Amazing Arunachal – Ziro and Daporijo

May 24, 2014May 25, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 10:

Airtel Edge works at Ziro/Hapoli, so after long time we could connect to internet and HVK informed us Romin and Megha were in Ziro on same day and we could meet easily. They were a lovely couple, had been roaming the North East from start of October 2012 and almost covered entire North East in their backpack trip. Thanks to HVK for sharing their number. We started around 9.00 in morning after having breakfast, this day was reserved for a rest day after a long drive from Nameri and we decided to roam around Ziro on that day. We met Romin and Megha at Ziro and then first proceeded towards Hong Village, the largest village of Apatani tribes in that area. It was a nice one to soak into their cultures, Romin and Megha was taking serious notes of the conversation we had with the locals and I was busy as usual with my clicking. We tried to walk around the village and it was pretty nice though looking little dull after the crop seasons were over. I could imagine this place would look best during Spring / monsoon. In March they usually have the Apatani festival and may be one of the best time to visit this place. Once we completed our excursion to Hong, we proceeded to Momipholong, another nice place around 7 km away from Hong. You would get a good view of the valley from top. Then while coming back to Ziro, we went to see the Shivling which was natural and excavated some 10 years back. It looked quite natural and old but then it was discovered just 10 years back. The best part is the height of Shivling was around 25 ft and you would find Devi Parvati and Ganesha also embedded in the stones. There is also a constant flow of water just below the Shivling. Somehow I enjoyed the place which I usually don’t do much while visiting a religious place, we came back to Ziro and wished Megha and Romin best of luck for rest of their journey, had a very late lunch with just Maggi and went back to the Circuit House. It was amazing to see the evening approaching on the Hapoli from the Circuit House. We were about to go for another long journey tomorrow towards Daporijo, the heartland of Tagin Tribes.

Trek in Hong Village:

Apatani man:

Hong, the largest Apatani Village:

Momipholong:

Cute Apatani Girl:

So many colors:

Ziro Stadium:

Ziro Circuit House:

Day 11:

Ziro to Daporijo would be around 175km and we knew a long drive waiting for us. So woke up and quickly got our breakfast to start our journey by 8.00 in the morning. This is first time we have got the feel of typical Arunachal ambience, hills surrounded by dense forests and the serpentine road crossed through the deep green valleys with sun, clouds, mists playing around. Initially the day was sunny but more we proceeded, the sky started turning grey with clouds. In road side you would find locals selling fruits like Oranges. So cheap and so sweet the oranges were, just one costs a Rupee. We kept going at our own pace with some photographic breaks and a few tea breaks. The shared Sumo plying between Ziro and Daporijo were the only vehicles we encountered from opposite direction, otherwise it was a journey through the lonely road with mother nature all around.

The Driving Distances for the day:

479 – Start from Hapoli
538 – Tamen
558 – Raga
582 – Saddle
603 – Laa
655 – Daporijo.

Just before entering Daporijo, we could see the town just beside the Subansiri river, was looking so nice in the setting sun. This is a town in Arunachal which is not that welcoming in nature and you might have a hard time to find anything decent to stay here unless you book circuit houses in Daporijo or further 20km down to Damporijo. We booked the Daporijo Circuit house and even confirmed it from Ziro but by the time we reached there, the DC office was closed and the chowkidar declined us any accommodation citing that our name was not sent from DC Office as Guest. The trouble broke out, getting a phone be landline or mobile is extremely tough in this part of Arunachal, I started trying to contact the person in DC office with whom I spoken, fortunately I had his mobile number. He spoke to Chowkidar and confirmed the booking was sent from Office but Chowkider was insisting he couldn’t help unless he gets written permission. This is a major problem in Central and Eastern Arunachal where infrastructure is not yet ready and you have to depend on Govt CH / GH and availability of those accommodation would always be doubtful until you could finally check-in there. Anyway finally the Chowkidar found our names, he explained the paper gone below the stack as our name was sent quite early than usual. What a relief!!

The rooms were Ok and certainly the best possible accommodation in Daporijo. The cook prepared our dinner but we never saw the Chowkidar again as he was drunk completely by 7 in evening and was in his room only. We paid everything to cook and got receipts and signed the guest book as we understood we won’t be able to catch hold of the Chowkidar in early morning as we had to go for another 180km to Along on next day. We slept properly but this is the only place in whole Arunachal trip where we couldn’t arrange any accommodation for Ashim, finally he had to sleep in conference room sofa as that was a cold night and was raining almost through out the night.

