the next morning. But before that we thought of taking an uphill walk. The night, with its expanse of the dark sky, the shining shield of the moon and the lofty hills, gave a surreal feel to our very own existence. We felt we were in a different world altogether. The military man, walking with hurried pace, made us realize of the ground realities, but nothing, absolutely nothing, made us feel, not even once, that we were in a piece of land which China laid claim on. It was every bit of India with beautiful Indians all around. I had fallen in love with Arunachal and it was to grow manifolds in the days to come.

welcome to the land of morning sun: bhalukpong

When every discussion with each shuttle owner and tour operator came to unhealthy conclusions we decided to rope in the help of a hawaldar of Arunachal Police. There was this fat and grumpy man, Mr. Pandey, from Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh (the fact that I am also a native of the same geographical region can’t be overlooked) whom we stalked for help as hapless college students with faces made to appear even worse than the war-ravaged people of Germany post World War II. I don’t know what made some of us register themselves as penniless college students out on a fun tour of the wild Indian hills but it was great fun faking identity. The man, a divine intervention for sure, took pity on us and decided to help, but not before long, out came all the stories he had baked in his heart. He was definitely hell-bent to help us out of the place but then, if you have forgotten, everything comes for a price. He was a lonely man, from the Gangetic plains of Uttar Pradesh who had his family living miles away. He had his tales of surprise, agony, happiness, content and disbelief. He narrated out his heart and we lent a patient ear. He had issues with his elder son, who had married a thick-lipped lady from South Africa, and paid little heed to the sacrifices of the old man. His younger son, studying in an upfront engineering institute had backlogs in his papers and that worried the old man who had plans of opening a school in his native village post retirement. The more he laid out his stories, to four complete strangers, the more conspicuous we became. We did sympathize with the man after all. In a matter of few hours, we knew each other well enough. He knew our villages, our schools, colleges and offices and we knew even his salary. It was getting late in the night so we left for our hotel (relax! the hotel was just on the other side of the road. Bhalukpong is a small town, with shops and hotels lined on a small stretch of the highway with some villages down the valley where a large board proudly gave directions to the Pakke Tiger Reserve) and with a couple of pegs of Vodka slept blissfully in the coy comfort of the narrow bed with Vivek beside me taking a zillion turns every second.

pakke (pakhui) tiger reserve

We woke up early anticipating the planning we had to do and to catch a glimpse of the rising sun but the hills at the distant and almost everywhere else made the sun elusive when it rose. Over cups of tea and a gentle breeze blowing in the Dooars I thought to myself, “Could life had taken a better turn?” and then I was hit hard with reality. The tour operators whom Mr. Pandey had given polite orders the previous night to arrange for our trip to Bomdila refused coldly citing unavailability of seats. Before we could get further disillusioned with the way things were going Mr. Pandey came on the scene, out of his small home, and assured us that he would arrange for something. Over more cups of tea and with a growing uneasiness and anxiety and with posters of Toko Teji nailed all around came the news from Mr. Pandey that he had, at last, arranged for a truck (headed for the McMohan Line) which would give us a lift. We were more than happy and puffed with a sudden splurge of excitement gasping the fact that we would finally be on our way to Bomdila and that too in a truck (besides the uncertainty of the days to come). We couldn’t thank Mr. Pandey any less for his noble efforts and for all what he did. We set off for the headquarters of West Kameng district with the gusto of a teenager.

tipi falls, tipi, west kameng

Arunachal came alive within minutes of the journey. The huge layers of forested hills, arranged one over the another, the wild and fast flowing river Kameng, the deep valleys, the muddy roads, the countless waterfalls, the small sleepy towns passing by, gibbons jumping from one tree to another in a dense clout of jungle on the other bank of the river would stuff excitement even in the weirdest of souls. It was getting too much to handle. The road was a botheration for quite a while since an expansion projection was underway by Border Road Organization (one of the most reputed bodies responsible for making roads in the most inhospitable of conditions and notorious for the road signs that range from salutes to the ones who died making the roads to be careful and cautious on the roads itself). The beauty of the land of many tribes kept unfolding at a leisurely pace. All along the journey, river Kameng was a constant companion. At places it was wide, muddy and looked wild and at others swift, white, rocky and narrow but with an everlasting beauty that would inspire the laziest of person to jump to action. Countless Bailey bridges along the river, hundreds of military outposts (which implies how critical this area is) and thousands of sign posts we left behind before halting at Nag Mandir Bazaar where we had a feisty lunch of local Arunachal food (a simple assortment of roti, dal, omelette, salad and some local vegetable cooked in little oil and spice) followed by a huge peach, the cultivar of which you would never get in the huge cities.

nag mandir bazaar, west kameng

A few miles hence we halted yet again for a dekho of the river Kameng where it had the biggest of the boulders in her belly. The truck journey, a first for us, was both exciting and tiring and after almost six hours we reached our destination for the day, Bomdila. I have no words to describe the beauty of the place. The closer we reached the place the more it looked like a gateway to heaven, the elusive Shangri La, which Arunachal has in abundance. It’s beyond my potential to paint the place with words with all the narrow roads, the multitude of hills of varying height, the hanging clouds, dark and white, the gorges and the constant chill in the air. The approach to Bomdila, I would say, was one of the highlights of the journey. A little drizzle had left the place unexplainably cold. We reached the place by 2 PM and straddling across the curvy roads of the town, which went up and down, finally reached our hotel, Yatri Niwas. Before anything else, we decided to book a vehicle that would take us to Tawang the next day but as expected every tour operator (there were four that I could count) raised their hands helplessly and said a big, “I am sorry. We are booked for the next few weeks.” The ambiguity of going to Tawang the next day mixed with the fact that even if we decided to turn back to Tezpur we would have no vehicle for days and maybe weeks made the whole episode sullen and bleak. But we were optimistic souls and after dousing the anxiety over a cup of tea left for discovering the town, a small one, but really difficult to cover owing to the terrain.

