Notes from the North East - Tinsukia to Wakro

After two nights stay in Guwahati at a friend's place and a quick visit to Pobitora, I set out for my long journey to the east. Almost equal number of 22 days which I had done in the year 2002 while travelling across Arunachal Pradesh with a group of senior citizens. Boarded the night train to Tinsukia. Arrived around 8ish and freshened up at another friend's place. Prashanta of Help Tourism had arranged a Bolero for my entire trip. Mulla the driver, an expert who knows most of the Arunachal roads arrived by noon.

I had to purchase 100 books to be gifted to the Wakro Library which we purchased in Tinsukia .Happy with the deal I got for the books as it made sense for not having carried the books all the way from Bangalore..Picked up our guides Bidyut and Poksham for both of whom it was an exciting exploration to be in  too.

Stopped at Drak for the mandatory tea break and quick entry formalities a little ahead to enter Arunachal Pradesh.

We took the road to Namsai. Had our lunch at this daabha owned by two ever smiling friends at a place known as Duo mile. 

A little ahead spotted this vulture which looked like white rumped. Could not venture out of the vehicle as it started pouring heavily around that time.

The entire route looked as if it was soaked in water.

I decided to take a look at the Golden Pagoda and stopped the vehicle just around the road where the road takes a turn to take you to the Pagoda. The place is good for early morning birding But again rain did not allow much scope for us to stay back there though this Greater Racket-tailed Drongo ( Note the crest which differentiates the Himalayan Race from the Andamans) posed happily at a distance.

The hoary bellied squirrel made a quick dash down a tree trunk

It was getting darker soon

The spot undoubtedly has lot of potential for birding so I marked the place for future bird-watching .

We reached the gate of the Golden Pagoda post 4.00 pm and were not sure if it was still open . In Arunachal Pradesh time winds up by 4.30 pm. Checked with few monks around and they gave a green signal to enter the gate

Monks and to be monks were playing together at a corner

Poksham was eager to click the photos of the kids and they were more curious to know how they looked in his camera.

Kids were all over Poksham

Godlen Pagoda has a welcoming well laid and manicured path to lead

Constructed with contributions by Chowna Mein, the then Minister PHED and his wife MLA Namsai, Nang Sati Mein ,Golden Pagoda or 'Poi Lu Kongmu Kham’ as known in the Tai-Khampti dialect is a marvelous architecture and craftsmanship in this side of the country.Situated in Thengapani ,it is also one of the largest Pagodas of North East India. It took six years for an architect from Mynamar and 300 masons to build this Pagoda and was inauguared in the year 2010. The pagoda is also a Centre for Buddhist Study and Research which was engineered to keep together the Institute of Cultural Research and Work on folklore and folk song of the Tai Khampti-Singpho tribes, which are vanishing rapidly. Eastern Arunachalis follow the Theravada sect of Buddhism hence you wont find the inner walls painted with mural of divinities and saints like those of Gelugpa Sect.Built on a three hectare of elevated land,the whole outer structure is painted with golden color which giives it a majestic look even from a distance

For the memories sake with a tired look:-)

 All of us spent some time clicking the beautiful surroundings of the Pagoda

Inside the main pagoda is the beautiful five feet tall gilded statue of Buddha facing north, modeled on the Kala Buddha of Nalanda archive.

It was pleasant to see many happy young faces in the compound. Everyone seem to be busy doing something or the other

After a quick round over we decided to continue our journey to Wakro

I wanted to to enjoy and  soak in the sunset in the land of the rising Sun and felt time stood still on this bridge on the River Kamlang

When you pass through such scenery , you know you are in a beautiful land

We arrived at Wakro late evening . Our stay was booked at the well maintained simple Wakro Circuit House thanks to "Uncle Moosa " of Apne Library. The caretaker was instructed to make dinner for us .Had good simple meal and retired for the day

What he thought what we are ..!! A note about a note from Bikramjit

Travel is not only about exploring a new place, it is also about making new friends along the way specially when you travel as a group.