Today’s Journey Map – Ziro to Daporijo

Road from Ziro towards Daporijo:

Cute and Pretty Faces:

The winding road goes on:

Daporijo, the first look:

Daporijo Circuit House:

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Amazing Arunachal – Nameri National Park and way to Ziro

May 24, 2014May 25, 2014 by Kaushik

Day8:

We woke up round 5.00 and get ready by 6.00 in morning with the forest guards already present there. We found the vehicle belongs to lodge actually going towards the start point of trek for getting woods, we were offered a lift and saved almost 2/3 km journey. While reaching the point we found the actual trek would start from other side of Jiabharali river a boat was waiting for us to get in that side. The river was quite deep as mentioned by the boatman and experiencing sunrise over Jiabharali river was simply fascinating. We had to walk another km or so on sands of Jiabharali to reach forest beat office and there we had to submit our permits and got the order to start our trek. The trek was fascinating inside the thick forest, we saw sambar deer, elephants, buffalos and many different birds. At some point of time our guard was little nervous as the herd of buffalos were almost charging to us but somehow we got escaped but the chilling current of nervousness flowing through our bones, we visited so many natural parks, wild life sanctuaries in India, but none seems to be so wild and virgin like what we felt in Nameri. We finished our trek of 8kms in almost slightly more than 2 hours. Then again 1 km trek on sand to catch boat and then 2 km walk on other side took us to Resort. We had a fabulous breakfast there as after a long time I walked for more than 10km at a stretch. I gave a call to Ashim and he was already on his way towards Nameri from Tinsukia. Good news but we were so tired, we left the idea of rafting as we had to go another 45 mins towards Bhalukpong by a car and the place was too hot to enjoy the rafting at noon. We preferred to take a much sought after rest after hectic 8 days of traveling and by evening Ashim reached safely with a new Bolero, that just ran less than 1000 km as per its Odo. We were happy and gone to sleep early as tomorrow we would enter more into Central Arunachal towards Ziro.

Sunrise over Jiabharali River at Nameri:

Pet Sambar Deer:

Indian Gaur:

The walking trail:

Elephant:

The Geometry:

We continue our walking:

Lots of Birds:

Nameri Eco Resort:

Day9:

With Ashim we started with new energy for the next and more interesting leg of our journey. We started quite early and for first 10km again it was a big struggle to proceed with extremely bad roads. After 10 km, road was smooth enough to sail at 60kmph easily. We reached Balipara which is around 17km from Nameri and there we take left on to NH52 for next 200km on very good surface where you could cruise around 80 kmph easily. We took our breakfast at Biswanath Chairali and moving through right (North) bank of Brahmaputra and as I mentioned this is the biggest hurdle in exploring Arunachal as every time you have to navigate through Assam in East-West direction and that definitely increase driving time, distances and most importantly complex permit issues as you have to repeatedly come out of various check gates from Arunachal and get into it through some other gates. 30km before North Lakhimpore, we took left turn towards Kimin Check gate and once again we had to face the bad roads. Till Kimin Check gate road was bad but surprisingly improved to some extent once we entered Arunachal again. Kimin is one of the closest check gates from Assam through which you can access Central Arunachal districts like Lower Subansiri, kurung Kamey. Serpentine roads through thick forest roads over hilly region had high similarity with Bhalukpong though road was better here and as usual number of tourists were much less in this circuit. Our permits were checked in Kimin Check Gates and then we were allowed to enter Arunachal. When I have come to this topic, I must say obtaining a month long tourist permit is difficult at least from Kolkata, they refused me to issue even 2 non-overlapping permits for 2 different regions and finally I had to get one in my name and other in my wife’s name sending her to Arunachal House to get rid of this problem. So those who are planning for more than 14 days trip and covering more than one check gate and especially planning to get it done from Kolkata, please plan accordingly. We booked our stay at Ziro Circuit House, but the circuit house is actually located at Hapoli, 5 km before Ziro town. You would get some alternative accommodation too in Ziro but Circuit House seems to be the most value for money, not just because of its cost but the excellent location, you would be able to see the whole Hapoli town from the circuit house. The drive from Nameri to Hapoli was almost 365km out of which 100km was in hilly terrain and so it was a tiring day for all of us. Ziro’s height was 5500 ft much lower than even Dirang but believe me, I have very rarely experienced more colder place than this in my life, don’t know how much the temperature was but it was chilling and even more difficult to sustain that what we faced in 10K ft height at Tawang. Nameri Eco Resort Manager specifically told us about this infamous cold of Ziro but that time we didn’t put much importance to that considering it was just 5500 ft height. But certainly it was a cold place may be because of some special air circulation or for some other reason. We were tired, had our dinner and quickly retired for the day.