bomdila, 2217m, west kameng

A small gompa (stupa, chorten), which we could see from the road near our hotel, was marked as the destination and since it was about to be dark we hurried our steps. Going around the town, littered with butterflies in hues of the rainbow, birds unknown in the plains, dogs with a rich coat of fur, and the beautiful Monpa people made us realize that life out here is so difficult, so different, so close to nature and so celestial. A small town nestled deep in the lap of the mighty Himalayas, hundreds of miles away from the plains, is surely God’s own place. With heavy breaths and visible tiredness after having scaled the ascent to the stupa we felt blessed for having coming at least this far. The monks served us water in little porcelain cups and I tell you, water never tasted any better. Such innocence, such naivety, such playfulness, such nobility is very rare in the big cities. We retuned back to our hotel and since it was already dark we decided to dine at the best restaurant out there that would serve us authentic Arunachal food and settled for Hotel Tsepal Yangjom where we had thupka (a noodle dish with much gravy and enough to fill your stomach), manchow soup, rice and chicken manchurian. We asked the waiter if he could help arrange a vehicle for Tawang the next morning to which he gave an ambiguous reply, “I will try arranging some.” That did give us some solace and before retiring to our hotel for what we thought would be the last night at Arunachal gave our last words to the hotel manager, “It would be very kind if you could arrange something.”

(prashant) on the rocks! river kameng

Disillusioned despite the pleasure we had for the day we got into the comforts of our blanket and readied for sleep with just one peg of Antiquity Blue. It just wasn’t the right time to celebrate with rivers full of alcohol. A huge knock on the door made us jump on our feet. You certainly don’t expect guests, late in the night, in a stranger city and that too in the middle of Himalayas. We opened the door and in came a man, short and fair, with two mobile totting guys behind him. He told us he had been sent by the hotel manager who was his brother-in-law and that he was there to help us arrange a vehicle. To our dismay he continued with his blabber for the next half an hour saying how honest and god fearing he was and that he had a baby boy and a god-fearing wife whom he wouldn’t be able to show his face if at all he cheats helpless tourists. Without our approval he went on with his stories of how he charged nominal, that his Suzuki Eeon was brand new, just fifteen days old and how he would double up as a guide and show us every landmark place between Bomdila and Tawang including the Dirang hot spring, Sela Pass, Paradise Lake, War Memorial at Jaswant Garh and Nuranang Falls. He said he had this good habit of waking up early in the morning and circling the local gompa and that we could trust him and the price he would quote would be nominal, which was obviously, according to him, disregarding the fact that we were stranded tourists looking for a way out. He said he was notorious in the area as Chota Don and that people were afraid of him and that he was a true Monpa, fearless, god-fearing and honest. And finally when he came with his right price we all looked for cover. For a journey till Tawang he asked for 8000 bucks and when we said we had to return to Tezpur too he was quick to add another 5000. So for a journey from Bomdila to Tawang and back to Tezpur he wanted 13,000 bucks which would otherwise cost us not more than 5000. We were left speechless and told him we would let him know the next morning. The moment he left with his heavy rants of God, honesty and the Monpas, which still echoed in our ears, we gave a hearty laugh at our agony.

dirang valley, west kameng

The next morning we again woke up early, this time not for the rising sun but to linger around the tour operator’s office to ensure he arranges for some seat to Tawang. But everyone had the same clichéd answer, “It’s just next to impossible to arrange for a group of four. If at all anyone doesn’t show up it would still be a couple of seats and not four.” After much effort and wait, when most of the vehicles left for Tawang, fully loaded with all the passengers turning up, we decided to go and have a cup of tea and plan for the return journey whose prospects looked as bleak as anything else. We were, at that time, the four saddest people on earth. Things looked lost and forlorn and the very thought that we would miss so much gave us goosebumps. But then as fate would have it, amidst the entire petrol, cash and vehicle crisis, a local Omni driver, who had come for refueling, came to our rescue. The tour operator (Shangri La Tours and Travelers) was kind enough to fix the Omni for us and even went around looking for us after we had left for another cup of morning tea to douse the misery of having messed up everything. Our excitement knew no bounds at the godly news. We rushed to our hotels, packed our luggage and off for the holy town of Tawang which was in news on the onset of the year for the 14th Dalai Lama’s visit to Tawang monastery. His visit was a political message of sorts for China, that he very much considered Tawang, and the whole of Arunachal for that matter, a part of India. A few miles ahead, still in disbelief that we were actually heading for Tawang, we saw the mighty massif of Gorichen, housing the highest peaks of the state. The road was bad and dangerous but we had the will of iron and continued amidst beauty and a road lined with hillocks on one side and deep plunging valleys on the other.

bomdila, west kamneg

The first stop was the hot spring at Dirang but more than that I loved the Dirang Valley, all green and tempting and could see many campers there near the Dirang River. We had our breakfast at the town of Dirang and for a change the ATM was working fine there unlike at Bomdila. We headed further deep and high into the lap of the mighty mountain range and wherever we laid our eyes we could see eternal bliss including butterflies, birds, rivers, valleys, forested hills, and tribesmen in their strange dresses but with an ever smiling face. The man behind the steering was a thorough gentleman who helped me remember the hotel we had booked. My phone wasn’t working so I had no idea how to contact the hotel owner and confirm of our arrival plus I wasn’t getting the paper were I had written the name of the hotel. Bypassing some of the most stunning views I had ever seen in my life and many a munching herd of yaks we reached Sela Pass, the highest motorable road in North East. It was the first time ever I had been beyond 4000 m and the feeling gave me a high.

