Starting 2003 Christmas, a new wave of determination engulfed all of us. The then year-end bash at Lakshadweep had called for a resolution of an annual holidaying. In strict adherence with that, in mid 2004 we started playing the select-the-spot game. Andaman, Rajasthan, India’s Northeast were the places of major attraction. Supreeth, with ample aid from his colleagues, garnered lots of info on India-NE. One weekend, somewhere during mid 2004, we decided that we would head towards the northeast. The places we were to cover were fast decided. Kaziranga (State of Assam), Sela-Pass and Tawang (State of Arunachal Pradesh), Shillong and Cherrapunji (State of Meghalaya), Gangtok (State of Sikkim) and finally Darjeeling with Kolkata (State of West-Bengal).

The initial flag-bearers:Amruth, Kata, Kichi, Supreeth, Sharath, Vyas, Madhu, Nikki, Subbu and myself (Arvind).

Subbu and Nikki rolled off due to their work commitments. Owing to unavoidable circumstances, Madhu moved out of the bandwagon on the day of departure. So it was for the seven of us to explore the heavens of the northeast.

Guwahati Express, it was, which we had to befriend for around 60 hours. Starting on Friday, the 17^th Dec chugging along Tamilnadu, AndhraPradesh, Orissa, Bihar and West-Bengal, this train reached Guwahati on Monday morning. The train journey was not very boring though. Lots of card games, hogging, reading and clicking fotos kept us well occupied. While all of us had the still cams, Kichi’s camcorder stole the show with amazing powers of capturing quality videos.

Whiling away time in the train

Thanks to Mr.Ananthram, Sups’ uncle, who had taken lots of pain in booking a hotel for us and also hiring a Sumo for our local travel. Interestingly, tourists, be it Indians or foreigners, need to acquire permission from the Government before venturing into Arunachal Pradesh. Mr.Ananthram had got this done as well and ensured that things were perfectly setup for us. He came over to the railway station and took us to the hotel and also provided us directions for reaching a south Indian restaurant. A million thanks to him and we are ever grateful for all his help.

A quick freshen-up and out we set to stroll around Guwahati. This is a pretty sensitive city. As a matter-of-fact the whole of Assam is so and we could spot police and army people hovering around most of the public places. In fact, Beddy’s (Amruth’s nickname) cam-bag was rummaged thru by an army guy, out of the blue.

Walking around the busy streets, we reached the banks of river Brahmaputra. This river is so wide that we had to strain our eyes to spot the other bank. A good boat ride was refreshing enough and we headed back to our hotel after a brief visit to Mr.Ananthram’s place. Yet again, he did us a favor by offering Upma (a south-Indian delicacy). Mr.Ananthram and his wife, Uma aunty were then richer by 7-million thanks.

River Brahmaputra

Tuesday marked the beginning of all our real adventures. Early morning, we set off to Tawang in our Sumo. Karuna Dekha, our introvert but nevertheless skilled driver, was destined to get along with us. Cruising along NH47 till Tezpur and then NH52, we saw many army camps alongside. An half-hour foto session also took place in one of the gardens on the way. It was an awesome sight of yellow flowerbed of mustard plants. Reaching Bhalukpong, we had our lunch which included Momo, a local delicacy. This town borders Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.

Yellow flowerbed

Sun sets real early in these parts of India and more so during winters, when days are real short. Getting dark by around 4.30 or 5 in the evening is a routine over here. Our drive from Bhalukpong to another town called Bomdilla was not a cake-walk. In fact, on these topsy-turvy hilly roads, with thick fog cover, our driver stopped quite a few times to actually spot the road. The gap between life and death in these stretches is just few feet.

Reaching Bomdilla at mid-night (read as 8’o clock), we found it real hard to find a restaurant to feed seven hungry guys. The icing on the cake was the chill winds. Just when we thought we had run out of luck, we tripped upon a small hotel run by a lady and her young daughter. They were kind enough to cook food then and there and satiate our ravenous hunger. Money could do little then, it was more of a humanitarian show.

Heading towards Dhirang, a town close to Tawang, our accommodation was booked at Hotel Pemaling for the night. Little did we know that we would wake up to a wonderland the next day. Blessed were we, sitting in front of a picture-perfect valley, sipping the hot morning coffee. There are some things money definitely can’t buy!

Picture Perfect Valley!

A quick but delicious breakfast, and off we went towards our first major spot, the Sela Pass. Spotting snow for the first time on the way, the child in us instantly responded and there we were, spilling ice on one another. Sela Pass is the second highest motor-able road in the world (Incidentally, the highest, Leh, is also in India). Our dream came true after 8 months at 13700 ft above sea level.