A quick Odo reading for the day:

104 – Nameri
121 – Balipara
173 – Biswanath Chariali
333 – Kimin Check Gate
345 – Hawa Camp
356 – Lichi
375 – Potin
383 – Pussa
394 – Yazali
409 – Yachuli
424 – Joram Top
430 – Hapoli
435 – Hapoli Circuit House

Today’s journey Map : Nameri National Park to Ziro

Just after crossing Kimin Check Gate:

On the way to Ziro:

From Hapoli Circuit House – view of Hapoli Town:

At Ziro:

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Amazing Arunachal – Tawang, Journey towards Bumla

May 24, 2014May 25, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 5:

It was an important day for us and luckily we got a great weather and the Tawang Monastery was looking awesome from the other side. Gayki Khang hotel probably offers you one of the best view of Tawang Monastery. The day was sunny with blue sky but quite cold after last night’s snow. The Tawang town looks so beautiful with fresh white snow and the surrounding mountains are all glittering in the sun light. We skeptically started our journey after having breakfast. Within 10/12km of Tawang Town the road started to be filled up with snow only. The place where our permits were checked, army men clearly told us, it was impossible to go even up to PTSO without snow chain, but we assured him we would only try till we could go without taking any risk and then would return. But by the time we reached around 3 km from PTSO, our driver, Dipankar started loosing his confidence and didn’t really want to proceed, It was difficult indeed with snow and ice (some hard ice) with some amount of skidding but definitely doable had we been having a local driver from hill. We even found couple of cars proceeded further but Dipankar was so nervous, we didn’t press him any further. He needed BRO guys help to do a reverse on his Bolero and that’s one important lessons we learnt that day, if you expect challenging hill driving with ice / snow etc. be careful while choosing your driver, inexperienced drivers in those conditions would surely fail 99% times. We even tried to walk and gone almost 2 km in that icy/snowy condition at that 13K height but then we found it was even beyond the condition for walking, we were slipping in every alternate steps and then called off our mission as sky started turning gloomy quite quickly. We were more than happy with our day playing in on lots of snow and a white carpet all around but definitely missed Madhuri Lake and Bumla for which I believe you need luck and good driver if you try it in December. One major snow fall can change the whole scenario. Later we learnt the cars were not allowed beyond the PTSO either towards Bumla or towards Madhuri as snow was much heavier after that but finally what happened was we had lot of times left for that day to visit War Memorial at Tawang and the Tawang Monastery where paintings were simply fabulous. We had to shift our hotel too and moved to place more close to main market but still quite isolated from the crowds and charged for a very nice room of around 1000/- with heating. It was much cheaper and value for money than what we got in Gayki Khang. Somehow I couldn’t remember the hotel name but I certainly collect the number and try to put in end of the log.

Tawang after last night’s snow fall:

Tawang from Top:

The snow bound land turns more white as we progress:

Enroute PTSO:

War Memorials at Tawang:

View of Tawang from Monastery:

Mother and Baby:

Inside Tawang Monastery:

Inside Frescos of Tawang Monastery:

Day 6:

The day was nice and sunny but simply the feeling of taking the same route all the way from Tawang to Bhalukpong was making me sick. Arunachal Govt should and must resume reliable helicopter service or should improve the road at earliest, I heard by 2014 end the whole road would be ready but really doubtful considering the work culture of this part of India. We started the day early and first destination was Jung Falls, that we missed while coming as it was late. But Location of falls was so weird, it was difficult to get proper sunlight any time of the day for good photography but the location was really amazing. We proceeded further to Jaswantgarh, had the wonderful samosas and tea by army again but moved as quick as possible to cross the Sela pass before it’s getting late. We also knew about the bad stretch of road between Baisakhi and Dirang. During our return journey, Sela was even more windy and we didn’t want to wait there anymore and straight away proceeded to Dirang. When we reached Dirang around 4.00pm, day light started fading out and we started searching for hotel. Dirang is really having very few hotel, except Pemaling nothing is that good or standard but with help of Dipankar we were able to find a nice hotel, Snow Lion which was pretty standard for a night stay I would say and cost us just Rs. 700/- where as Pemaling’s lowest rate room cost would be Rs. 2200. We had a nice dinner and wonderful night there.