nuranang (jang) falls, jang, tawang

The roads looked more treacherous than ever before and we even saw the remains of a truck that had met a sad fate last year. There was a marked change in the hill topography with the rocks covered in colorful mosses and lichens and the air becoming thinner and to top it all, to our ultimate surprise, it began to snow. Yes, the 19th of October, it was the first snow of the season at Sela and my first ever. We jumped out of our car and couldn’t control our excitement and like kids left to play after the rigors of tuitions played and frolicked in the snow and the blowing cold wind. I took off my shirt and with just a vest on my body pranced around and could hear the aunties from my home state Bengal quip with anger, “Chele ta ke dekh, koto osobbho. Thanda lege gele bujhbe. Aaj kal kar chele ra! Shudu style.” (Look at that guy? How silly! He will understand when he catches cold. The guys of today! Too much style) There was a small gompa and an equally small shop nearby which served tea, maggi and other confectionery items. The beautiful lady owner was visibly upset over the sudden splurge of tourists who had come inside to protect them from the snow. We had countless cups of tea and when the wait for the obscure maggi became longer decided to move on with the displeased owner constantly shouting at the tourists to maintain discipline inside her shop and not taking eatables without her permission.

gorichen massif, as seen from bomdila

Just beyond the pass was Lake Paradise, one of the highest lakes in India and strikingly beautiful. The landscape changed as we went downhill with colorful coniferous trees replacing the evergreen mixed forests and the rivers becoming violent and rocky and more waterfalls along the route. We soon crossed the famed Jaswant Garh war memorial, erected to honor a brave soldier (Jaswant Singh Rawat) who was martyred in the 1962 Indo-Sino war and then the wait began for the ultimate adrenaline raiser, the Nuranang Falls, alternatively known as the Jang falls, located some miles off the town of Jang. It had come out of its oblivion in the year 1991 when a song of the movie Koyla was shot at the fall (and at the nearby Sangetser Lake).

sela pass, 4177m, the highest i have been so far

The terrain became rugged and forested again with much the same scenery we had left almost 350 km behind. It was getting darker and we waited with arrested breath for the fall and when it finally came we were left in awe. It was a sheer beauty, a gorge of water falling from a height no less than 300 ft and leaving a much higher imprint in our minds. Though we were in great hurry we did stop at the fall for quite a while and every single glance made us wonder how God has blessed this world with so much of plenty. We moved on and sometime later at a sharp turn we saw the first glimpse of the world’s second largest monastery and not before long, just before dusk, we reached our abode for the night, hotel Gang Chin in Old Market, Tawang. A local festival celebrating Dussehra was in full flow and they were serving butter tea and some snacks for free. The ATMs weren’t working in the city and there were long lines at STD booths and restaurants. We had yak momos for dinner and decided to participate in the road show which showcased an assortment of cultural fest from across Arunachal and Assam including the yak dance, a Bodo dance, a shawl dance, fashion show with wooden masks et al. It was great fun, a heady mix of global and local, of traditional and contemporary and to top it all, the MLA of the area was also there mixing with the crowd and handing away prizes as common as a slip draw. It was quite late when we went to sleep with a glass of brandy and woke fresh the next day for a trip to Tawang monastery and local sightseeing.

coniferous forests beyond sela pass

The monastery was really amazing, huge and colorful and markedly ancient with huge carpets hung on the wall, beautiful Buddhist motifs everywhere and the cylindrical bells that I had always wanted to churn around. A swarm of little monks, robed in red, came out running from the main temple and lined for breakfast. We too went inside the kitchen and asked to be served and they very much obliged. A visit to Urgelling Monastery, the birthplace of the 6th Dalai Lama and a war memorial rounded our trip after which began the most crucial part, the haggle for the return journey. Much like at every point of our journey in the Himalayan state we went around the town looking for alternatives but nowhere it seemed a viable option with reserved vehicles asking for as much as 17,000 bucks. We had our train to Kolkata the very next day from Guwahati so we had to, any cost, set forth today itself. After much struggle we got three seats (from much help of Himalayan Holidays) in an SUV which needed some urgent repair so we had to wait. The wait got longer and just when we started losing hope came the news that the car was ready. Finally, after much wait and with feelings mixed with anger, disinterest and indifference we headed for Tezpur and not before long the car had its breaks coming down and we had to wait for another couple of hours at Zero Point, Jang for our journey to resume. The driver had his hands bandaged and his pain was visible and with night falling quick and temperatures dropping considerably beyond Sela Pass he had to down his pain with a couple of pegs. It was an anxious night of uncertainty. We had our dinner at some dhaba in the dead of night and when it was obvious that the drunk driver would in no way be able to drive through the dangerous Himalayan roads any further we had to scout for another driver and luckily for us we got one in a car parked behind us at the dhaba. He was a minor but then he was the only one whom we could trust under such precarious condition because we had to move on lest we miss our train.

