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:

Previous: Amazing Arunachal – Nameri National Park and way to Ziro

Next: Amazing Arunachal – Way to Along and Mechuka

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:

Previous: Amazing Arunachal – Tawang, Journey towards Bumla

Next: Amazing Arunachal – Ziro and Daporijo

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