On the way back from Tawang to Dirang:

Hotel Snow Lion at Dirang:

Day 7:

We started another long journey towards Nameri and it was an eventless day as we crossed the same road again via Bomdila, Tenga, Sessa and Bhalukpong. We noticed for the first time in trip a late start almost around 9.00 in morning by Dipankar, he always used to take breakfast with us during entire trip which he broke first time for the trip and in morning gone alone to have his breakfast. Anyway we were ok with that, As we reached Bomdila, he refueled the car but just after crossing Bomdila he said there is some bushing problem in front wheels that he needed to change then only, we surprised and asked why he didn’t do it in morning, he said it was not that bad in morning, we were fine with that but we understood we were loosing significant time of the day. Then at Tenga, he took a break again for us to buy some fruits etc, but once we returned we didn’t find him for at least next 20 mins. We started from Tenga around 1.30pm which was late and then in Sessa when none of us were ready to take lunch, Dipankar insisted he had to take, finally we reached at Bhalukpong by 4.30pm when light started fading out, once again he took a tea break and then wasted some more time in Check Gate. We started from Bhalukpong around 5.00pm and reached Nameri finally around 6.00/ 6.30 as road was terribly bad and it was absolutely dark. After reaching Nameri we had a cup of tea and finally when I started the settlement with Dipankar reasons for all the delays since morning were clear to me. We hired him for 7 days and it was 7th day evening now he claimed as it was 6.30 and he couldn’t reach Guwahati on that day, he would charge for 8 days. His intention was clear to me by then and I again called up Rampal who actually got me connected to Dipankar. Rampal intervened and persuaded him somehow and saved my day otherwise honestly speaking it’s extremely difficult to trust most of these North East Drivers, Dipankar was sober, co-operative, punctual for most of the time, polite and most importantly didn’t drink while driving but he was definitely not honest. Anyway we ended our first part of the trip and was little shocked as well as we didn’t expect this nasty surprise from Dipankar on last day. But anyway day after tomorrow onwards we would start our next part of the trip, which should be more pristine and lesser known places and more importantly with someone whom I knew earlier, Ashim, the guy who drove me in Eastern Arunachal. We had some other things to do like getting Nameri Forest Permits / arranging for forest guard as there is still no Jeep / Elephant Safari available in Nameri, it’s simply walk with one armed guard, sometimes feel scary too but an experience you should never miss out. Everything can be done from Forest Office which is located just behind the lodge and anybody who works there in lodge can help you to get the permit. We took both forest visit and rafting permits for all 3 of us and a forest guard was allocated to us, we were asked to be ready by 6.00am in morning to start the safari. We had our dinner and retired for the day.

On the way back from Dirang to Nameri:

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Amazing Arunachal – Tawang , Journey to Zemithang

May 24, 2014May 25, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 4:

This was our first full day in Tawang and the day was neither fully clear, nor completely cloudy, it was slightly foggy and cold morning and we were ready for our trip to Zemithang. Zemithang is towards extreme western end of Tawang district and the state of Arunachal, in the border of China (Tibet) and Bhutan. This is around 100km from Tawang and day trip would cost you a full day. Apart from the famous Chorten in Gorsam (Just few km before Zemithang), the natural beauties of the place would keep you spell bound. This is completely different than what you see in high mountains of Tawang, the whole route is through much lower elevation and you would find lots of trees and greeneries and amazing fall colors (even in early December) through out the route. The terrain matches more closely to Bhutan and now a new road is almost built up to border of Bhutan and work is being progressed for a connecting road from Bhutan end, which when completed, would give a new corridor of business between Bhutan and India apart from existing borders in Phuntsoling (through WB) and Somdrup Jonkhar (through Assam). The road is one of the best I found in Arunachal Pradesh and scenery is simply mind boggling. I also strongly suggest if possible stay a day in Zemithang, there is an Inspection Bungalow which usually be available and enjoy the serenity of the place. If you are traveling in October / November, even better is to plan a round trip from Tawang to PTSO to Madhuri Lake to Y Junction to Taksang Gompha and then to Zemithang and then back to Tawang through the valley route. I missed it as the road between Y Junction and Taksang was blocked and even road to Madhuri lake experienced heavy snowfall for last few days. The chorten at Gorsam usually be opened once in 7 years and it’s very famous to Buddhists. We tried to move another 8 km in a half broken roads towards the border at Kenzamane and stopped by ITBP there, they didn’t allow us to proceed without formal pass from Tawang Brigade but I heard from them, if you could go till border (another 3 km from that point), you could see the Tibetan village on the other side of McMahan line.