tawang monastery, tawang

It was around 2 in the night when we came across a huge traffic jam and the news that a landslide had occurred some feet away was yet another in the line of events our journey had so far shown us. The army had decided to blast the landslide and had requested me and Prashant to tell every vehicle in the hundred mile long line to push their vehicles back but the sleepy drivers paid no heed to our shouts so we decided to sit beside a waterfall and stare at the naked moon with dark spots and thought Arunachal was much the same. We moved ahead when the landslide cleared and with a sleepless night saw the dawn of a new day, our last day in the North East, at the Tipi falls, not far away from Bhalukpong. Moments later, we halted at the border town for tea, met and thanked Mr. Pandey for his help and moved on. We reached Guwahati, checked in a hotel, rested for a while, went to the zoo, a beautiful one, had dinner at a posh restaurant and finally two hours before midnight went to the station for our train that would mark the end of a journey, a wonderful one at that, to a conclusive end.

monks at tawang monastery

Despite all the ups and downs of the journey, despite all the uncertainty, despite all the anxiety, it was certainly the longest and most memorable journey of my life so far. I made new friends and got closer to the ones I had. Learnt so much about two most wonderful states of India, met people on the way who made me realize that it’s ultimately one big family we are all a part of. It’s one big beautiful world which has so much beauty to offer, to suffice for a lifetime and to protect which is the duty of every single soul. Till my next journey, this is Vivek Singh, signing off, and wanderlust till doomsday!

assam revisited

place: guwahati, tezpur, orang
district: kamrup, darrang, udalguri, sonitpur
state: assam

location: some 1000-1200 km from kolkata via train and NH 52

average cost per head: Rs 3000 per head (approx)

mode of transportation: train (general), shared auto, bus

stay: hotel aroma (guwahati, non ac room), hotel durba (tezpur, non ac room)

food: continental and local

fame: culture, rural assam, guwahati, wildlife, brahmaputra etc

a shot taken at RGONP

My parents had left for Deoria the very last day and I had thus stayed put at my didi’s home. It was around 6 in the morning of 12^th October when I got a call from my younger sister saying that someone had picked up mom’s purse from the train and since it also had dad’s wallet inside all of his important identity cards and plastic money met a sad demise. I was told to call the multiple banks and get his cards locked which I painfully and groggily did. I was anyway supposed to wake up an hour later to book tatkal tickets from Howrah to Guwahati because our original ticket hadn’t been confirmed yet. It was just two days for the holidays of Durga puja to begin and four of us would embark on a journey that would remain etched in our minds for ages to come. It wasn’t even a month back when I and my namesake friend Vivek decided to spend the puja holidays far away from home. We had many places in our mind. First it was the waterfalls and the jungles of Jharkhand, then the Buddhist sites of Bihar and finally the abundance of Assam and the impressive heavenly abode of Arunachal. Sushobhan, a blogger friend from the company I work for and Prashant, introduced by Sushobhan, were the other two who agreed to join us.

durga puja at guwahati, assam

We had our tickets confirmed for the return journey that was on 21^st October but the unconfirmed ticket from Howrah to Guwahati was like a bone stuck in the throat. We had a zillion alternatives but none looked feasible enough considering our financial instability and time deadlock. Booking a tatkal ticket is always a headache in a thickly populated country like ours and more so when you are a lazy bum who has no world beyond the internet. IRCTC is notorious for hanging at the peak hour, around 8 in the morning, and considering the luck of a street dog I almost always have I nevertheless tried for booking tatkal tickets online or else we had made up our minds for an ass-blasting journey of almost 1000 km in the general compartment of a filthy train. For a change, my stars changed their positions and after much haggling, I could confirm four tatkal tickets. That the train was weekly and would be vermin infested didn’t put us on back foot. Two days hence I bid adieu to my didi and jijaji promising not to be going anywhere close to a deep valley and took an auto to Karunamoyee where I met Sushobhan and Prashant. Vivek joined us at Howrah station’s Food Plaza, a favorite hangout for comfort seekers like us.

haggling for the Inner Line Permit at guwahati

Our train was a couple of hours late but finally when it started we sighed relief but not for long. The train was terribly dirty with ticketless passengers hiding beneath the seats, rolling on the alley and even stuffed inside the washroom. The next morning, even before the sun could shine brightly in the October Sky, we reached the beautiful city of Guwahati, the largest city in the whole of north east India. I had come to the city last year and was mighty pleased at its expanse and modernity and even this time the city didn’t fail to impress with its stupendous growth. We left for the bustling market area of Pan Bazaar, adjacent to the railway station, and booked a single room at Hotel Aroma. The biggest concern was our missing ILPs, a silly slip furnished by Arunachal state government office without which we couldn’t travel to the Himalayan state which is claimed by our mighty neighbor China as a part of Tibet. The office in Kolkata where we could have got the same stays closed during weekends so getting it made there wasn’t possible (office man!) and sadly for us, the realization that government offices in Assam (much like everywhere else) stay closed during Durga puja dawned very late. We were disillusioned and looked for hurried alternatives. It was a Friday and the heat was getting unbearable. We looked around for people who could direct us till the place where we could go and check with our own eyes if the offices were really closed for the day. In a potpourri of directions that ranged from “go straight” to “take a right turn, then turn left and then again right” we actually reached Nagaland Bhawan which was closed but a heavily drunken man at the gate did help us with directions to Arunachal Bhawan but with a note that it would stay closed and it was pointless wasting our energy in this heat.

the island houses the uma nanda temple

I wasn’t feeling like taking one step ahead under such adversity. Meghalaya was a good alternative but I had been there before. Am sure it would have been no less of an experience for the other three but still, the very thought of missing out on Arunachal gave me goosebumps and nausea. Nonetheless, we moved ahead looking for Arunachal Bhawan and finally when we reached there and found it open our surprise and excitement knew no bounds. It was a holiday for sure so we had to bribe the man at the counter to get our ILPs ready that day itself. He wanted us to collect it on Monday but we obviously would be in a different city then and thus it wasn’t just possible. Thankfully we had our documents and photographs ready and it was only a matter of half an hour before our ILPs were ready and we returned on the roads happy and satisfied.

