Welcome to the daily log of my trip to Northeast India! Being a travel enthusiast, I love to read about places I wish to visit, so that, I get an idea of what to expect and what not to. This is an attempt at sharing my travel experiences; here goes the first log…
Travelling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller
Ibn Battuta
After finishing packing for the trip that I was anticipating for so long; I started checking on the weather conditions of the places we had planned to visit. Although the forecasted weather of Tawang and Bumla Pass was as we had expected, Guwahati had a surprise for us!!
Before we started
While we were excited to go any minute, the sudden downpour in Guwahati on April 1 did cause us a bit of concern. On top of that, news of Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International airport’s roof falling surfaced. The LGBI airport was already facing a halt in flight operations because of harsh weather conditions. We were relieved to not have relied on the helicopter service from Guwahati to Tawang. It would have been impossible with the weather conditions!
Reaching Guwahati
We did our web check-ins on 3rd April, and while there were still chances of rain in Guwahati; the weather had calmed down a few notches. We received our ILPs that would be required to visit Arunachal Pradesh from our tour guide in the morning and reached Mumbai International airport at around 6pm on 4th April. After watching the beautiful sunset, we checked in the airport and immediately got news of our flight being delayed by half an hour.
We had planned to celebrate one of our friend’s birthday which was on 4th itself; so we did not mind the extra wait time. When you are with friends time just flies. Soon enough we got our boarding call and departed from Mumbai at around 9pm. On reaching Guwahati at 12:20am, we collected our baggage and headed out of the LGBI airport. We did not see any signs of the fallen roof at the airport; so kudos to the authorities on quite a good job on the clean up. Also there was no rain when we landed.
We checked in our accomodation at around 2 in the night and instantly went to sleep.
The journey begins
At 5 in the morning we were woken up by a rooster crowing at a distance and immediately reminded that we were not in Mumbai. We got freshened up and ready to leave within an hour’s time. And as we were about to leave, it started to rain; from a mild shower it quickly escalated to a strong downpour. Hence, we had to wait and make sure our luggage was covered properly so that it did not get drenched in rain. We finally started our journey at 7am.
We had breakfast at a cute dhaba and then headed for our first stop.
Beautiful Bhutan Border
After playing antakshari in the car and endlessly teasing each other playfully, while being surrounded by lush greenery on both sides, we came to a halt near a bridge. The bridge that leads towards the Bhutan border is where you need to park your vehicle and go on foot for a kilometer or two until the Bhutan Gate. You need to show your proof of identification, preferably Aadhar card to the officials at the Indian border who will then allow you to go ahead.
On reaching Bhutan Gate, again our ID check was done and we were asked to take an entry pass at the Bhutan police check post. Our entries were done based on our Aadhar card and we were allowed to go in and explore Bhutan. It felt very surreal to see the colorful houses and traditional clothing of the people in Bhutan. The neighborhood was green and maintained and there were beautiful decorated signs on dustbins guiding visitors to keep the place clean.
We spent some time exploring the area and clicking photos, while enjoying the cool breeze. We spotted some shops selling momos, and were delighted to know that they accepted the Indian currency. So we drank some fruit juices to quench our thirst and later had delicious local momos just enough to put our hunger to rest. We then returned from Bhutan Gate back to our car, which was another short 10 minute walk.
Brume of Bomdila
It was now time to pass through the town of Bomdila, well known for its apple orchards. We were able to spot lots of apple trees on our way, however the apples were not ripe yet. We then halted at a dhaba to have lunch and a well needed break from all the sitting in the car. The dhaba was situated at one corner of the ghat’s turning and we were able to see beautiful trees from the edge of the road. We then left and slept in the car after filling up our tummies.
However, while passing from the town of Bomdila, a patch of ghat came which was filled with thick fog. So heavy was the fog that we could not see a step ahead of the car. All of us woke up with thrill to get an experience of this rare sighting. Our friend sitting beside the driver almost gave a jump scare to the driver, when he himself got scared of a car arriving from the opposite direction. However, the driver was experienced and just hushed him into not panicking anymore. We also noticed an accident that had happened, presumably because of the fog.
After 20-25 minutes of this thrilling journey, the fog cleared and we went back to sleep.
Arriving in Dirang
By the time we reached Dirang, the sun had set and it was already dark at around 6pm. We reached at our night stay and were greeted by the very welcoming host of Oshin Guesthouse. They helped us carry our luggage to the rooms and checked with us what we would like for dinner. It was a very pleasant stay and the rooms were very decent and well maintained. We had dinner at around 8:30pm and decided to have a night stroll in the vicinity.
It was then that we realized the drop in the temperature that had happened from Guwahati to Dirang, hence, we had to get our jackets to step outside. The guesthouse was located in a quiet neighbourhood, with an open ground quite close to it. We guessed it might have been used to play cricket or football, looking at the footprints and the makeshift football nets. We then returned back to our rooms and played some rounds of UNO card game and retired to bed by midnight.