Gorsam Chorten at Zemithang: (taken from Tawang Official Web site)

This is situated 90 Kms from Tawang town. This Stupa is the largest Stupa of the area. This Gorsam Chorten is believed to have constructed in the early part of 12th century by Lama Pradhar, a Monpa monk. The semi-circular dome niddling high into the sky rests upon a three-terraced plinth. Four miniature stupas are also set on the four corners of the lower most terraced of the plinth. The base is squared with each side about 170 fts. in length with a niche running along its whole length and 120 manis are set in wooden frames. A well-paved footpath goes around the Stupa for pilgrims to go round about praying (Kora).

After spending a nice day at Lumla and Zemithang, we started our return journey through same route towards Tawang, my intention was to take the high mountain route through Taksang and Y Junction and but everyone at Zemithang advised us not to take that route because of then weather and it was raining there in the valley means snowing in the upper reach and the road is very isolated and you might not get any help if you get stranded. So coming back through same road was the only possibility and we reached Tawang in evening when light was just fading out. After reaching hotel I first enquired about Bumla permit and Hotel manager told the road was blocked beyond PTSO and people couldn’t even reach Madhuri Lake on that day. I called Pabitra and he initially told me that day permit was not issued by army and they would evaluate situation on next day and issue if situation improves, sounded convincing but somewhere I smelt something wrong in his behaviour. I started quizzing him in depth, asked him to handover the permit he obtained from DC Office and I planned to visit myself the brigadier office. Then he started fumbling and told he would be able to manage it tomorrow and when I insisted he told that he couldn’t collect the permit from DC office itself, now that was surprising, when I asked why, he started showing lame excuses like power was gone, photo copy machine was not running, DC was not there and many more. Now I asked him to return my money back, he said he had to travel to Army HQ in a cab, so he spent 200 there, when I encountered him why he gone to army when he didn’t collect the DC permit in first place, he couldn’t answer but stuck to his earlier stand he would refund me partially. This was really irritating, first of all he messed up my Bumla plan and next he was trying to be smart. I called up directly Rampal and spoken to him at length explaining him the situation. Once he intervened Pabitra returned me the money he took but snapped Bumla from my itinerary. So lessons learnt is don’t trust these hotel guys, if you want to visit Bumla, either connect to local cabs and spend a full day in Tawang and get involved in the process of obtaining permits unless you know someone very reliable. Anyway we decided two things on that day, first we would try to go on next day as much as we can as from that day evening it started snowing quite heavily even in Tawang town, so realistically we might not have much of a chance to reach Bumla and second was we would leave Gayki Khang and move to some more value for money hotel as we really took this permit incident as a cheating from hotel’s part. We retired for the day and prayed for a nice day tomorrow.

Morning View of Tawang Monastery:

On the way to Zemithang:

Fall colors at its best:

The zig-zag road towards Bhutan Border (Road is completed till border from India end and still in progress in Bhutan side, when completed, this would give a third option of entering India to Bhutan apart from existing Phuntsholing and Somdrup Jhonkar)

Zemithang Valley:

Waterfalls on the way:

Famous Gorsam Chorten:

Zemithang – a place one must spend a night

The gushing river:

Posing for a photograph:

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Amazing Arunachal – Nameri National Park and on the way to Tawang