We made it!!

Sela-Pass has only two seasons, winter when it snows and the rainy season. Glimpses of the sun are not a rarity. We ran into a military camp at Sela-pass and it was an army man Mr.Prakash who led us into the camp. It’s not often that they get to see people in these parts and hence we had a royal treatment. They served us chips and egg and we had a long chat with them. Mr.Prakash also told us about the history of Sela Pass. It is named after a girl called Sheila, who along with one Mr.Jashwant, an ex-Indian army personnel stood between the China army and Indian border. They valiantly defended the border and Sheila misled the Chinese soldiers to the top of a hillock at this pass and jumped over with them, offering her life to save the country. This pass is named after that brave girl. After a long foto session, we moved towards Tawang where we rested at Hotel Alpine.

Flanking Mr.Prakash

The road to heaven...

Seven in Heaven!

Tawang is an exquisite scenic location. Madhuri Lake, a monastery and a war memorial are the places of tourist attractions here. Also Beijing is just 4000 kms off this place. Madhuri lake is named after the bollywood actress Madhuri Dixit after a scene for the movie Koyla being shot here. But we were destined to enjoy the less-tourist-visited MILITARY CAMP. On the way to the lake, we accosted a few military persons and they insisted that we spend time with them. In fact it was yet another memorable experience chatting to those people who spent most of their occupational period in such harsh terrains. Another royal treatment, another foto session and another sweet tree planted in the memory lane. Just when we thought we would move along to Madhuri lake, our dear driver reminded that we were running short of fuel. Better late than when it’s empty. We had to move back. We could just visit the monastery and that marked the end of our sightseeing for the day.

Heading to Tawang Military Camp

Kids on the block!

Early next day, we set off towards Kaziranga, deciding that we would break our journey at Tezpur. On the way back, we halted to witness the holy shrine of Mr.Jashwant, called “Jashwant Garh”. An army personnel was offering flowers to this great man’s idol while uttering slokas (the divine verses) relating to Lord Vishnu. Mr.Jashwant is no demi-god for the army people. He is the GOD!

On nine clouds!!

We reached Bhalukpong in the evening, when we thought we could try our luck at a forest resort called ‘Eco-Camp’ situated between Bhalukpong and Tezpur, 3 kms off NH52. Mr.Ronesh manages this place and we were delighted to know we could get Alpine tents to rest for the day. The people out there were very hospitable and we enjoyed the campfire, the tasty dinner and curled up in our tents.

Early next day, we went on a forest hike into the adjunct Nameri forest reserve that also had a short ferry-ride. Unfortunately none of us spotted any animals but for a couple of monkeys and a few pug marks of the royal tiger. Heading back, we were exhausted to carry on to Kaziranga and decided to extend our stay by one day at the same place, a break from extensive holidaying! This also meant that we had to cut down on one of our scheduled destinations. Gangtok, it was, which faced the axe. Stretching our muscles and helping ourselves to some real good food, we played Dumb-charades around the evening bon-fire and called it a day.

Driving to Kaziranga was in itself a wonderful experience. The roads are simply superb and rhino population is so strong that we could spot few rhinos 30 km before the actual national park. Kaziranga, as a matter of fact, is a big success story in the realm of wildlife conservation and is the only place on earth that hosts the single horned rhinos. We were put up at one of the few available dormitory-cum-house, owned by one Mr.Kamal Gogoi. He has great reach when it comes to arranging the forest safaris. We were very lucky to bump into him and he got us arranged a jeep-drive that evening and an elephant-safari for the next day early morning. We were not expecting to spot many animals on our jeep-drive but fortunately we did see couple of rhinos, wild buffalos in close range and good lot of birds. Excited about the impending elephant safari, we got up real early at 4 am and we were driven to the point of starting the elephant safari. Close to twenty elephants do the rides every day three times apiece. This was an exhilarating ride and we spotted deer herd and rhinos at an arm’s distance. Guess the animals are used to the camera-flashes, coz they showed no real anxiety when people atop elephants were clicking away to glory.

