Guwahati to Burma: Stillwell Road - Pangsau Pass

[San Phrangmung]

In 2005 it was Maesai Thailand



2007 Pang Saung over the Pat Kai pass.



Sorry to add old travelouge but i was not a member back then and i think the route has not been covered. So details coming up even if not up to date.

[MX6]

Can one drive in to Burma? What about current conditions with trouble brewing there? What about driving one's own car? Is it easy like in Nepal / Bhutan?

[Judemayne]

Old is gold-what an insight, would love to read your travelogue and how does one go about travelling to/through Burma??

[San Phrangmung]

Originally Posted by MX6

Can one drive in to Burma? What about current conditions with trouble brewing there? What about driving one's own car? Is it easy like in Nepal / Bhutan?

Well Indians are allowed on road only to the nearest village beyond border locally. For journey further officials in New Delhi may be contacted.
My journey was upto the border village only.

But i had enquired about driving through Bangladesh and they told me to contact New Delhi at Tel: 26852033 or 26431264 regarding "Carnett du Passage" which is required by the Indian Govt.for onward journey to cross the border .

Originally Posted by Judemayne

Old is gold-what an insight, would love to read your travelogue and how does one go about travelling to/through Burma??

Thanks Jude, one can take own vehicle or taxis from Dibrugarh airport in Upper Assam to visit the Burmese border village.

[kaushik_s]

Wow, Stillwell road still holds a kind of mysterious feeling to it. Bring it on. Would love to see the photographs of this road.

[hvkumar]

A TL to look forward to, the Stiltwell Road!

MX6, as San explained, you are allowed to go to the border town by day without any visa (in both Manipur & Mizoram as well). AFAIK, visas are not issued to drive through Burma, and the roads are virtually non-existent in many of these parts. The ASEAN Car Rally of 2005 saw some pioneering driving through Burma but that was a special case and rallyists reported some nightmarish roads.

[MX6]

Thanks HVK. I have nurtured a wish over the past few years. My grandfather came walking from Singapore to South India. Before people jump up, let me clarify, he didn't walk over water.
During WW2, he walked across to johor, walked mostly of malaysia, managed to get in to trains, buses, trucks, any vehicle and when they weren't there, he walked. He walked across Thailand, Burma, Bangladesh etc where there were no transportation.
It was a miracle how he reached south of India crossing the perils of jungle and war.
I wanted to go through that route sometime in this life to understand what all he'd have undergone.
His is a story which would dwarf many a war accounts. Many of these are reconstructed over the time with what ever my grandma could recollect of hearing from him once he reached home.
I even once planned a crazy journey from Singapore to KL by train, then from KL to Bangkok by train, which passes through Butterworth, Kanchanaburi, kuangpo, Bangkok. The KL to Thailand train exists this day as well and passes the famed Bridge on River Kwai!

Then from Thailand I wanted to take the bus to Myanmar and fly back to Singapore.
Somehow it didn't materialise then. My travel from Singapore stopped at KL on 6 occasions.

May be I will attempt this train trip from Singapore down the line. Hope Burma gets peaceful and opens the International rail network as well so that one can go all the way from Singapore till Burma by train!

[PhrozenFire]

Bring it on San Phranmung! A part of the country I have always wanted to visit. Looking forward to the TL

[hvkumar]

MX6, WW2 was very unkind to many Indians who were working - like your grandpa - as administrators, doctors, engineers, teachers, office workers, etc - in Burma, Malaysia & Singapore. They had a tough ordeal trekking to India after the Japs annexed the entire region (right up to present-day Nagaland), and many perished. Till the '70s, we used to get "Burma rice" and the Chettiar community of South Tamil Nadu made its fortunes trading in rice and teak wood in the pre-Independence days. The huge mansions that dot the Chettinad regiin of TN (Karaikudi, etc) have pillars and roofs made of the strongest teak wood possible imported from Burma.

Even today, in the MN-Burma border town of Moreh/Tamu, you can apparently get dosas from a Tamil-run restaurant!

Drive on the Stiltwell Road is indeed something to die for!

[MX6]

Sorry for all the OTs. Our ancestral property (disposed long back) had Burma teak all over. And I loved those Karaikudi areas. My grandfather died within 2 years of coming back to India. War was too much for him. Hiding in pits when there was heavy shelling from above and surviving on roots and leaves apart from fruits had taken a huge toll on him. Even my father doesn't have any recollection of his father. My grandma managed to get a place in the ship (women and children) that left Burma to India. My grandpa took the longer route.
I'm hooked to this thread. It reminds me of a long lost legacy.