May 24, 2014May 25, 2014 by Kaushik

As I mentioned, moving from west to east in Arunachal is difficult because of lack of a trans Arunachal road from west to east and one needs to plan meticulously to break the trip so that you have enough time to come to Assam plains and have time in hand to manage uncertainties of Arunachal. Our plan to was to cover the more touristy western part first mainly because of two reasons, this region is highest and can snowbound anytime after December, so earlier we could cover it is better, second reason is obviously we wanted to avoid the Christmas/New Year crowds in these tourist locations. So we booked an early flight to Guwahati from Kolkata which reaches Guwahati by 7.20 in morning. This is again a little gamble during December in North East as fog may ruin your plan but anyway many times I have seen fog started to become heavier after 6 and fortunately for us it was a clear morning. We arrived Guwahati little late as Guwahati had a foggy condition and flight was delayed by 30mins there. Our first destination would be western Arunachal covering Tawang. No need of much planning required here as this circuit has tourism infrastructure developed already. We contacted Rampal who was once associated with Gayki Khang Hotel in Tawang but now a days shifted his base from Tawang to Guwahati. The person is helpful and in at least in 2 occasions he saved us from ridiculous cheating attempts which are common in this sector. Our requirement was a car like Bolero and driver who at least won’t drink while driving and know how to behave with passengers (this is very difficult to get in this circuit as I have seen many trips here ruined simply because of drivers). Rampal ensured that would happen and introduced me to Dipankar who would be around his late Twenties and drives a Bolero. The rate of car in this circuit is extremely high mainly because of the bad road the car has to encounter through its journey till Tawang. It can vary between 4500 to 5000 a day if you hire it from Assam. If you get a Tezpur line cab (regularly plying between Tezpur and Tawang), you might get it in 3500 range but might face terribly conditioned cars and an extremely unfriendly driver who might start charging you for even a diversion of a km. The Guwahati cars charge you more but if you can manage a good driver (from some contacts) at least your trip would be peaceful. You can take them for any sightseeing in Tawang (which usually takes 2/3 days) but if you travel in winter months, my suggestion would be spend few bucks more but keep your car idle in Tawang and take a local cab for sightseeing on high mountains like Madhuri Lake / Bumla where you would reach a height of 15K ft. The Assam drivers badly lack confidence in high hill driving in snow condition, (and this is generic, don’t think it’s a specific case that happened with me) would elaborate this in depth later.

Day 1:

As we arrived Guwahati, Dipankar, our driver for next 7 days was there with a small token gift from Rampal. The things started well, we left airport and drove through Assam plains in a misty morning. Our first stop was to take breakfast and fill up diesel but before that at the junction where we touch NH52, a truck suddenly took a bad turn and fortunately missed the Bolero by fraction, the tail light was gone, Dipankar stopped the car, found the backlight needed replacement but considering our delay in reaching destination, he didn’t chase back the truck, we felt bad but appreciated his professionalism that he considered about his guests. The journey till Tezpur is non-specific, it’s just like a drive in any Bengal’s highway, the scenery is very same but road conditions are certainly better in Assam. We reached Tezpur in 5 hours from Guwahati with all stops and from there I called up the manager of Nameri Eco Resort, where we are scheduled to stay our first night. From Tezpur we continue through NH52 till Balipara, where we leave the NH and took the straight road towards Bhalukpong. From Balipara to Nameri Eco Camp is 17km out of which last 10km is extremely bad due to road construction. You have to take right just after the board of Nameri National Park to a unpaved road which is difficult to spot if you reach there after sunset. Another 2 km on that unpaved road would take you to Nameri Eco Camp. We reached there around 3.00 in afternoon but during this time sun sets in this part of India around 4.00, so we didn’t have much to explore and neither we planned for that. We kept a full day in Nameri during our return trip and planned to explore the area on that day. The Eco Camp is setup by Govt, Forest Department and local people and very nicely located and provided us excellent warm welcome and we were surprised by the quality of foods and helping nature of their staff in that remote location. There around 13 tents and 2 huts in Eco Camp, we booked the hut and was happy with the arrangement. We were tired, had a nice dinner and retired early for another long day.

Nameri Eco Resort:

Day 2:

We woke up early and Dipankar was ready and we started around 7.30 after taking breakfast in Eco Camp, today our destination would be Bomdila. Now while going from Nameri / Bhalukpong to Tawang, people usually break either at Bomdila or Dirang, Dirang is more beautiful than the small and little congested Bomdila. But we chose Bomdila primarily because Bomdila is at 8000+ ft height would give us better acclimatization before Tawang (10500 ft). Till Bhalukpong check gate the road is bad and once the permit is checked and Arunachal is started, next 20 km road was simply pathetic, you can hardly go at 10kmph speed. The mountains started just after the check gate but it was lush green forested mountains all around, the journey was pleasant except the bouncy road. Till Sessa the road was very bad. From Sessa you would find the road diversion towards Seppa, the district Capital of East Kameng District, we gone straight and the road suddenly became much better and the landscape has started changing, now we realized we were entering high hills, small valleys, fast streams, waterfalls started appearing in both side of the road. But this region would certainly give you a mixed feelings of mountains and rain forests due to its unique nature. We skipped Tipi Orchid Sanctuary, which is another known destination for tourists as it was closed for some reason on that day. The next big town after Sessa would be Tenga and road between Sessa and Tenga is probably the best stretch in the whole Tezpur – Tawang section. We had some snacks at Tenga as we reached there already very late for having dinner and then we started for Bomdila. As I mentioned sunset happens around 4.00pm during this time, we reached Bomdila when almost it’s getting dark and the place was all surrounded by clouds, mists and fogs. We accepted the wet welcome to Arunachal gladly and decided to stay at Bomdila Monastery GH, which might not be the best in town but certainly most value for money. At Rs. 1500 we got a suit with hitting, clean bath room with geyser and balcony. Absolutely loved it, much smaller rooms are being sold in 2000 there and the location of monastery GH is better as it’s slightly out of the main town. We had our dinner (You only could get Veg there) it was indeed tasty and then retired for the day.