sunset over the mighty brahmaputra

Now that the major obstacle was cleared we headed for the Uma Nanda temple, located on Peacock Island in the middle of the mighty Brahmaputra. It was already dusk by the time we reached the temple. We climbed over a heap of rotting banana leaves to get a view that I would safely say was the most unparalleled in the whole of Guwahati. The boat journey was awesome and the view of the hills and the river from the ghat was very pleasant to say the least. The temple was beautiful albeit small and though originally started as a Shiva temple got converted to a Vishnu temple. My friends next insisted on going to Kamakhya but it was already dark so we thought going there the next day, early in the morning, before heading for Tezpur. Because of the time lost in getting the ILP the plan for Deepor Beel was dropped. That night, we walked for quite some mile to return to our hotel with a bottle of Breezer, a good substitute for cold drinks and a reminiscent of better days to come.

dining out at domino's pizza

The next day, 16^th October and a Saturday, we set off for the holy shakti peetha of Kamakhya located atop the Neelanchal hills. It was pre-decided that we would climb the hill and that we just did. En-route we encountered a huge spider, the biggest I had seen so far and some breathtakingly beautiful scenery of Guwahati with a sudden drizzle interrupting our ascent. The climb wasn’t difficult at all and is a daily routine for many I could see. We hadn’t even reached the main gate of the temple when it started raining heavily and we had to take shelter at the shops lined in tens and hundreds. It seemed the rain would never stop and in the process my phone also took a shower and went kaput for the rest of the journey. I could see people taking goats for sacrifice and thought what good it did for them. The rain stopped and Vivek and I went inside the temple for darshan while the other two waited outside (pseudo-atheists). We had our breakfast at a South Indian restaurant where the masala dosa was pathetically bland. A group of people struggling with buffaloes for sacrifice passed by and that again made me thoughtful. We hired a car which dropped us till the base of the hill from where another bus packed with people, dripping with water, dropped us till our hotel.

rajiv gandhi orang national park, orang

We got ourselves ready and left for Tezpur. A middle aged man outside our hotel was kind enough to tell us that an Omni could drop us till our destination and when asked how much would he charge he was quick to reply, “Sosta podega saabji. Sirf 4000 rupiya!” We paced our steps and decided for the state bus instead. The wait at the Pan Bazaar bus stop was annoying and it wasn’t before a couple of hours that we reached another bus stop in the outskirts of the city where an ASTC bus would take us to Tezpur. I had thought the route would be via Nagaon but they crossed the Saraighat Bridge and took the north bank route (NH 52) via Mangaldoi, Dalgaon, Rowta, Orang and Dhekiajuli. It was a long journey of almost five hours and by the time we reached Tezpur, the headquarters of Sonitpur district, it was quite late in the night. The bus journey was definitely amazing. The time spent with friends with no botheration of the hours to come, of waking up early in the morning for the shuttle from Bally till office, the constant pestering by family members, the umpteen tasks assigned at weekdays and the hapless wait for Friday made me feel really good. The bus was quite comfortable and ulti-baba Sushobhan was feeling better after a stomach upset in the afternoon and with his neck cringed like a crane was sleeping peacefully. Vivek, sitting beside him, was lost in a faraway land. Prashant and I talked of bodybuilding and how adventure gave both of us a high. Amidst all this, the bus came to a halt at Orang. It is famed for the Orang National Park (located some miles away form the stop). We had tea and talked of the days to come. Roy’s proposal of spending the night at Orang itself in some local hut was quenched outright. The bus resumed its journey and going past the line of small shops selling festival sweets and balloons we finally came to Tezpur. I had expected it to be a big city but it disappointed me. We looked for hotels everywhere and finally with the help of a local lad got a room at hotel Durba. It was a night of festivity and we had enough of vodka and whiskey to drown the tiredness of the day and woke up fresh on the Sunday morning of 17^th October.

lush green fields, sonitpur district

The fresh morning air and the fact that we weren’t heading for the concrete jungle but the real jungle gave us a high. The feeling of sipping hot tea in the chill of sunrise and so far away from home was really amazing. We hired an auto, then a bus and then again an auto and after a journey of some one and a half hour reached the main gate of Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park. To our ultimate horror we found the park was closed and would open on November 1. We tried to convince the keeper to let us in for a while but then it wasn’t a zoo. They weren’t supposed to pay heed to our rants of, “we have come from so far away” and “we have come with high hopes. Please don’t disappoint us.” The park looked inviting but we had to turn back.

the himalayas at the horizon

The worst thing was that the next vehicle we could get of any type would be 5 km away but we had the whole day with us. Prashant and Sushobhan had already moved ahead and we paced slowly behind them taking pictures and assuaging ourselves with the fact that the walk in itself was beautiful. I was disappointed for sure but then there was hardly anything I could do. We had plans for Pobitora, Laokhowa and Burachapori but none of them looked likely now. We kept walking and thinking what would happen next. The mighty Himalayas seen at the distance with peaks covered with floating clouds and resembling snow looked angelic and alluring. The green paddy fields for miles and miles dotted by small ponds, playful children on the streets and sleepy little villages with humble people residing wasn’t less of a journey in itself. We walked for a while and took a lift from a biker who said he worked at the park as a driver. We showed our two friends a thumbs down the minute we zoomed ahead of them. The biker dropped us at a market place from where we could get an auto to the main road. We waited for the other two but when even after a wait of around two hours they didn’t turn up we got frenzied and since none of us had our phones working we had to employ various techniques to get their telephone number. We had no idea where those two guys had gotten lost. We wanted to assure ourselves they were alright and alive. Finally we got Prashant’s number (a long story) and we got to know that they, after having waited at the main road for quite some time, had left for Tezpur. We shelved our plans for the day and took an auto and then a bus back to the town of Tezpur. The other two had reached early and were quick to announce that not one vehicle was free and ready to drop us till Bomdila the next morning.

