It’s been years since I last visited Guwahati. Now I am working with World Vision India. Then I was in 2nd year B.Sc Chemistry. I am lucky to have held on to a small spiral bound notebook with details about the 1st trip. This note is a lesson on what happens when you decide, rather impulsively, to travel across the North Eastern India. Your tenders get hurt (please refer to the movie Kung Fu Panda for details).
Twice!
Now that I think about it I don’t clearly remember when I decided to go. Jai Krishna asked me once, “Do you wanna go to the north east?” Then Murali said, “Tarun has backed out of the trip, I cannot go alone with Jai Krishna, you better come.” Even before the trip had begun Jai and Murali fought, mostly over the phone. I clearly remember the following sequence of events.
Phone rings, I answer, it is Murali-
Jai Krishna is an Idiot machan, he won’t listen to me…blah…he wants to cross the Bhutan border…blah…he wants to swim across the Brahmaputra….blah…..he wants to buy 6 Naga Dao’s blah
5 minutes later. Phone rings, I answer, it is Jai-
Murali is an Idiot Machan, he does not want to do the 17km trek to nowhere….blah….blah….
You get the picture. I still went for some reason, I have a feeling Murali brain washed me.
2005 or was it 2006? Maybe even 2004. Certainly B.C not A.D.
Anyway the following was our tentative schedule.
April 28th Reach Guwahati
29th Dimapur (get inner line permit)
30th Kohima (visit the war memorial)
May 1st and 2nd Moreh (Chinese products market) and Zuko Valley (What?)
3rd Palel (what?)
4th Imphal
5th Shillong and Cherrapunji
6th Manas Reserve
7th Khaziranga
8th Guwahati
As you can see our plans did not give us much time to savor the scenery. But some how we felt we could gulp down the north east like a plate of chilly beef at the Loyola fast food. Chilly beef results in unpleasantness the next day on the throne, the north east well…
What actually happened?
Date
What happened? Where?
Cost involved
My share (in bold)
April 28th
Check into hotel tourist in Guwahati.
The train journey was uneventful, although I remember trying to acclimatize my self to the harsh weather by standing with my shirt buttons open at the train door as it sped through the wet wastelands of Bengal. The acclimatization failed and I was very sick the 1st few days of our trip. At which time I realized the U.S Marines acclimatization techniques were trash.
After checking into the hotel, I subject to a severe thrashing of my tenders by one Jai Krishna who mistook it to be my behind. My pajamas had a strange pattern which on not so thorough observation by JK led to his honest belief that he was indeed giving me a friendly pat n my bum. The sound echoed in the room, soon to be drowned by Murali’s laughter and my shrieks of pain. Ouch (reminiscing the pain here). Single most painful experience of my life.
300
100
April 29th
On bus to Dimapur. Visited the ancient ruins.
275
275
April 29th
Checked into Hotel Janta
We became friends with Pur Walling of the AO Tribe, a very lively officer of the Nagaland Police force. For some reason the hotel guy refused us a room. A loud reprimand from Pur Walling changed his mind. Pur Walling also helped us with the inner line permit the next day.
225
75
April 30th
Got inner line permit. Tourists and labourers from other states in India need a special permit to enter the north east.
500
166
Sumo to Kohima. Visit war memorial.
100
100
Check in to hotel dirty. Hotel din’t have a name and attached toilets. The common toilet was dingy and I had a feeling a snake might creep in at any moment through the hole that existed in the wall. An old friend from Pune visited us and drove us around in his car. It gets dark very early here. Town sleeps early. A walk through the dark streets revealed a beautiful sight of Dimapur at the foothills.
160
53
May 1st
Maruthi esteem to Imphal. Lucky to get a ride in a new car. The driver was driving to Imphal to register his boss’s new car. He sped away through the hills fearing cops and the army who took money from lone drivers. Also kidnapping by separatists was common. They would then hold these drivers for ransom and his boss would have to cough up lakhs of rupees.
