North-East-Trip-2020 on Sauvik Biswas

Day 16: Back to Guwahati

Sun, 20 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Due to an oversight by my Hotel’s manager, I had no reservation to Guwahati. He was unable to contact any of the drivers last night. Like most people in the hills, they had gone off to sleep early. I woke the Hotel’s manager up at 5:00 am in the morning and walked towards the Sumo counter. In reality, one or two seats are always empty in each vehicle and the booking agents at these Sumo counters are always on the lookout for last-minute bookings. The key was to reach early. I got a rear seat. If you are tall, I would advise not taking a rear seat for long journeys in the hills. The knees would scrape against the middle seat when the vehicle would sway while navigating switchbacks or when it would rattle up and down while traversing over bad roads. Fortunately, I am not that tall.

Day 14-15: Bomdila

Sat, 19 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Dawa came to see me off for one last time in the morning. It was unusual of him to wake up that early. We both had our morning tea with Sangi Thema before bidding them goodbye.

Bomdila is situated at a higher altitude than Dirang. Our Sumo snaked its way up through the switchbacks and military settlements for the next hour or so to reach the Sumo terminus opposite to Bomdila Stadium. These Sumos shuttle between Dirang and Bomdila a couple of times a day and charge INR 200. A lot of people travel to Bomdila as it is the administrative headquarters of West Kameng District.

Day 12-13: Villages around Dirang

Thu, 17 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In the next two days, Dawa took me to three villages—Chug, Sangti and Thembang.

Chug and Sangti #

Dawa wanted to show me Chug. It’s slightly inwards from Rama Camp and is famous among Dirang locals for its picnic spots. He had not been there before and had only seen images shared by his friends. When we reached there, we realised that we came at the wrong season. Instead of the beautiful flowery meadows, we were greeted by barren lands—all dried up post-harvest. Dawa was confused—was it the same place where his friends had been to? He asked a local who confirmed that it was the same place. However, picnics were prohibited. Merry youths in inebriated state would often break liquor bottles and scatter shards of glass in the fields and meadows, thus creating a hazardous terrain for locals and farmers.

Day 11: Dirang Monastery and Mandala Top

Tue, 15 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Dawa slept till 10:00 am. I should have asked him about his bed timings last night itself. When I called him early in the morning, he didn’t pick his phone up. Since I was already outside, I had my morning tea and paratha for breakfast at the market. Once I was done, I walked from chaarnala up towards Dirang Monastery. It was one of those bright buildings visible from the market itself.

Day 10: Through Sela Pass to Dirang

Mon, 14 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

That morning I was contacted by the Sumo driver. Although Sumos from Tawang to Bomdila usually left at 6:30 am, the one in which I had booked a seat was delayed due to the cold. He asked me to wait in front of Laxmi Hotel at Jang. The Sumo would anyways stop for breakfast there. Later, while crossing Jang checkpost, the military man in charge of the books checked the passengers asked me when I had entered Tawang and using what mode of transport. Even at this point he didn’t check for any documents.

Day 9: Jang

Sun, 13 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Jang is mostly known for its military check-post and Nuranang Falls. I had already paid a visit to the former where I had to do my COVID-19 test a week ago. This time I wanted to visit the latter.

Nuranang Falls #

After having puri and tea for my breakfast at Laxmi Hotel nearby, I descended down into the valley, hiked past Siddharth School, Jang Bazaar Line and the farmlands of Kharsa before reaching a signboard put up by the forest department that indicated the start of Nuranang Falls Road. There is a power station just before the waterfall. A barricade stops any vehicle from trespassing into the power station. One has to walk the last few hundred meters to the fall. Unfortunately, many tourists don’t get close enough to the waterfall itself. Flt. Lt. Hritik had sent me a photo of the waterfall that suggested that he had not gone anywhere near the waterfall itself. Even on that that day, a group of six people had come from Assam in a tourist vehicle. Of those six people, two did not even take the pains of descending a couple of meters on paved roads and stairs to get close to the waterfall.

Day 7-8: More Gompas in Tawang

Sat, 12 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

For the next one-and-a-half days I walked around Tawang and visited a number of places while spending time with the kids at my hotel.

I was not able to notice the Gompa that one spots in the Old Market the day I had arrived. It was too dark to notice anything. It is one of those places that is hard to miss in broad daylight as it is adjacent to the bus and the Sumo stand. The previous day I had spent some time watching people light lamps and candles on the occasion of Nobel Peace Prize day. Had I known earlier about the celebration, I would have walked to Tawang Monastery to observe the lights.

Day 6: Hitchhiking a trip to Bumla

Thu, 10 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I woke up quite early that day to catch a glimpse of the morning sun. Akash and the other kids were awake, too. I shared the morning tea with them. Amit, Lobsang and a neighbouring kid Ranveer—being kids that they were—headed to the terrace and played in a greenhouse made of bamboo and translucent plastic. The inside—filled with a number of potted plants, none of which had flowered, yet—was very warm. I inquired if I could get a shared vehicle to the northern areas like Sangestar Tso or Zemithang. Akash said that weren’t any running at the moment. Most owners had stopped operating on the route due to the drastic drop of tourists during the pandemic. It was possible for me to book a vehicle for myself but I would have to pay a lot of money. Even then it would be impossible to enter regions like Bumla which are under military jurisdiction and require separate permission.

Day 5: Urgeling Monastery and Manjushree Vidyapith

Wed, 09 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The three markets in Tawang are closed on three different days—Old Market on Tuesday, Nehru Market on Wednesday, and New Market on Thursday. Most eateries remain open all throughout the week—especially those serving breakfast. Most of these breakfast joints either serve puri or paratha for breakfast and are geared towards the working class. Aesthetically, they might not be the best of places, but I found that they served the freshest food. I had some puri and tea at the Old Market and headed south towards Urgeling. I wanted to visit Manjushree Vidhyapith and deliver a box of chocolates for the kids on behalf of Partho and me. It’s not marked on Google maps. The only information I had was that it was in or near Urgeling village. The good part is that almost everyone in Tawang knew of the school.

Day 3–4: Tawang

Tue, 08 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Journey from Tezpur to Tawang #

During this pandemic, the authorities are not allowing more than five passengers in a shared Sumo. However, none of the operators care about that rule in spite of charging nearly double the usual price for a trip. One of the reasons is that they are not able to get enough passengers to make a profit from the trip. The operators often club passengers who are headed for Dirang and other towns on the same route; that is exactly what happened with the four of us headed for Tawang—we had four more with us.

Day 2: Exploring Tezpur

Sun, 06 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Tezpur (and its district Sonitpur) is a place known for its association to the myth of Banasura. In its modern avatar, Tezpur is what I would call a functional administrative town. Located on the northern banks of Brahmaputra, it is a nice, intimate town that has preserved some of the ancient sites while allowing a number of administrative buildings and a thriving market to flourish. It also acts as a connecting hub for a number of neighbouring towns and states.

Day 1: Plans of North-East and a long travel

Sat, 05 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Planning a trip amidst COVID-19 #

COVID-19 and its aftermath posed one of the biggest problems in planning a trip this year. Like many of my colleagues and fellow servicemen, I had accumulated a lot of leaves that I had to consume within this calendar year lest they get lapsed. Earlier I had contemplated a couple of routes in the Northern states of Himachal and Uttarakhand. However, I decided to forego them in light of the recent surges in cases in and around Delhi and NCR—a gateway that I had to pass through for those aforementioned routes.