walking away from rajiv gandhi orang national park

We went around the city looking for alternatives. The only way out was to reserve a SUV which would cost us just about anything. It was the beginning of the tourist season and vehicles plying on mountain roads are very limited and all booked well in advance. I had been a fool not to realize it and had it not been the constant reminder of a friend I wouldn’t have booked the hotel rooms either. We had rooms booked at Bomdila and Tawang but we just couldn’t think how we would reach there in the first place. Everything was going unplanned and we were missing out on so many things. The whole of today was already wasted to say so and we were all tired. Prashant though had talked with a person who said he could drop us till Bhalukpong, a sleepy little town on the Assam-Arunachal border from where we could take a bus or a SUV till Bomdila and for that he would charge 1400 bucks. We had no way out. We had to move forth and we decided to leave Tezpur that day itself. We packed our bags, checked out of the hotel and off for the border. Night was falling quick and within a couple of hours, bypassing stretches of bad road, expanses of  barren land and via the stunning Nameri National Park finally reached the doorway to heaven, Arunachal Pradesh. The driver insisted we pay him more considering how bad the road was but then for a distance as little as 70 km, Rs 1400 in itself was too big a deal.

mystic, majesty, marvel: assam

The journey was eclectic and wonderful and the darkness spread outside made me realize that civilization is both beautiful and a nuisance. The setting sun, spreading its multiple hues across the barren sky and the distant horizon, inviting and colorful, with the prospects of a day, untold and raw, made us go berserk and the next few days spent in Arunachal redefined our souls like never before. Love you Assam, Love you India for being so divine, so plentiful and so diverse.

santiniketan

place: santiniketan
district: birbhum

state: west bengal

location: some 180 km from kolkata via NH 2 and NH 2B

average cost per head: rs 1000 (in a group of two)

mode of transportation: train (general)

stay: hotel santiniketan lodge (non ac room, rs 300 for double bed occupancy)

food: local bengali cuisine at a restaurant

fame: tagore, rural bengal, viswa bharati university, khoai, santhals

route map

“Mighty heavens! It’s already 1 am and within four hours I will have to leave for Howrah station” saying this I switched off my computer after having posted a competition blog and went off to sleep. It was a Friday and sleeping late was usual but today was different. My namesake and friend Vivek and I had planned to visit Santiniketan. We had to take the Gandevta Express at 6.05 hrs from Howrah station so we had to leave for Howrah (some 5 km from my home in Liluah) at around 5.30 hrs.

village at santiniketan

I woke up at 4 hrs and after packing my bag and refreshing got ready by 5 hrs and gave Vivek a call. It was still dark outside on the road and a little cold. Huge trucks passed by and some stars still twinkled and after a wait of a while I finally got hold of a rickshaw which I hired till Vivek’s place because he was still bathing and would take time. I reached his place, had a warm cup of tea (bliss) and left for the Liluah station in the same rickshaw whom I had told to wait. It was 5.35 hrs by the time we reached Liluah station and bought tickets for Santiniketan via Howrah (94 bucks). We reached Howrah at the nick of time and our scheduled train was thankfully on the next platform and about to leave in a while. The ignorant we scanned the entire length of the train for the general bogie not knowing that almost the whole of it was general. We thankfully got one seat which we shared. The train journey was great fun. The green paddy fields with the blue sky above gave a pleasant feel and before it was 9 hrs we reached Bolpur station in Birbhum district, a few minutes after having crossed the demarcating river of Ajay on a bridge. A baul singer had just mesmerized us with his songs.

what was the train's name?

The station looked great and much like my earlier visit to unknown and faraway places this one too gripped me with a passion so deep that a smile came on my face. I have always imagined and painted places in my mind and the fun of seeing them in real and comparing the two pictures is so much great fun. We got a rickshaw and told him to take us to a hotel. We booked one on the main road and coincidentally the road was named Santiniketan main road and the hotel, Santiniketan lodge.

taking notes

The hotel was cheap (300 bucks) but very clean and comfortable. We rested for a while and off for sightseeing. We walked for a while in search of a good restaurant but seeing none finally took a rickshaw and off to Viswa Bharati University. The road that took to our right from the rickshaw stand went to the famed poush mela ground but we didn’t go there, albeit straight to the university. We reached there and got down at the museum which was closed. A guide confronted us but being poorly paid IT professionals we obviously couldn’t afford one. We again booked a rickshaw which would take us around the university town and double up as a guide too. But before anything else, we told him to take us to a place where we could eat something. The dhaba where he took us was pretty much good. We had luchi and cholar dal besides tea and off to the university ground.