+Bikramjit Maitra ,who was part of the group along with his wife Ishani. during the recently concluded tour of Mishmi Hills.He is a  gem of a person,very down to earth, who can crack jokes at the drop of a hat,keen observer and an excellent mimic is how I would describe him. 

As I type this I am laughing aloud thinking about an excellent mimic show we had, him enacting the birding behaviour of his fellow travelers ..:-)

I received a small note from him today about what he thought about the rest of the group..and hope all of you will enjoy reading it as much as rest of us did , knowing about ourselves..:-)

Here is what he wrote..and yes, read what he says about himself..:-)

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+Ravi Rajagopal : Be very careful of not to be in his way when he is chasing a rare bird. He may run over you and worst part, without realizing the same. From confidential sources I came to know that he clearly stated that if he gets an opportunity to shoot (through camera) a rare bird and a tiger simultaneously first he will go for the bird and then the the tiger if it has not moved by that time. What I did not ask whether he wil prefer to shoot a photo of a rare bird or to collect another birdie.

Bikramjit Maitra : Official joker whose past time during the trip was to fight and complain about his photographic equipment.

Ishani: No comments. I lost the the privilege of commenting about her in public an eternity before. Even in the court of law I beleive a husband can't testify against his wife.

+Santhinam Krishnan  : Can provide awful lot of mouth watering snacks when she is awake and can sleep like a baby sitting straight in the car even when she is being driven through roads which could never be recognized as one. Loves her music and can easily take on some of the young stars of today on SMS sending speed.

+Geetanjali Dhar  : Don't get fooled by the slight voice, polite verbiage and smiling face. There are tons of steel, not steel as even steel could bend, may be loads of concrete behind that voice. Perfect project management and people handling without spending on decibel.

+Kharavela Ballal : His name was always a confusion so going with his second. Quiet, observant ever smiling chap who turned beetroot red when the girls from the island waved us farewell.

Baburaj : Our Zari expert who was ever ready on his phone to find out progress of business and to supply garlic powder during our meal to make them more potent. Even though he was not focussing too much on birding when he did he could spot few of the more tricky ones.

Abhilash : I believe his name means desire, if he has many he doesn't like to share it with others. Conserves his energy being economical in speech and showing of any feeling. Between Ballal and him they had every small logistics details got chalked out to an extent that they could make a small pair of scissors appear from no where to cut the packet of snacks in the moving, jumping and jostling car.

+Amith Kumar : I don't know what is his personal target .May be he wants to shoot more than 500 or thousand species of birds before his baby is born. Telling him to be crazy may get some angry protest from real crazies as they at times do give in to wild goose chase but never for wild sparrow chase like Amit.

+shankar sg  I am sure during the ten days we were together he has not uttered more than 100 words in public. Sadly a vast amount of those words were to convince me that the dogs near the vulture congregation were actually jackals and make me take some shots.

+Abhijith Rao  Another person who got highly infected by birding. Given to his choice many days we would have our lunch after the sunset. Like many other birders he also was short on words in general and used to break that rule while having long telephonic conversation apparently with his wife.

+Ajit Rao  Was a real enigma to me who was a controlled crazy. He never used to forget his hunger or his grueling back but be equally enthusiastic about birds and its identities. Specially if it is a warbler. Has impeccable dress sense and his dress in one of the dinner session with quite hursh shorts on long john, socks, strapped shoes and jacket won the Oscar hands down.

+Kannan AS  The man with the buzoooka! The lens he had gives an impression he can take potrait of moon but good that he focussed on butterfiies and warblers where even the whiskers were visible. May be extra large lens was to get the extra dimension in his pictures such that they become 3D.

Stephen: He is practing lawyer form US and commenting about him without taking permission may not be prudent but where . He was such a strong believer of testimonials that he never opted for taking evidence on a camera sensor. It appeared that a good day of birding used to give enough food for thought so he could pass the food for stomach during dinner.

