April 25 | Will do this Any Given Sunday!

Because of the late night, we slept in a little late today and got out of bed only at 9AM. Zoro’s dad had fixed Horseback rides for all of us. These were army trained horses, but the ones who could not make it to the best of the best ones that are used during parades and other sports like Polo etc. Not just well trained, these were also well fed horses, almost as big as the stallions, they towered in front of my stout frame. We went to the open grounds and mounted ourselves on the horses and while Saigal and Zoro pretty much got the drift of how to handle these sturdy machines, i got off the horse-back in a matter of fifteen minutes, I could barely manage to balance myself. After this we also visited the Shilong Peak from where we could look over the entire city and realized that the city is actually HUGE.

The rest of the Sunday was spent unwinding and recovering from all the activity in the past week. Tomorrow will be our return to Guwahati.

April 24 | A lesson in Bio-Engineering

Normally starting the day at 6AM is a task, but in a place like Cherrapunjee, i felt like the more time i spend inside the room, i would be wasting my trip. After a quick wash and breakfast, we started our trek to the ‘Living Root Bridge’ (LRB).

I don’t claim to be a regular trekker, but most treks start with climbing UP to the destination, this one was the opposite, we started with walking down. While it was a walk down, it was nothing like an easy walk. No exaggeration, but a few parts of the path were almost 50 degree slopes with stones along the way to hold ourselves while going up and down these paths. We had been given staffs to maintain balance while walking down.

Our guide for the trek was this local who called himself ‘Bat’, he told us a few things about the LRB and also told us a little about himself. Trek guiding for him was more of an interest and not a source of income, he basically is into cultivating Beetle Nuts and spices. The may look very unassuming, just like the people from the north-eastern mountains, but he could walk up and down this trek in less than quarter of the time that most people took and he did this twice a week. We all had our shoes/boots, staffs, caps etc for the trek, but he came in a simple track suit along with slippers but still he was far more nimble as compared to anyone of us.

The LRB as Bat told us are over 100 years old andhave come to be known as a marvel in Bio-Engineering. The only one of its kind in the world, the first LRB was made by an man called Staton, unfortunately, he could not live long enough to see the completed bridge but his achievement is recognized and covered by channels in Japan, India and a few other places. Many documentaries have been made profiling the LRBs across the forests of Cherrapunjee. We went to the LRB called ‘Ummunoi’, and as seen from the pictures, the structure is a marvel of nature. Basically 100 years back when the villagers felt the need to cross the many streams, Staton started growing trees on the banks of these streams and over time tied their roots to each other. In the past 100 years, these roots have grown thick and got entangled to create these natural bridges. They are extremely sturdy and can handle immense weights. The one seen in the picture is a single bridge, these are similar bridges with two levels, while we could not see them, it can easily be imagined that they would’ve not fallen short of awing us even further.

We spend sometime at the LRB, taking dip in the stream and clicking random pictures. After about an hour, we started our walk back up, it was an eye-opener of how we lack any stamina. After getting back to the hotel, we had a shower, wound up lunch and left from Cherra Resort. If you visit Cherrapunjee, choose this place to stay over any other, there are clean rooms and they are great hosts.

The skies had decided to make up for yesterday’s fog fiasco and managed to remain clear through our drive back. We went back to the first stop we had made on our drive up and got to see the valley in all its glory. An unbelievably beautiful drive!

We got back to Shilong, chilled for sometime at Zoravar’s after which we left to explore the night life in Shilong. At first we came to this pub called ‘Cloud 9’, it was a great place about two years back, but now has become a den for the oldies trying to be young. After some quick checks, we discoverd this underground bar called ‘Tango’. The evening was a bob Marley special with a live band performing only reggae. After listening to them, i was wondering, what are these guys doing performing at an underground bar, they should ideally be promoted and their music distributed. I got pretty pasted and was tired as well because of which, i was unable to sustain there for too long and decided to walk back to the car. I personally remember telling one of the boys that i’m leaving but they claim i just disappeared because of which they spent a lot of time looking for me all over the place. Zoro seemed a little miffed and when they came back to the car, his gesture said all of what he wanted to say without uttering a word. But guess, i understand and hence don’t blame him for getting angry. We got back home gorged on home-made food and crashed at about 3AM.