bolpur station

hindi bhavana

I was amazed at the calmness and serenity of the place. The university is world famous for its model of classes which are mostly open air and its long association with Asia’s first Nobel laureate, Rabindranath Tagore. He founded the world famous university with various departments in arts which attracts students from across the world. They had the Hindi Bhawan, the Chinese Bhawan, Kala Niketan, Sangeet Mandir etc and every department was nestled amongst the lap of nature. There were ponds, trees, beautiful hostels and structures of modern art spread throughout. The university was a tourist place in itself. Since it was around 10 hrs and classes go on till 13 hrs it wasn’t wise to go around clicking pictures of students, teachers and the classes and disturb them. At least I saw the classes under progress and it was an amazing feeling. Every corner, every bench, every building had stories related to the mahaguru and I couldn’t possibly miss out on anything. I was feeling good.

inside the campus

a buddha statue

kala bhavana

We also decided to go to the nearby Ballavpur wildlife sanctuary housing some 275 spotted deer besides a host of local water birds and insects. It was an amazing place and since it wasn’t a big one we could go around on foot just following the fencing. It was a good place for photography and I loved it. We did see a herd of deer from close but it was sweating hot inside. The entry price was 4 bucks for adults and 5 bucks extra for still photography and I had to go around the place asking people for a hundred rupee change because the ticket collector didn’t have that but he was good and answered every question I asked him, including the area, the animal count, the species I could see, when the blackbucks got relocated, the time I could spend inside et al without the slightest of a fuss.

inside ballavpur wildlife sanctuary

More than wild animals the sanctuary had many a couples gone wild. After all where else would you get to spend cozy moments under the darkness of the jungle for as less as 4 bucks an hour? Couples could be seen kissing, hugging and doing what not and not even minding wildlife enthusiasts (yeah! I am talking about myself) pass by. I went and sat on a concrete bench beside a couple deeply lost in making love and more than them I was feeling weird so I got up and got going. We almost totally explored the sanctuary and got some classic macro shots of insects. I couldn’t thank my stars. My camera was perhaps eight months old and not even one butterfly shot but the day was luck. Guess the wild couples blessed me for moving out from the “core” area of the sanctuary. I took shots of pollen grains, dragonflies, a butterfly and a spider besides many a thing else. It was already 13:20 hrs by the time we came out, after having spent a wholesome 80 mins inside the sanctuary. The rickshawala was tired but still showed us more around the university.

road sign

pose! pose!

We asked him if there was anything else to see. He told us about river Kopai and the khoai geology unique to the area. It was already time for lunch and the best restaurant we could get there was just about ok. The food was good (130 bucks) and we even invited the rickshawala to eat with us. It was quite hot by the time we set off for river Kopai where Tagore had written a famous poem. It’s a seasonal river and the area around it was very beautiful. We also saw a Santhal village while going to an area of khoai formation where Bengali movies are also shot. It was an amazing rickshaw ride and he took 250 bucks for the entire stay. The red soil looked picturesque and the sal and eucalyptus trees gave the area a surreal look. A canal ran nearby and the water looked inviting in the sweltering heat. We returned to our hotel at around 16 hours and since we were very tired we thought of resting for a while. We hadn’t rested for some 12 hours at a stretch and the body ached like hell. We had bought some sweets from a local shop but it tasted bad.

We decided to go for a stroll in the evening at around 19 hrs and hired a rickshaw from our hotel to the station. Since we had an extend weekend we had made plans to go to Bakreshwar or Tarapeeth the next day but considering the odd train timing plus our tiredness we changed our mind and decided to leave for Kolkata the very next morning. We went around Bolpur, eating anything and everything and spoiling our stomach. It’s a cheap city compared to Kolkata but quite bustling with activity. I was in no condition to eat a morsel but my namesake, the super glutton wanted to eat more.

fencing inside the sanctuary

dragonfly

creepy crunchies

We had a hard time looking for an air conditioned restaurant. We asked a rickshawala, “Yahan koi air conditioned restaurant hai?”

“Kya? SBI bank? Haan, wo hara light hai na, usi ke bagal mein.”

“Arrey nahi, air conditioned restaurant, bank nahi, restaurant.”

“Oh! Acchca! ICICI bank. Wo to ye samne hai, par raat me to ye bank bandh rehta hai.”

“Arrey nahi chacha, restaurant.”

“Ye naam ka koi building yahan nahi hai!”

“Restaurant chacha, jahan khana milta hai.”

“Oo, to aisa bolo na.. mere ko nahi pata.”

countryside

beautiful bengal

Considering an old man gone bonkers we left him in his fantasy world and got ahead to find a gang of boys under a street lamp. We asked them about an air conditioned restaurant. They did direct us to a dark alley where when we went we didn’t see any “Green Chili” restaurant as said by them but bumped instead into the West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation (WBTDC) building. We hadn’t booked our rooms here, they are expensive plus booked well in advance but there was no reason we couldn’t have dinner at their restaurant. We got inside, inquired about the rates and got straight to the dining hall. After spending the whole day under the nude sun, this was such a respite. We ordered chicken, rice, roti and egg curry and some coke. We had our fill, sat for a while and left for our room and had a good sleep. We got up early the next morning and took the 8.30 hrs train to Howrah.

khoai

the lush and green fields

they are birds!

