Travelling in the North-East in the summer of 2006
Guwahati >> Eaglenest >> Tawang >> Nameri >> Kaziranga >> Shillong >> Cherrapunjee
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When I took off to the North East, I had a few worries in mind. The primary concern was safety. With many insurgent groups troubling most of the North East, the worry of becoming a victim was always there. The next thing that bothered me is infrastructure to let me commute comfortably and at will.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Infrastructure in the plains of the North East is almost on par with rest of India. There are plenty of roads and some of them are maintained by the highly respectable Border Roads Organization – BRO. But public transport is not as reliable as it should be. Although most places in the plains are well connected, it may require some planning and knowledge of bus timings if you are planning to go anywhere other than the big towns. Going to Kaziranga, for example, took me long waits at Tezpur. I did not see much of public transport around Cherrpunjee area too. Remote areas in the region are hardly accessible by bus, and this is especially true with Arunachal Pradesh. It is a tough job to find buses going to Tawang or such far-away places. And the North-East doesn’t have a good train network either. But if you are planning to go from Guwahati to bigger towns like Tezpur or Shillong, you just have to get to the bus terminus and you will most likely find a bus ready for you. And these inter-city buses are usually well maintained and comfortable to travel in.
SAFETY
I did not see any reason to worry about the safety aspect while I was in the North-East. It is said that Manipur and some surrounding regions may not be safe to travel to but Assam and Meghalaya are generally safe. Arunachal Pradesh is known to have some hostile tribal communities, but if you are sticking to the main roads and do not wander off too much, you should not have any trouble here either. We did see some unfriendly people but none of them harmful. When I was in Nameri National Park, one of my fellow travellers asked a staffer if he is an Assamese. And he replied – “No, we are not Indians, we are a separate nation called Bodoland”. Assam has its share of internal problems and a history of violence but it is largely peaceful these days and travellers need not really worry too much.
CONVENIENCE
Tourist infrastructure has plenty of room to improve in the entire North-East. Budget travellers to North-East may sometimes see that accommodation is in short supply. Even in a touristy place like Tawang, we had a tough time in finding a place to stay. When I was in Kaziranga, most of the privately owned budget hotels were closed and the government guest houses were fully booked. I was lucky to find a place but some people who arrived after me failed to find any accommodation. And when I was in Nameri National Park, I did not notice any tourist facilities except a privately owned resort where we stayed.
People travelling with a mid-range budget would be delighted to know that the hotels and resorts here have still remained inexpensive and affordable. You can find a decent mid-range hotel in a touristy place at prices starting as low as Rs.600 to Rs.800, which would have cost two to three times elsewhere. But one always needs to book, since availability is limited.
Few towns are equipped with ATMs and it is essential to carry plenty of cash. Credit cards are also not widely accepted except in major locations. I did run into a situation where I ran low of money and had to make some change of plans just so that I can go through a town having ATMs.
To be continued..
Travelling in the North-East in the summer of 2006
Guwahati >> Eaglenest >> Tawang >> Nameri >> Kaziranga >> Shillong >> Cherrapunjee
+Previous: Impressions of Guwahati
+Next: Travelling to Eaglenest National Park in Arunachal Pradesh
+Go to the beginning of the series
The next morning, I started out to Kacheri Ghat on the bank of Brahmaputra. I was taking a ferry from here to Peacock Island – a small landmass with a hillock housing the Umananda Temple.
Peacock Island. You can see how wide Brahmaputra is. Infact this is one of the areas where the river runs narrow compared to rest of Assam
As my ferry took off, I realized how huge Brahmaputra is. It was summer time when most of the rivers in India empty or at least mellow, but none of that applies to Brahmaputra. Even when the water level is low, it still is wide and flows at a considerable speed. Despite being so large, the map shows that Brahmaputra flows in a narrow channel near Guwahati compared to rest of Assam. I got to see her again in Tezpur where the bridge across the river is a few miles long.
Ferry to Peacock Island
I got down from the ferry and walked around on a bridle path that took me around the island. It took less than 10 minutes to complete the circle. The island has a mix of Bamboo and evergreen tropical trees and is rocky at some parts. The tiny island housed lot of life. I saw a few Asian Koels, some warblers, a Grey Tit, Magpie Robins, Jungle Babblers and a bunch of Mynas. I returned to this island a few weeks later to get photographs of the Golden Langurs, and also shot pictures of a pair of Grey Tits. The Langurs are a star attraction of the island.
Grey Tit
Golden Langurs are endemic primates found only in Manas National Park bordering Assam and Bhutan. A priest of Umananda temple is said to have brought a few young ones to the island and let them free. They grew up in the island, confined by the Brahmaputra and have grown used to humans. They are so accustomed that you can sit right next to them like you would sit with a buddy, and they still ignore your presence. May be they would even be thinking about saying hello to you but are constrained of speech. The Langur’s eye is very human like and has a strange draw when you look at it. They also looked very bored and lazy as they have little to do but eat what people give them, and roam around in the tiny island.
A Golden Langur
Umananda temple is located at the center of the island on the top of a hillock. It is a small temple, with the sanctum sanctorum located below ground level. Sanctorum is lit by wick lamps and little sunlight enters in. The burning lamps and the darkness surrounding it create an atmosphere of peace in the room.
I returned from the island and checked if I can take an evening cruise on Brahmaputra. But the cruises were not operating owing to a holiday, so all I could do is to spend the evening in my hotel.
To be continued..
Travelling in the North-East in the summer of 2006
Guwahati >> Eaglenest >> Tawang >> Nameri >> Kaziranga >> Shillong >> Cherrapunjee
+Previous: Bangalore to Guwahati
+Next: Umananda Temple and Peacock Island, Guwahati
+Go to the beginning of the series
I had a free day at Guwahati. I had arrived a day earlier than I needed to, so I can hang around and get a feel of Guwahati.
When I started for North East, I had an impression of Guwahati and rest of the North East in my mind. I had presumed that Guwahati would be a small town nestled between hills with Brahmaputra flowing on one side of the town. I expected the weather would be pleasant to cold and raining at times. I had distinctly remembered reading a news report a year ago that Guwahati is struggling to grow and is suffering from lack of space, resulting in hills in the periphery brought down to make way for construction(illegally, I presume). The mention of these hills had reinforced my impressions of Guwahati as small hilly town.
When I cruised down from airport to the city, I could see that the town is really growing, and fast. Real estate business seemed to be booming like any other city in India. Half the ad-hoardings on the road were of steel bars, cement and the like. As we cruised from airport to city, I realized that Guwahati is not a small town, but fairly big and growing. The city lies in the plains of Assam sandwiched between the hills of Meghalaya on one side and the mighty Brahmaputra on the other side, leaving it without much room to grow. It was just the beginning of summer and it was already getting hot and sticky during the day, not exactly the weather I had presumed.
Eastern part of the city has many small hills that probably mark the end of the Khasi hills of Meghalaya. It is these hills that are slowly brought down to make way for construction. The way Guwahati is growing, it feels just like Bangalore – in a mess!
Next day, I got to see another problem that plagues the city – traffic. In city’s busy Paltan Bazaar area where my hotel is located, traffic hardly gets to move forward. Roads often get choked for hours. The traffic is so immobile at places that you don’t even have to worry about parking space – just leave your car on the tail of the traffic and come back after you finish your work – it is very likely that nothing around has moved an inch and your car is safe where it was left! It is no exaggeration – I did see someone doing just that!
Two weeks later when I returned to Guwahati, it was raining and the traffic scene was worse. There was slush everywhere and the drains were overflowing but the traffic was no different, making it miserable for a pedestrian to move around.
To be continued..