Moral: Wear proper trekking boots while heading to LRB. Carry rain-sheeters but not umbrella, difficult to manage an umbrella. Carry extra trunks, its a nice dip in the stream under the LRB. Never give-up on a foggy sky, it can clear just as suddenly as it appears. Shilong has a great music culture, remember to visit ‘Tango’ if you are in town.

April 23 | My Camera’s first fall :(

In school when they taught us about the rainiest place on earth, i thought who would ever want to stay there? How can there possibly be any population? But today i take back my words, Cherrapunjee has managed to awe me today like no other place has. Read on for more about the place and experience.

A great host in Zoravar’s dad, Mr Amarjit Singh; made us comfortable enough to have a good night’s sleep which made it convenient for us to leave at 6AM. We had the super-drivers who took us to Kazironga as well, Shankar Ram and Jai Prakash, they drove us in the siren-armoured jeeps to the destination. Along with them uncle also sent Kuttan who was in charge of keeping us well fed and take care of, he also doubled us as a pseudo guide, telling us about the places to watch out for. While the distance from Shilong to Cherrapunjee is only 56 kms, we had multiple pit-stops on the way, because of which we reached our destination by early evening.

When we left, we were excited about going to Cherrapunjee, but didn’t have a clue about what we will get to see, hence there was immense anticipation. We crossed the streets of Shilong and when we reached the foothills of the hills, we could see Kuttan getting a little disappointed. He told us that the hills looked covered with fog, but we kept our fingers crossed, hoping it’ll clear out by the time we get to our destination. In this fog laden mountain, our first halt was at ‘Duwan Sing Syiem View Point’. Kuttan told this point overlooks a beautiful valley and without the fog, one could see a never-ending valley and the stream pass in the valley. But because of the fog, we could not see a thing except white clouds of humid air. Nevertheless, we walked around and had a cup of chai before taking off. The way things had been planned, our next stop will be where we were to have our breakfast, this place was at one of the curves along the valley and the area had been developed for visitors to park and enjoy the view, while the view for us was still missing, we had a great snack and cup of tea that Kuttan along with the crew at Zoravar’s house had packed. Since we had the time, we just walked a little down the valley, which is where we spotted our first fall, it was nothing big, but the fact that we could see the water, we were happy. Next we stopped at ‘Noh ka li kai Falls’. The board there claimed that these were the fourth highest falls in the world, but again the dense fog cover made it impossible for us to see anything beyond 10mtrs. Having come all the way, we just thought of hanging on and waiting for the sun to shine and the winds to clear the fog, but instead it rained! While the five of us were looking for someplace to cover us from the rain, we see humble Kuttan run to us with five umbrellas, it was heart warming.

Even after an hour and half’s patient wait, we could not see the falls, but we still did have a great time there. It seemed like the ‘Jaal Mudi’ (Local version of the sukha bhel) from the pretty Assamese girl got to Sigal’s head making him a laugh riot. In the same time, we supposedly got threatened by a mountain goat for occupying his area; the picture will give you a hint of how one goat made three men almost pee in their pants. Here is also where my camera had a fall. The sound of the fall was more dreadful than anything else i have heard in the longest while.

By now, we were getting really frustrated with the fog and lack of visibility but Kuttan assured us that the next stop could be enjoyed irrespective of the weather around. We stopped over at the Mawsmai Cave, this is a natural cave about 250mtrs long with some parts in knee deep water and pathways through cracks a meter high. It was quite an experience to walk through the cave. Being ‘young’ thrill-seekers, we also explored parts of the cave that are not on the suggested route for tourists, we had to stop and retreat after the cracks started to become too small to pass through. It was about 2PM and the excursion made us hungry.

For lunch we came to ‘Thangkharang Park’. One end of this park is a sheer drop across which is the Bangladesh border. We actually saw foreign land! Although it was completely flooded, Kuttan told us that when it rains heavily, it almost looks like a water body right up to the horizon. While we were looking across the drop, the guys set up lunch for us and again, we were wowed by all the arrangements and the spread. While the clouds had slightly cleared, it was still hazy and not a clear sight.

Uncle had instructed us to reach the hotel at Cherrapunjee latest by 4PM because it gets dark early in this part. We were running exceptionally late, but had one more place to visit. This was ‘Hot Treb Koh Ramhah Falls’, this was by far our best waterfall sighting since morning. What was even better was that, there were two and not one water falls; the first one had a bridge constructed over the stream from where we could almost see the sheer drop of the fall, second was a fall with stronger currents. Here is where Zoravar has a great fall and all of us men could not put Zoravar back on the ground again.