400
133
Check in to hotel Tampha. Visit the sports complex with Johnny’s parents.
220
73
May2nd
Johnny’s parents take us to Loktak Lake. We also travel to Romesh’s house in Thoubal. Had lunch at his house, traditional bamboo dishes and huge sticky rice. Took what I call the most memorable picture in my life. We sit in front of the house with Romesh’s family. The photo is stuck in my head since.
Hotel Day 2
73
May 3rd
Bus to Dimapur
275
Bus to Jorhat
165
Check into Hotel Deepti. Jai and Murali share a double room; I took a single room as I did not want to disturb them.
175
May 4th
Kamal (Murali’s friend) shows us around. I remember taking a bite of the world’s hottest chilli. Remember tearing up and spitting for a long time.
Evening bus to Kaziranga
105
35
Check into Hotel Park
500
166
May 5th
Kaziranga jeep safari
Central Park
Western Park
Permit. We saw rhinos and elephants in the flesh. A visit to their homes and they let us watch them grace peacefully. There is something about animals in their habitat. I took videos, hiding my camera in my raincoat. It costs a bomb to carry video cameras into the park. We paid for the manual slr that Jai was carrying. Was it Jai or Murali who got off the jeep to take the epic photo of the elephant and her young one.
450
500
500
500
May 6th
Bus to Jorhat
(Hotel)166
35
Bus to Guwahati
175
May 7th
Morning Sumo to Shillong
100
Check in to Hotel Garden
400
133
Taxi to Cherrapunji. Surely heaven on earth. Literally, with the clouds floating around you and all. The most breathtaking view of distant water falls and mountains of all shapes.
1200
400
Shopping in Shillong. Jai buys a few Nepali cookries(spelling right?) half swords used by Nepali Goorkas.
1500
500
May 8th
Taxi around Shillong
300
100
Afternoon Sumo to Guwahati
110
Check in Hotel Tibet
400
133
May 9th
Train to Chennai
Total
4085
Food, Auto and other minor expenses
1415
Train fare (Round trip)
1140
Grand total
6640 Rupees
I think it was in Dimapur that Jai Krishna held his hand in typical ‘sarakku bottle tamil style’ and asked innocent bystanders- ‘ithar Naga Dao kithar milega’ After a certain auto guy took us to a place Jai tried to buy all the knives at which point Murali and I insisted for safety reasons that he buy only 3 (or was it 4). Interestingly my bag got checked everywhere because of my full grown beard, if the cops had checked JK once then….
We went to some Zoo. Where was it? It was in the Zoo that Murai was reunited with his long lost brother. A hairy gorilla.
And what other place did I miss?
There was the curious case of the evangelical Christian who suddenly boarded a bus on one of our journeys. He proclaimed Jesus’s name and encouraged us to accept him as our personal savior. After he got off the bus I remember Murali saying to me- “B*. If you say anything, I will punch you.”
Then on our way back, Jai told us (hours before our train reached Chennai) “I could visited more places and seen more things if I had come alone.” At which point Murali and I lost it and we broke out into a loud argument. The return journey was so hot that my skin burned for three days after we returned.
We missed Manas because the reserve was closed due to heavy rains. We did not go to Moreh as Johnny's parents told us it was too dangerous. Zuko Valley i think we did not have the time.
We encountered many cross-dressers on our train journeys. They harassed us for money. On our train journey back I realized I had 5 rupees left. Jai offered me money to take an auto home, but I graciously refused. Through our journey, as you might have already notices, we maintained proper accounts and shared all cost, even though JK had way more money (and his mom had offered to send more through a money ordered if we needed it). So when a cross dresser demanded money, I told her very honestly that I had money only for the bus back home. She persisted and I stood my ground and in the process I got groped. Lesson learnt.
Murali and JK might wanna reveal more horrible truths from the trip.