Elephant Safari @ Kaziranga

The Rhino Delight

Late morning we headed towards Tezpur to go on to Shillong via NH40. God has probably kept aside a major chunk of splendor and grandeur for these parts of the world. Driving along these roads is in itself a pleasure. Reaching Shillong in the evening, we did nothing much other than routine munching in a hideout kind of Madras café. Next morn, we roamed around the markets of Shillong and did some shopping and set off to the wettest place on earth, Cherrapunji. We rested at the Cherrapunji Hotel Resort managed by Mr. Dennis. This borders Bangladesh and we could see the plains of our neighboring country, standing outdoors He gave us some details of this wonderful place and we were told annual rainfall in this place is close to 12,000 mm (12 meters). 90% of this occurs during Mar-Oct, 50% of this occurs in June and July alone! Few fotos at this place caught our eyes. Those were of the Live-root bridges. Small bridges are built using the roots of trees (living ones) and over the time they grow stronger and bigger. The most fascinating of them is the double-decker bridge, two live root bridges one over the other. Unfortunately, visiting this meant a full day trek, which we could not spare. We decided to trek along to a nearer bridge the next day.

Nature's swing

Early next day, we went along to the nearer live root bridge. Packed with breakfast and water, we also had a local guide. Trekking was pretty enjoyable but what was exhilarating was the sight of the live root bridge, nature’s bounty at its best. A quick walk back and we turned our backs to this marvelous place, heading towards Darjeeling.

Traveling by train from Guwahati to NJP (New Jalpai Guri) and then hiring a Sumo to take us to Darjeeling, we came over to the last of the scheduled states of visit, West-Bengal. Darjeeling is at a height of 6800 ft above sea level and is one of the sought after tourist spots. The uphill road from NJP to Darjeeling revealed hundreds of curves and railway crossings. Our first glance of the Kanchanjunga mountain range was also on the way. Kanchanjunga is like the screen saver background for Darjeeling. Don’t get fooled by any hotelier who boasts that his hotel rooms face this range coz anywhere in Darjeeling; you are never far from catching a glimpse of this great mountain.

After a short break at our hotel, we visited the ‘Gangamaya Park’, a recreational center, but not a very exotic place though. But we enjoyed some real good Darjeeling tea there. Way back, we halted at some tea gardens for an elaborate foto session and spent some quality time just gazing at the tea gardens and the Himalayan range. We were then close to another country, Nepal.

Tea gardens of Darjeeling

Next morning was a day to remember. We went to the Tiger hill to witness nature’ most routine affair of sunrise but in a spectacular setting. Waiting for over 45 minutes, the saga began to unfold and we saw the sky changing colors from yellow to orange to reddish tinges. As the first rays of the sun fell on Kanchanjunga range (Kanchan-gold), so aptly named, it revealed the mountains bathed in yellow color. A round of applause from all those who had gathered marked the end of this grand show. On the way back, we visited a martyr park called Basitua loop and also a monastery.

Lead Kindly Light..

Revealing its true colors!

The best part we enjoyed in Darjeeling was the toy-train ride. This is a train that shuttles between Darjeeling and Ghum, the second highest railway station on earth (7410 ft. above sea level). Latching on to its 120-year-old engine are three small bogies. The guard on this train has put it in a whopping 40 years of service! Max speed: 8-10 kmph. This train is also recognized as a part of world heritage. At Ghum, we visited a museum and as we came down to Darjeeling, enjoying the scenes around, we were inching towards the end of our 2-weeks’ outing. A fast Sumo drive along the tea gardens with melodious Kishore-da songs; we reached Siliguri to catch the over-night bus to Kolkata. It was 2004 AD’s last night.

World Heritage Toy Train

Reaching Kolkata late morning, we rested for a while and then visited the famous Dakshineshwar, the abode of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, traveling by the metro rail. A beeline of people ready to offer puja to goddess Kali forced us to just look around the place without actually venturing inside. We decided to roam around the hep Park Street instead, which also hosts Saurav Ganguly’s restaurant. Strolling around Park Street, Sups, Vyas and myself helped ourselves with Pani-Puri (a north Indian delicacy) and later we all dined at Domino’s Pizza outlet. Early next day, we visited the Victoria memorial and had a great morning walk. This memorial has a huge pond at the entrance and we saw lots of people and kids doing their morning rounds of walking and sporting. As we walked alongside of the pond, we were getting ready to move out of the holidaying mood. Only a 3-hour flight journey separated us from Bangalore then.

Victoria Memorial

Parting ways at the Bangalore airport, loaded with lots of sweet memories to cherish, we ambled back into our routine based world with the only solace that we will move out again.

Foto Collections:

http://community.webshots.com/user/bsarvind_china_trip3

http://www.pbase.com/northeast

¶ Friday, January 07, 2005 3 Comments