Jengging – Explore The Unexplored

Day 15:

It was time say good bye to Mechuka, we really wanted to stay one more day and booked IB accordingly but then again we had to slog in some other section of road as our plan was to visit Gelling, the last Indian Village before McMahan line in Upper Siang District. We retraced back the same route via Tato to Along and this time the weather was much better and sunny and we enjoyed photography through out the journey. In a relatively eventless day, we reached Mechuka well before dusk around 2.00pm and again checked in into Along Circuit House. We did some shopping in the evening as Along had quite big a market and most of the shops were selling at wholesaler’s price. We restocked ourselves and also the fuel before we started our journey through Siang on next day. Tuting would be the destination but it was almost 320km from Along and almost impossible to drive in a day. So we decided to stay at Jengging for a night in both our up and down journey.

That day some people broken down the BSNL towers in Along and the only connection to outside world (After Ziro onwards we didn’t get any mobile signal except BSNL) was snapped. Couldn’t even call home and failed to reach the CO of Jengging as well to reconfirm our stay there in Circuit House. We had a nice dinner in Circuit House and planned to start as early as possible on next day towards Jengging.

Journey Map from Along to Tuting by Jengging:

On the way from Mechuka to Tato:

Mists all over the Siyom Gorge:

The streams beside the road:

Some Butterfly shots:

Siyom flowing through the deep gorge:

Siyom Valley:

Siyom taking a big turn:

The Bridge over Siyom:

Day 16:

Jengging is only around 130km away from Along, so we didn’t have much hurry to start the day. We had our breakfast and started the day around 9.00 in morning. The road initially went by the side of Siyom river and the road condition was worsened as we were moving away from Along. It was a nice drive through the relatively traffic less road with we being the only car traveling. We stopped in couple of the places and took the photographs as the Siyom valley was changing colors in every turn. After a drive of 16km from Along, the straight road was continuing towards Yingkiong, district capital of Upper Siyang District where as the right turn would take you would towards Pasighat. As we heard from locals, the road widening activities were going on between Along and Pasighat stretch and the condition was pathetic. We continued straight for another 30 km crossing one more small village called Panging before we crossed an iron bridge over Siyom and just while crossing it we found the place where Siyom was meeting Siyang. That was a splendid moment to have a dream come true, first view of mighty Siang. Siang, actually originated from Manas Sarovar, flowing eastwards covering a lot of lands in Tibet, known as Tsangpo, created a deep gorge (Known as deepest gorge in world as ‘Tsangpo Gorge’) and took almost a U turn near Namchabarwa (one of mightiest peak of Eastern Himalayas) to become south bound and enter into Arunachal Pradesh in India, named as Siang. This joined with Dibang and Lohit in Pasighat later forms mighty Brahmaputra river system in Assam before it enters into Bangladesh. It’s another dream for me to visit the origin of this great river system in Tibet if possible in future. The place where Siyom meets Siang is named as Boling. Now for rest of the journey till we touch McMahan line, Siang would always be with us as we drive through its right bank towards Jengging – Tuting. A further drive of 25 km up in North brought us to a place called Dite Dime, locally known as 65 miles (Probably because the distance between this place and along is around 65 miles). We took our tea break here, brought some of the cheapest and sweetest oranges we have ever bought in our lives. Here you would find the only motorable bridge so far built on Siang river, crossing the bridge and driving for another 53km would take you to district capital, Yingkiong. We proceeded straight as we wanted to visit Tuting and Gelling and further drive of 65km took us to Jengging, a relatively quieter town, on the right bank of Siang river. After you leave Along, the fuels were available in Boling and then in Jengging. After Jengging for next 220km up to last Indian road in Gelling, you won’t find any fuel station. So we did a tank full at Jengging and then started searching for the circuit house. There is no alternate accommodation at Jengging other than Govt Circuit house and it’s probably the best located Circuit house we have ever stayed in Arunachal, built at top most point of Jengging. The caretaker was a Nepali person and he was again the best host we had in our whole trip. We got VIP room there which was actually having separate drawing room, a bed room and a very nice attached toilet. The large windows in the room were overlooking the mountains and Siang river. All those cost us Rs. 50 a night, don’t think anything ever could be more value for money . We reached by 2.00pm comfortably there and stroll around Jengging enjoyed a nice sunset there. We were introduced with the officer in charge of local police station who brought his family to the circuit house to spend the lazy evening. He said the crime rate in Upper Siang is lowest among whole Arunachal and it was one of the most peaceful places he had ever got his posting. The food was also one of the best we have ever got in the whole trip. Even the next day as we had a long journey without any proper place to eat, he prepared roti / sabji for us by 6.00 in the morning (actually before sunrise in that cold). We enjoyed the day with overwhelming hospitality in Jengging and retired for the day mentally prepared for a challenging next day.

The driving distances for the day:

268 – Along
284 – Diversion to Pasighat
291 – Panging
314 – Boling
341 – Dite Dime (65 miles where the road bifurcates to Yingkiong at right)
363 – Riga
388 – Paksang
404 – Jengging

Siyom Valley from Along – Panging Road:

The point where Siyom meets Siang (at far) :

One of the many suspension foot bridges on Siang:

Oranges everywhere:

Siang Basin:

A local family going their village to celebrate Christmas:

Siang takes a big turn:

Beautiful Siang:

Jengging Circuit House Room @ Rs. 50/-

Jengging Circuit House – Outside:

Sunset on snow peaks:

Previous: Amazing Arunachal – Mechuka Continued

Next: Amazing Arunachal – Journey to Tuting and Gelling

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