Jerry: A real globe trotter not only geographically but also academic as well as professional sense. I know my metaphors are getting horribly crossed here but if one considers the superset of academic options and professional options are globe and going through many of them are trotting then first sentence makes perfect sense. Thanks to her realized the value of a good birding binocular during the trip.

Joys of a responsible traveller

As part of our responsible tourism initiative ,we at IT Nature Club invite our guests to experience the joy of travel with the satisfaction of being partners to bring about a social change to the destination, whenever they travel with us. One such inititaive was creating a library for the Polestar School at Hee, along with Arunaya Foundation during our recently concluded tour of West Sikkim ( Holiday in the monuntains). Polestar School is run by a village committee which overseas the day today functioning of the school.Most of the contributions are made by the villagers themselves and also from their well-wishers. The school has grades 1 to grade 8 with nearly 120 students studying here. As of now the school is run in a rented basement of a commercial buidling with wooden partitions dividing the classes.With the monetory contribution of Arunaya Foundation , the guests who had travelled with us earlier and few well-wishers, we could gift the school 200 books which will go a long way in nurturing their knowledge in various subjects. Mr.Srinivas & Mrs.Sudha , who are part of group travelling with us, were so overwhelmed with the dedication of the teachers and enthusiasm of the students, they immediately gifted a cheque of Rs.5,000/- to be utilized for the infrastructure development of the school.Our profound thanks to Help Tourism for giving us the opportunity to partner with them in helping to create this library for Polestar school. We were really touched by the way the school greeted our guests and put up a small cultural show. 

Here are the other photos clicked during the school function.


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Neora Valley - A travelogue by Usha Shetty

Have you ever taken one of those holidays where you were content with spending your entire stay on the balcony? Stepping into this one, I was tempted to do just that, as I told my friend Geetanjali, a travel consultant. Every holiday should, in fact must provide, if not a balcony with a view, then at least a room with a view! Happily Neora Valley Jungle Camp does more than that! 

Perched at 6000 ft on the edge of the Neora Valley National Park in the Kalimpong sub-division of West Bengal’s Darjeeling District, it is close to the state’s borders with Sikkim and Nepal. Built in 2007 in an abandoned grazing pasture overlooking tiny Kolakham, the last village near the border, it gives you a feel of what the word remote means. Lava, the nearest town is 8 km away. While that is not at all very far for us arrogant plainspeople, we are humbled by the bumpy half-hour ride in the narrow jungle paths cutting through the dense hillside. Quite a ride by day, it is not something I would even like to attempt at night! 

The nights are meant for sitting in the balcony and soaking in the silence of the hills. A silence broken occasionally by the sounds of crickets or cicadas. The thick darkness is pierced by the twinkle of lights from the village down below, from other villages on the surrounding hills and in the far distance, the lights of Gangtok, 40 km away. The days are also meant for sitting in the balcony, this time, to soak in the beauty of the hills, rolling one after another into the distance. And to rest one’s gaze upon the majestic sight of Mount Kanchenjunga and the other snow peaks crowning the horizon. Vying closely with the world’s third highest peak for your attention are clouds of various hues, which, depending on their will, could be floating around at your level or parked on some lesser peak down below. All you need to do is gaze and laze. 

For the less lazily inclined, there are forays to be made into Kolakham village and loads of bird watching to be done, as the birding- pro Geetanjali would swear. She did that while I did the former, with both my descent and ascent on the hill being pleasant but clumsy, displaying neither the nimble-footed grace nor the stamina of the hill people or even of their cattle, as they make their way up and down all the time with perfect ease. 

The Neora Valley national Park is good for trekking in winter, with its highest point standing at 10,600 ft (when we were there, it rained often, so no such luck! We were told to come back in winter when it sometimes snows). This virgin forest, stretching across a seemingly small patch of 88 sq km, has one of the most exceptional eco-systems in the entire northeast, harbouring temperate, sub-temperate, tropical and sub-tropical species. Not many places can boast of junipers, rhododendrons, oaks, bamboo, orchids, ferns and banana plants all growing in the same patch of soil! And with large tracts of the park still inaccessible and unexplored! Home to the elusive and shy Red Panda, the forest also shelters musk deer, clouded leopard, porcupine (known locally as dumshi), marten (of the mongoose family), jungle hares, dholes and sometimes, black bears. 