[San Phrangmung]

For a historical perspective check out the following link:

http://cbi-theater.home.comcast.net/.../cbi_home.html

The route map beyond Digboi.


The Pangsau Pass festival points.


The temporary Inner Line Permit issued in Arunachal's Jairampur check gate.

[hvkumar]

Tell us more about the road via Jairampur to Pangsu Pass.
I suppose you had a ILP to enter Arunachal - and over and above that, you had to take the ILP at Jairampur? Is it issued easily or only selectively - I note that your ILP was issued for attending a festival.
For Namdapha WLS, is it a separate permit or is Pangsu also covered within Namdapha WLS area?

[San Phrangmung]

So you know by now how much history this place has got, after going through CBI pages i mean.

And, i being a old skool fellow could not miss a chance to take the road & cross over to the Burmese soil even if a centimeter of it.

But there was a roadblock:

check out the link

http://www.isidelhi.org.in/hrnews/HR...rrorism-07.pdf

Yeah, Upper Assam was sort of a killing field that January with more than 50 dead and there was a bomb blast at Tinsukia that falls on my route just the previous night.

So my better half would no give me the green signal, after much effort i was able to convince her but a day was already lost in that. Quick packing and rushing to the Paltanbazar area of the city in the late morning hours was useless as all Upper Assam bound buses had already left. I enquired a few taxis and they asked me for Rs 5,500 and time consuming.

So what next, went to a travel agency nearby and luckly found out that today was a day of twice a week flight to Dibrugarh, the closest airport to my destination.

The airport guys would not take debit card as i remembered so ran to a atm and got out some cash before catching a shared taxi to the airport.

That day both Sahara and Kingfisher had flights to Dibrugarh, i went for the sweet Mallaya girls than Sahara bhabis.

To our surprise however the Sahara flight arrived earlier than scheduled time and left. Waited and waited for the red and at last we were taken by a broken down IA Tata bus to the stairs. Two ladies, wives of senior government officials were also awestruck by what the Sahara pilots had done that day (Maybe because those days sell off and lay off talks were going on). We chatted a little and they asked me if i was in the media given hardly anyone visits the area i was going.

Once inside and care of the red beauties all delay pains were forgotten.

And after a few minutes i thanked myself for taking the flight and taking the left side window seat.

Why, well just look below. look through the clouds and blueness.
Yeah got it! Lovely huh.

[San Phrangmung]

Originally Posted by kaushik_s

Wow, Stillwell road still holds a kind of mysterious feeling to it. Bring it on. Would love to see the photographs of this road.

People on the Burmese side still use pipes and other left overs used during the war days. And you must be aware that wreakage of Allied (US mostly) HUMP flights are being found with human remains in deep jungles of Arunachal even few weeks back.

[San Phrangmung]

Originally Posted by MX6

Sorry for all the OTs. Our ancestral property (disposed long back) had Burma teak all over. And I loved those Karaikudi areas. My grandfather died within 2 years of coming back to India. War was too much for him. Hiding in pits when there was heavy shelling from above and surviving on roots and leaves apart from fruits had taken a huge toll on him. Even my father doesn't have any recollection of his father. My grandma managed to get a place in the ship (women and children) that left Burma to India. My grandpa took the longer route.
I'm hooked to this thread. It reminds me of a long lost legacy.

Max please feel free to share more information on your grandfathers journey. Its worth a book in itself. And i would understand you wanting to retrace his route and feel close to him in a sense.

On my part, Pangsau Pass is the route my forefathers, the Ahom tribe entered the Brahmaputra valley from Shan hills in upper Burma. They had named the hill Pat Kai.

Another point is that my father in law was born in Rangoon and their family shifted to Dhaka during war and had to leave everything back during the partition. They were offered land in some remote part in Orrisa where nothing grows, or cultivation impossible so stayed back in Calcutta.

The family somehow managed to survive. My fil than again took a ferry to Tezpore in Assam from Calcutta without ticket and any money in hand. He worked hard to have survived and brought up a family.

Life's beautiful !

I back you for your journey on grandfather's route.

It will be fine upto Thai-Burma border beyond that roads and mode of communication would be questionable.