While each of the above spots was beautiful, it was the drive that really blew our mind. Be it the complete lack of visibility on the road or the weather itself, the peeks down the valley or the steaming cuppo noodles along the way, the amazingly sweet people we met on the way or the royal treatment we got from Kuttan and his crew, all of it made it a great day and to an extent compensated for the spoil sport clouds.

Now sitting at Cherra Resort sipping on pepper flavoured tea, i’m wondering how much i would’ve enjoyed spending time in a nice quaint house in Cherrapunjee more often, thereby contradicting my thoughts in school.

Moral: Carry rain-sheeters even if you are driving to Cherrapunjee, you will want to step out very often on the way. Carry food, there are no great places to eat on the way. Charge your camera batteries before leaving, you will find many places to click pictures. While entering the caves, carry a plastic bag along if you are taking your camera in.

April 22 | Experienced the fear of being on ground and the that of safety at a height

If sighting the rhino from the gypsy was not enough, we took an elephant back ride safari starting at 5AM in the morning. Mohan our guide came to the Hotel Emerald early morning to pick us up. We went back the Kazironga National park, but this time from a different entrance and entered the park on elephant back, instead of the gypsy. The five of us on a single elephant seemed a little cramp and my concern was that, if the rhino will be sighted on the left of the elephant, i will not be able to turn around and hence felt this will be such a waste of time, but i was in for a huge surprise.

The ride lasted all of 35mins, but we managed to sight nothing less than fifteen rhinos from very close proximity and close here meant as less as 30feet away! Our first sighting was a mother rhino with her little one; they were grazing and seemed pretty unfazed by the elephant’s presence. Later the guide told us that as wild life specialists, they are more worried when they sight a baby rhino than when they see an adult, and this is because the protective instinct of a mother is far more aggressive than that of protecting itself. Had anyone got off the elephant at this instant, he/she would be in for some serious damage from the mother. One-horned rhinos are the most aggressive of all breeds of rhinos and they not only attach by hitting its target, but also bite and tear the target apart. Nevertheless, we got some great click from the safety of the height.

Next, we saw two rhinos chilling in the pond, they seemed to be playful but even then, i felt vulnerable and could be rolled under the charge if i ever got off the elephant. While the guide had told us that rhinos are solitary creatures, they seemed pretty social this Thursday morning. As mentioned earlier, we sighted not less than fifteen to twenty rhinos during this safari. Frankly, i could go on about all the rhinos we sighted but that’ll be monotonous, so i’ll leave that to the pictures.

After the safari, we fed the elephants with bananas and then went to the lake front for some black-pepper flavoured tea, it was the first time i was having this, but relished it enough to ask for three cups in a row. While all was fun during the safari, the pollen in the air during those 35mins had affected breathing patterns of our host Zoravar and what made things worse was that he was out of his inhaler, so we had to get out sooner than we would otherwise would’ve stayed.

Once back at the hotel, we wound up breakfast and took off for Shillong. And then we realized something weird and if i may call it, we were struck by bureaucracy! Kazironga-Shillong-Guwahati are in a triangular path, which means no place comes on the way while travelling to the third, but certain rules made it essential for the jeeps to go to Guwahati to fuel-up, which meant we had to go around the perimeter of the triangle instead of just going directly to Shillong. Hence, we came back to the transit camp, had our lunch here and then headed to Shillong.

On the way we passed many small villages with small schools and beautiful backdrops to the road, but often we would see either some construction activity or factories bellowing smoke and particulate matter that messed the air, wish people and the government could do something to maintain the sanctity of the beauty of this stretch.

A few kilometres before Shillong, we stopped at ‘Bada Pani’ which is one of the biggest lakes i have ever seen. It was a beautiful sight and this is in spite of the fact that, the water levels were really low. Just after we left from there, we saw the sky turning orange in twilight, had we been at the lake, it would’ve made for one of the most beautiful pictures i clicked on the trip.

Anyway, we got back to Zoravar’s house, had a few drinks at his place, had our dinner and crashed.

Moral: Remember to be at the park early morning, later it gets extremely crowded that reduces the number of sightings.

April 21 | Our first wild life sighting

The day started with covering 230Kms from Guwahati to Kazironga. Our drives were two govt red-light and siren armoured jeeps; the kick of travelling in one is like no other, one can see people make way for the official vehicles and the power is addictive. For a brief moment, i was regretting not having even attempted the IAS.