Bhalukpong by the side of Jiabharali:

On the way to Tenga:

Bomdila Monastery Guest House:

A Misty evening in Bomdila:

Day 3:

Next day we had a long road to cover, especially Sela Pass, so Dipankar wanted to start by 7.00 in morning, at 6.30 we all were ready but found Dipankar still sleeping, may be it was a hectic day for him back to back. Anyway he was very co-operative and got ready very quickly and we started from Bomdila on a foggy morning. The roads were not at its best but good I would say in Arunachal’s standard. The vistas were nice, all green mountains around covered with fog and clouds, river gushing through deep gorge below, sometimes the valley got opened up suddenly and you would find farming activities in place. It was nice start in a chilly morning, in couple of hours we entered Dirang, another nice valley and we found much sought after Sun for the first time in the day there. Dirang is indeed a gorgeous valley, looks much beautiful than Bomdila but it’s at a much lower altitude (at least 2K ft lower than Bomdila), we already had a plan to stay here during our return journey, so didn’t wait much, we proceeded further and the nightmarish road started just after we crossed Dirang. It was almost a no road condition for almost next 40km which would take at least more than 2 hours. The road widening was going on and it was being completely re-laid and with heavy flow of tourist vehicles, local vehicles and army convoy this was hell of a journey, it was all dust if dry, all mud if wet. The situation changed after Senge where the road condition significantly improved until Baisakhi, an army station before Sela Pass. Now the road started gaining height significantly as we could see the ice beside the road and the snow covered trees just before the Sela. Sela is at almost 14K height and Dirang side always clouded and covered with heavy fog and mist but the Tawang side located in rain shadow was having a clear sky but Sela is notorious for its high wind in the afternoon. We really couldn’t stand the wind for more than couple of mins with heavy woolens, it was so cold. Sela lake was awesome, it was partly frozen and we couldn’t resist to spend some funny moments there, my daughter was super excited as it was her first experience to jump on a frozen lake. But the wind chill and the long road yet to be traveled, couldn’t allow us to wait there for long. We started our downward journey from Sela and after some magnificent vista, we reached Jaswantgarh. Road in this side of Sela is relatively better than the other side. The army war memorial and an army canteen were the points of attraction. The Canteen serves tea free of cost and one of the most delicious Samosa I ever had in my life for just Rs. 5/- I bought one nice army jacket at a throw away price of Rs. 500/-. Some more break and we started further towards Jang, the waterfall there was a major attraction which we decided to cover during our return journey as the light started turning poor by then. Another 40km of tedious journey finally brought us to Tawang and by that time it was completely dark and the road before entering Tawang was really horrible. Anyway as Rampal arranged Hotel Gayki Khang for us, we straight away gone there mainly because of 2 reasons. First was we didn’t want to search hotels with good heating system after such a tiring day and secondly Rampal assured us he would do the needful to get me a Bumla Pass. To get to the Indo-China border at Bumla, you need 2 permits, one from DC office at Tawang and then same has to be produced and countersigned by Army Brigade at Tawang. The first thing after checking in our room, I called up Pabitra who was supposed to get us the permit as per Rampal. He came and collected documents like one photocopy of ILP and one photocopy of any of the Govt issued Photo I-Card like Passport, Voter Id etc. for each one of us. I was surprised when he asked for Rs. 600 for getting this done especially when DC Office was just next to the hotel and the entire process shouldn’t cost much. Anyway I agreed as I had complete trust on Rampal and I really had no time to spend an entire day to do this activity in Tawang, if you have time, especially for those who would keep a day for local sightseeing, may easily do it for themselves. About the hotel, I would say it was clean and nicely located slightly out of main city, you could have a good glimpse of Tawang Monastery from the hotel itself and the quality of food was really good but truly not that value for money, it’s one of the costliest hotel in Tawang. We had a nice dinner and retired for the day.