I for the first time tried to get down a running train at Liluah when it had slowed down a while but it gave my legs a strong jolt, and then when I remembered my namesake was still on the train and couldn’t get down because of his luggage and I had both our return tickets (92 bucks) I ran and got into the train yet again with a heart beat exceeding a thousand beats per second. It was dangerous and I am never going to do it again. We reached Howrah safely, had vada paw and off for our homes where we had a sound sleep for the rest of the day.

bakkhali

place: bakkhali

district: south 24 parganas

state: west bengal

location: some 150 km from kolkata via NH 117

average cost per head: rs 1000 (in a group of seven)

mode of transportation: chevrolet tavera (ac)

stay: hotel ananya (ac room, rs 800 for double bed occupancy)

food: local bengali cuisine at a restaurant

fame: beach, mangroves, deltaic islands

route to bakkhali

“Chotu jaldi kar” Krish da told me with a frenzy that I had to stop submitting the jobs one after another and readied myself to leave for his place. I was in hastened mood because I had to generate a print but the jobs just wouldn’t stop abending. The morning of Friday itself Pinaki da had asked me, “Chotu impression?” to which I said, “Bad!” and I didn’t want to repeat the same on Monday too. It was already 7 in the night and the next day, early the morning of Saturday I had to embark on a day long journey to Bakkhali, a sleepy beach washed by the waters of Bay of Bengal. I was to stay at Krish da’s place for the night and since it was a good 2 hrs away from office we had to leave early. I couldn’t have gone to my home and taken the car from Salt Lake early the next morning and moreover it had been ages being to a Bengal village and having the luchi tarkari. We reached his place near Amtala quite in time taking a route where I had been for the very first time. The bike ride was awesome and as we neared his place the air became fresher with the smell of tree blossom and the sky clearer revealing thousands and millions of twinkling stars. I had a nice dinner and a good sleep and woke up early to find the place much more beautiful than I had imagined it in the dead of the night.

a village pond in bengal

Bakkhali, one of the numerous deltaic islands, is located at the western fringes of the Ganges delta in the district of South 24 Parganas and the world famous home to the Royal Bengal Tiger, the Sundarbans isn’t far away from here, a few miles towards the east. We had planned a trip to Lothian wildlife sanctuary too later in the day but I knew it looked a distant possibility owing to time constraint. Vineet bhaiya who had sounded the laziest on Friday actually turned out to be the most active and even before I could open my eyes on Saturday morning I got a call from him saying he had already set up from Salt Lake to pick up the rest. Krish da and I were reluctant to wake up and dismissing Vineet bhaiya’s call as a prank got some more sleep and readied ourselves at a snail’s pace and by the time we reached Amtala bus stop Vineet bhaiya, Saurav da, Nilanjana di, Piyush bhaiya and his wife were already waiting with the Chevrolet Tavera for almost half an hour. We set off on the trip with much enthusiasm and the greenery on both the sides of NH 117 was too beautiful to miss.

a delicious hilsa catch

The highway was narrow and the car drove slowly but the green fields, the trees, the passing villages and the sleepy crowded towns more than made up for it. The weather played hide and seek with irritating spells of rain and intense sunshine but we seemed to mind little inside our air-conditioned car. The seven of us ate, joked and made great fun. My eating habits and photography skills, Krish da’s obsession with girls, Bollywood and its music, Saurav da’s onsite trips and his love for Barcelona and Venice, etc were the topic of discussion. Time passed quickly and we reached Namkhana where we had to cross the Hatania Doania creek on a trawler and that was certainly an experience. I could see boats full of delicious hilsa fish and flags furling high in the sea breeze. Namkhana was very close to sea and the air was high with humidity and salt but nobody seemed to mind the discomfort. Vineet bhaiya was curious why there wasn’t a bridge crossing the busy creek to which I said, “huge ships keep passing” to which he replied, “can’t they make a Tower Bridge kind of thing here?” We laughed to the proposal and continued on our way to Bakkhali after having being ferried across the creek.

the hatania doania creek at namkhana

We reached hotel Ananya sometime when the sun was just overhead and saw scores of mighty windmills seeing which I showed the enthusiasm of a child. I was seeing them for the first time after all. We took rest for a while and off for the beach. I had decided not to go into the sea and do photography instead but the mighty waves quelled the promise I had made to myself and I just couldn’t resist the invite. I had to walk all the way back to the hotel for changing and the pucca road baked by the scorching sun burnt my naked feet but I took some good photographs on the way to the hotel and made it a point to return to the beach on a van. The sea waves weren’t strong enough and failed to impress me the third time in a row after Mandarmani and Tajpur. Digha is still the only beach where the waves were magically dangerous.

bakkhali beach

Vineet bhaiya bathing in the sea with his specs fixed was a sight to see and after almost an hour of fun in the water we went back to the hotel, got fresh and had our lunch at around 4pm. It was a fantastic spread of rice, dal, sabji, sorsher ilish, chicken, chingri, salad, papad and chutney and I ate like crazy right till my neck and I could take no more. We had masala pan and left for Henry Island, a landscaped resort of sorts that got inundated at high tide. It wasn’t technically an island and had a beach too, more beautiful than we had at Bakkhali, plus mangroves, which I was seeing for the first time in my life. It was an amazing place for sure. The beach had hundreds of red crabs (species still unknown), a crocodile carcass, some sea birds, a beautiful rainbow, the amazing patterns made by the sea water hitting the shore and a handful of beautiful girls. The faint rainbow across the vast endless horizon over the sea is one scene I would never forget besides the windmills I saw in the open green fields. It was a memorable trip. By the time we left Henry Island it was already dark and we were quite late. We had some tea, packed our bags and off to the City of Joy.

henry island

We were all very tired but still managed to have enough laughs on the return journey which mostly centered on Krish da and the mindless songs that came from the CD which he had got from Diamond Harbor. We had a brief stopover at DH from where the view of river Hooghly was amazing to say the least. We reached Kolkata at around 11pm and everyone kept getting down at their respective places. Vineet bhaiya and I were the last to get down at Salt Lake. It was almost the middle of the night so I decide to rest my tired soul in the air conditioned room of Vineet bhaiya. It was one of the finest trips I had and being with such awesome seniors made it all the more memorable.