The journey by itself could’ve been much more scenic, but the dark thick cloud cover spoilt a lot for us. We started in the morning at 7AM a time when it should’ve been bright, but the clouds played spoilt sport. On the way, we passed many small villages and smaller Kendriya Vidyalayas, brick kilns, tumtum loaded with people in every inch available, skinny rickshaw-men pulling fat aunties and potholed roads. Had we to do this part riding, we would’ve had a tough time. But overall, it passed peacefully with the journey peppered with chai breaks and discovering Uncle Chips in the local stores.

On our way, we spotttted our first Rhino, it was distant, but the excitement of sighting the first Rhino even before reaching the reserve made us greedy and ambitious, we believed a story that tigers are sighted at Kaziranga and started hoping that we will spot one, but more on that when we talk about the safari. We reached Hotel Emerald; a nice little place with open areas for kids to enjoy, a building for the eating area and another with the rooms. We settled down, had lunch and relaxed for a while.

At 16:30 an open gypsy came over to pick us up, they took us to the park. Enter Kazironga!

Entering the park somewhere reminded me of the movie Jurrasic Park, obviously the facilities where not a speck as compared to the movie, but it had the feel. The guide, Mohan was a kid studying for his B’com exams. He started working at the park when he was all of 15 spending time with other senior guides and his dad who worked at the park, now he intends to complete his graduation and study wild-life in a lot more detail. Mohan first pointed at elephants, mostly tamed, then deers and started explaining the difference between the Hog and Sambhar deer. Just then, Zoravar started telling us about his last visit here and where he spotted the first rhino, and ‘Shazzam!’ the rhino was there. Our first sighting in such proximity. We were all excited and clicked pictures from every possible angle, this is when even the rhino got bored of getting clicked and moved out. Post this, we kept moving and spotted many more rhinos, exotic birds, turtles, otters, deers and more. By the second hour, rhinos were not as rare and they had lost the novelty charm but one thing remained, its capacity to keep people scared and hence at bay, Rhinos find their mention even in the ‘Big Five’ of the African forests. The ‘Big Five’ are known to be the fierciest animals and includes animals like Lion, Elephant andWild Bulls. Kazironga has 78% of the one-horned rhinos, who also happen to be the deadliest of all rhino breeds.

Now that we were homeward bound, we saw something that only a few get to see; we saw the rhino’s mating ritual! This was from a distance but because this was a rarity, the jeep turned around and tried to take us close but the noise disturbed the giants and they disappeared into the tall grassland.

When we got out of the park, we had a hot cup of chai with local brand of biscuits, one of them especially gained our attention, the wrapper was designed like the 50:50, but the brand was called 60:40.

We got back to the hotel and generally chilled, we had an early morning next day.

Morals: Carry proper lenses to shoot wildlife, else you’ll hardly capture anything at all. Avoid getting too late, sightings are even more difficult as the sun sets. Carry rain-sheeters for yourself and the camera. Get binoculars, it helps. If possible read up about rhinos and migratory birds. Mar – May is good to sight rhinos and Oct – Dec are better for migratory birds.

April 20th | Our first destination

The train was an hour late, but the linen handlers did not take that into consideration! They woke us up at 4:30AM and made us give them the linen in time for them to wind up their chores well in time which kept us unnecessarily awake, stand in a mile long queue outside the loo and wait aimlessly hoping the destination will be here any moment.

Finally, when we reached Guwahati, we got off the train and rushed to un-load the bike, to our shock, we could not find the bike in any of the parcel compartments, we were (especially Suzy, its his bike afterall) in panic, thinking of all the possible circumstances, could the bike have been mistakenly offloaded at the wrong station, did they drop it at Secundrabad itself and all other such crazy scenarios. Finally, we figured that there was still one campartment to be opened and when they opened that, we found the bike there. Rushed to the parcel handlers and got the gate pass and had the bike out of the platform soon.

We were hoping minimum (if possible NO) damage; inspecting the bike, we realized that they had broken the back rest, but that was the least damage, we saw bikes that were worse off.
Zoro, picked us upand brought us to the place where we are to stay tonight. Anoop and Dhruv will be here by the evening.