Bhalukpong – Tawang Road:

Approaching Dirang:

Beautiful Dirang:

Towards Baisakhi:

Things turn more white as we approach Sela:

Sela Pass:

Sela Lake from Pass:

Frozen Sela Lake:

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Amazing Arunachal – Tawang, Ziro, Along, Mechuka, Tuting : Introduction

May 24, 2014May 25, 2014 by Kaushik

When I last visited Arunachal, 2 years back I fell in love with the state, the awesome landscape starting from rainforests of eastern part to alpine meadows of western part meeting mighty Himalayas, the high mountains all around, deep gorges carving its way with blue waters gushing in, you can clearly see and feel the rapids from top. Waterfalls in almost every bend, in one turn its vast blue sky and in next turn in completely filled up with fog and mist. Arunachal will surprise you in every moment, the other aspect is the diversified culture, it’s completely a tribal state and there are 101 recognized tribes in Arunachal and mostly believe in different religions like Donyi Polo (Sun and Moon), Hinduism, Christianity etc. The state has borders with 3 foreign countries, Bhutan in west, Tibet (Now People Republic of China) in North and Myanmar in East. Tourism is not developed except the western part of Tawang sector, which was developed by late Mr. Dorje Khandu, the former chief minister of Arunachal who belonged to Tawang. The state buses sparsely run through the main towns but still Shared Sumo service is the most common mode of transport for locals, in almost all districts you would still find 30% villages not having any road connectivity and still depend on long trek to meet their daily needs. Actually northern part of Arunachal was more closely connected with Tibet through 4/5 different passes until British drew McMahan line in 1913 as per Shimla Accord with Tibet. The usual business with Tibet had been going on until China disregarded the McMahan line and attacked India in 1962 in both Ladakh and Arunachal sector. Since then all the passes were closed and the whole border with China/Tibet was closed and people were forced to walk 3/4 days through treacherous mountains and dense forests to come down to Indian plains to start their new lives. When we visited places like Gelling, merely a km from McMahan line, the elders were telling us the sad stories how they suddenly got partitioned from their near and dear ones living just couple of km across other side of border since 1962. The state is covered by mountains from west to east and deep river gorges from North to South including Kameng, Subansiri, Siyom, Siang, Dibang and Lohit that created mighty Brahmaputra river system. So traveling the state is extremely difficult from west to east as there is a lack of trans-Arunachal highway which is presently being built with the aid from Central Govt. Every time you have to come down 300 km to Assam and then again have to go up another 300km to reach another spot. So you need at least 45 days just for a touch and go trip to visit the prominent areas of state. So better if you could make multiple visits. Last time we covered Eastern Parts covering Lower and Upper Dibang Valley, Lohit, Anjaw and Changlang districts, this time we covered western and part of central covering, West Kameng, Tawang, Lower Subansiri, Upper Subansiri, West Siang, East Siang and Upper Siang.

The 5 major ancient trade points between Tibet and Arunachal was through Kenzamane (Zemithang), Bumla (Tawang), Kapangla Pass (Gelling), Lolla Pass (Mechuka), Dumla Pass (Monigong) and Kibithu. Except Bumla (where civilians are allowed with passes from DC and Army) all the other borders are closed for civilians. Our main intention was to travel as close as possible to these points to trace the historical McMahan line. We covered Kibithu in last trip, so tried to touch upon the rest of the points.

Our itinerary was like this:

Day1 – Kolkata – Guwahati Flight and drive to Nameri
Day2 – Nameri – Bhalukpong – Bomdila
Day3 – Bomdila – Dirang – Tawang
Day4 – Tawang – Zemithang – Tawang
Day5 – Tawang PTso – Sengetsar Lake – Bumla – Tawang
Day6 – Tawang – Sela Pass – Dirang
Day7 – Dirang – Bhalukpong – Nameri
Day8 – Exploring Nameri National Park
Day9 – Nameri – Balipara – Kimin – Ziro
Day10- Around Ziro
Day11- Ziro – Daporijo
Day12- Daporijo – Along
Day13- Along – Tato – Mechuka
Day14- Mechuka
Day15- Mechuka – Tato – Along
Day16- Along – Pangin – Jengging
Day17- Jengging – Tuting
Day18- Tuting – Gelling – Tuting
Day19- Tuting – Jengging
Day20- Jengging – Along
Day21- Along – Shilapathar – Bogibil (By Ferry crossing Brahmaputra)- Dibrugarh – Tinsukia
Day22- Tinsukia – Dibrugarh – Flight to Kolkata