It is in fact, the objective of preserving the endangered Red Panda’s natural habitat, the bamboo groves, by creating a community forest reserve, that has spurred the Kolkata-based Help Tourism to start Neora Valley Jungle Camp. Combining tourism with conservation and sustainable development, as they do in all their properties in the northeast, they ensure that all the staff at the camp are locally hired and trained to professional standards.

The professionalism certainly shows in the simple, tasteful ambience, the comfortably cozy accommodation, the hospitality, and most certainly, in the food. Over 4 days, we were treated to a variety of Indian, Nepali and Chinese food that all of us, kids and adults, delighted in. For example, the Tibetan bread ‘Fale’ – fermented dough fried and served with dum aloo. But the taste that lingers the most is that of the spicy green chutney I was served with a simple boiled potato and rice when I was recovering from my illness - it tasted simply heavenly! Illness? Yes, in those 4 days I even had time to suffer from a lousy tummy upset, rendering my holiday a truly ‘restful’ one! 

The sickness or the rest, however, did not impede a visit to Kalimpong, a place that still retains some of the charm of a colonial hill town. Kalimpong, 32 km away, is incidentally fed by the Neora River. Clusters of large, drooping, yellow, bell-shaped flowers, plump roses and plumper hens as well as pretty, well turned-out girls seemed to be everywhere. The last would explain the profusion of beauty parlours all around! The bustling market roads, excellent schools, the army base and golf course characterize the town further. Deolo Hill (a viewing point), the Buddhist Zang Dhok Palri Phodang Monastery on Durpin Hill and a cactus nursery, populated by species from North & South America, were all seen in quick succession, in deference to my state of ailment. 

The drive to Kalimpong involved a stopover at the Kagyu Thekchen Ling Monastery and Retreat Centre in Lava. Established in 1990 and picturesquely situated, it is also known as Ratnarishi Bihar Buddhist Gumpha. Wherever you go in Lava, it would be hard to miss the Gorkhaland signboards outside practically every shop and restaurant, a sign of the friction that underlies the serenity of the place. It is a reminder of the many conflicts over its possession that this land has witnessed over the last 200 years - between the Chogyal of Sikkim, the Lepcha tribes, the Bhutanese kingdom, the British, the Gorkhas of Nepal who gradually populated the place, and now the govt. of West Bengal. This discord is encountered here in signboard references to geographical location and, down below in Kolakham village, when the Nepali community (Rais, in this case) talks about being treated as outsiders by other locals (tribals & Bengalis) even after being settled here for generations. The Gorkhas being numerically strong, have gained political and economic dominance of the region and are a significant force to reckon with, whether through the Gorkha National Liberation Front or the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha. But what of the Lepchas, the indigenous tribes of Sikkim and the Darjeeling region? These simple people believe that they did not migrate here from anywhere like the Gorkhas or the Limbus and Bhutias but belong here. There are references to a Lepcha king having sent forces to Chandragupta Maurya to aid his fight against Greek invaders. This primeval race call themselves `Mu-Tanchi-Rong Kup` or `the mother's loved ones’. Unfortunately, the upheavals of the last 2 centuries have made them a minority in their own land. They are now finding a voice, asking for formation of a Lepcha Development Council, for recognition of their language and for political representation. In Gorubathan, where the last Lepcha king, Gaeboo Aachyok fought the Bhutanese from Dalim Fort, there are plans to preserve the ruins of the fort and open a museum of Lepcha artefacts, besides promoting its ancient monasteries and bio-organic tea gardens. 

As I admire the thickly forested hills around Changey Falls, a Lepcha area and a short drive from the Jungle Camp, I fervently hope that, in the years to come, the Lepchas’ beautiful land is not lost to them and that they are not lost to the world either. 

It is in this mood that we part with this beautiful land and return to Kolkata for more exploration.... 

The photos of the trip are here. 

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