Travelling in the North-East in the summer of 2006
Guwahati >> Eaglenest >> Tawang >> Nameri >> Kaziranga >> Shillong >> Cherrapunjee
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We did not stay for long at Tawang and headed back after two days. The journey on the way back was uneventful. We retraced the same path via Sela pass, Dirang and Bomdila. We had thoughts of staying at the beautiful town of Dirang for the night, but the hotels there were all booked. So we moved further and halted for the night at Tenga village. The only reason we chose the place was that it was familiar to us, as it was the gateway to Eaglenest and we knew a few people there.
We started easy next morning towards Assam. The road from Tenga to Bhalukpong is very pretty and goes through some thick undisturbed evergreen forest. We continued down the Bomdila – Tezpur highway in Assam to Haathi gate, where we were planning to stay for the night in an angling camp bordering Nameri National Park. It was late in the afternoon when we reached there. We checked in at the angling camp and spent rest of the evening walking around the place.
Travelling in the North-East in the summer of 2006
Guwahati >> Eaglenest >> Tawang >> Nameri >> Kaziranga >> Shillong >> Cherrapunjee
+Previous: At Tawang – Snow and Lakes
+Next: Returning from Tawang
+Go to the beginning of the series
Tawang is not very different from any town on a hill in the Himalayas. People are friendly, and everything you buy is expensive! My friend wanted to get some clothes washed and ironed in 24 hours, and expressed his shock when he heard the prices. The lady of the laundry laughed and replied – “Yeh Tawang hai saab..” – “This is Tawang sir!”
It is a small town with a small city center crowded with a few hotels, some military presence at one end of the town and the monastery at the other end. Petrol is not available in or anywhere a few 100 kilometers around Tawang. The only fuel station serves Diesel but don’t expect stocks to be available all the time. The 5-6 hotels that you find around the city center tend to be full most of the time during the tourist season. There are no upmarket hotels or resorts, so if you are used to comforts, be prepared to live without it while you are in Tawang.
Kids waiting for school bus in Tawang
We also took a short trip to a village near Tawang. Surprising, men are not to be seen anywhere in and around the villages and people you see are usually women and children. Agriculture seems to be the primary source of income for most families. Unlike in the rest of the high ranges, we did not see much of livestock though most people eat non-vegetarian food. Wood seems to be the primary source of fuel in the houses. Hardly anyone in the village seemed to own any automobiles.
A woman belonging to local Mumpa Tribe
Most businessmen in Tawang are outsiders. Like the tourists, these businessmen also need to get permits to be in Arunachal. A restaurateur said he is from Rajasthan and they need to renew their residential permits every year. There were many Bengalis too. Tourism, though is a happening thing in Tawang, doesn’t seem to be an organized industry and is not contributing much to the local economy yet, but things may change in the days to come. The few hotels and restaurants in the town were not exactly customer friendly. One night in a restaurant when we gave our orders, we were rudely told to order the same thing for everyone so that it is easy to prepare. Next morning, another guy told that us that sandwiches and parathas are available, and when we ordered parathas, he said it is a pain to make them and will serve sandwich for all instead!
ABOUT TAWANG
Tawang is a faraway place by any standards. Bluntly speaking, unless you are very keen, you are better off travelling somewhere else instead of getting to Tawang. Not to deny the fact that the way is beautiful and so are the regions above Tawang. But the road is very long from Tezpur and feels monotonous at times. And you can’t move around freely in the region above Tawang, since it is controlled by army. You need permits, and then you can go only in the designated path. You don’t have any options of staying or camping in the higher regions as you are expected to be back in Tawang before sunset. Monastery is a nice place, but not really inspiring enough to travel that far.
To reach Tawang, you need to start from Tezpur, which is 5 hours by bus from Guwahati. Although I can’t recollect exactly how long does it take(we split it into two days), it should take more than 16 hours of driving between Tezpur and Tawang. People usually hire Tata Sumos for the journey. If you intend to split the journey, you can choose to stay in Tenga, Bomdila or Dirang. Book your accommodation in these places in advance, especially if you intend to stay in Dirang. You also have a limited number of buses plying between Tezpur and Tawang. It is better to plan your journey properly and book your bus tickets and hotels in advance.
The most important place to see in Tawang in the monastery. PTSO and surrounding high altitude region have some beautiful lakes. Sela pass on the way is a nice stop-over. I suggest skipping Madhuri falls near Jung.
Mridula’s post on sunburns provoked me to make this entry. She says – “Every trip in which we trek, I get sunburned.” That’s very likely to happen to everyone who is at the mountains because of rarefied air and strong sun up there. But some preparation helps to avoid it completely. Here is a list of everything you need to be prepared for the mountains.
1. Carry a sun screen. This is a necessity because of the strong sun in higher regions. If your journey takes you above the treeline, you must have this with you. It is generally recommended to use sunscreen with SPF 30, but I have seen that anything more than SPF 15 will do. For the uninitiated, SPF is Sun Protection Factor, a measure of how much your lotion can protect you from the sun. The larger the number the more protection. Products available in the market usually have SPF from 15 to 30. And when you apply the sunscreen, along with your face, don’t forget to apply it behind the neck too. This is an area most people forget to apply sunscreen on, and end up with burns.
Update(16-Jun-07): From my recent experience in the mountains, may be it is better to use sunscreen of SPF 30 and above. A SPF 15 worked fine but needed repeated re-application through the day.
2. Goggles. I recommend using them every time you go out anywhere in summer, not just mountains. And if you are likely to touch snowline, never ever go without these. Intense snow can hurt your eyes so much that spending four hours in sun where there is plenty of snow can cause swelling in and around the eyes. Use good quality stuff, not the cheap plasticky ones.
3. If your skin is sensitive to sun, carry a good, wide hat that ensures shade all over your face.
4. If you have dry skin or likely to get skin problems in winter, carry moisturizer and a lip gel. You can easily suffer from dry skin in cold weather and your lips could bleed.
This is pretty much all that you require to come back home with your skin completely unharmed. But I often wonder how people in the mountains manage to do without any of these. May be it is in their genes?