Tonight will again be a good night ;)

Moral: Don’t get up immediately when the rialway guys wake you up, they have selfish motives, take your time and find out the train time status the night before. Keep copies of the RC Papers to get the gate pass, and get the gate pass while the bike is getting unloaded off the train. If someone’s recieving you at the station, ask them to carry a bottle of petrol because your bike will be bone dry by the time to get it out.

April 19th | Boring train journey

Having slept for the whole day and the night after, we were fresh and awake on this day. The day passed reading every word in the newpaper (whichever was available), the magazine, novel and finally the travel guide.

Since the train was going where we were headed (quite a coincidence right!) people around were either locals, or tourists; it’s a great idea to chat up with the locals, they have a lot of relevant info to provide, stuff that you will not find in the guides. So both Suzy and i, Suzy more than i, got talking to people. We found out that one of the routes we had planned is inaccessible by private vehicles and many more such nuggets. We took the numbers of few and roughly planned dates for the travel.

On the way, one of the local forewarned us about a HUGE dam that we will pass, so Suzy and i stepped out armed with the camera to click the dam and guess what, we can’t get to defog the lens! Since the camera was in an A/Ced compartment, as soon as we brought it out, it fogged. We could not get any pictures of the dam, but i should tell you, it was HUGE! While we waited outside, the lens eventually aclimatized and lost the fog. But the dam had passed.

In the night, we decided to take stock of the expenses. Again, do this regularly, else, its impossible to trace where the money disappeared. We had already spent over 10K between the both of us, but now it was accounted.

Another day has gone, tomorrow morning we are due to reach Guwahati.

Moral: Carry books and empty sheets of pepers for the train, this will help you stay busy. Chat with the people on the train/bus/flight and get insider info from the locals. Camera lenses fog if brought out from an airconditioned compartment, they need time to warm up when brought out.

April 18th | Take-off

Having not slept a wink, we were wide awake and all sent to leave, but still faulted by an hour and had to load and leave in a rush. While loading the bags on the bike, we realized that one of the bags did not fit on the carrier! Phew, Murphy at (hard) work. Standing in the parking lot, we partially emptied the bag, transferred some stuff to the other bag and eventually pulled the bungy cords together to get the bike ready to leave.

At the station, another goof-up. We were suppose to carry photocopies of the RC Papers, now the search for a photocopy guy who would give us a copy at 5AM! You can imagine what we went through. After we managed that, the person at the counter tells us, he cannot book the bike on this train because it is already ful-up. In the panic, we pleaded, requested, begged and finally managed to get the bike on the train. Phew!

In the train, we discover that a family of four have two confirmed and two RACs. WTF! Now we had to deal with eight people in the area for six. Suzy and i go “Why us?!?” Grrr! But the two nights of (almost) no sleep helped, we got in and crashed, only to get up for lunch and dinner and then tucked back cozily on the top berth.

We slept well.

Moral(s): Load the bike once before leaving to see the placement etc. Take sufficient photocopies of RC papers. Ideally book the bike on the train a day before to avoid all the tantrums by the loaders and other railway staff. Carry ear-plugs to deal with the chatter in the train.

April 17th | Prep Day

If being tired of all de frolic on campus was not enough, we had a tough day ahead. After a night that lasted till 5:30AM, we had to reach the Royal Enfield workshop by 10AM! We managed!

We started with a basic gyaan session on how to deal with few of the most basic breakdown reasons; the break, klutch wire, accelerator wire, spark plug, fuse, chain links etc. He tried giving us a little about ‘dos’ in case of a puncture, we realized if this actually happens, we are f^@ked! But anyway, after that, we started with what took the rest of the day. We needed brackets that would hold our bags, in biker lingo, these are called ‘Ladakh Carriers’. We visited/called every major accessory shop in Hyd, not just us, but a whole lot of people called on our behalf, we are sure we created an artificial demand for Ladakh Carriers in Hyd. At the end, it was a very helpful fellow Bullet rider (Shyamal) who led us to the end of that day. He gave us his bike’s carrier! When we tried telling him that help us buy one, all he had to say was “Dude, you ride is more important than my bike’s carrier, aur ban jayenge, trip vapas nahi banega”

Now armed with a carrier loaded bike, extra spares, tools, bungy cords to hold the bags, guards for the knee, shin, arm, elbow etc and the plan, we headed back to campus for another, actually the last night on campus.

It was a good night :)

Moral: Figure carrier, accessories and other tools well in advance. Contact local Bullet clubs for help, they are always willing to help.