[Shubhendra]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

Bang on and it was on the left from the square. Parking on the street. And you walk into some kind of lower level for the rooms as far as I remember lol.

I was at the square and screamed at a guy in front of me for a homestay. He was the owner

Yes, he is the one. Owner does not take care of the hotel anymore. He has hired a young chap as a Manager who also has a shop in the market.
We were 4 singles with bare minimum expectations
BTW, the place where you had lunch is an awesome eating joint and they are coming up with 4 rooms. Another riding friend from Namsai has also leased out a land piece on the opposite end of the town and setting up a hotel (will still take 2 years to finish as he has not started yet).

[Red Liner]

The next morning was spent doing some chores. Washing clothes became a huge occasion. We hardly spent more than a night at any one place, and even if we spent two, the days were packed with activities - planned and unplanned.

Today was also early Xmas day for my mate. He got fresh tyres as well as his "new but old" stock rear suspension shipped from across the country. After multiple hoops and jumps (the kit took a flight to the closest city, then a hand over to a bus coming to our district, which was then handed over to a taxi cab which finally made it to our town!), we got everything together.

We replaced the rear suspension ourselves at the hotel, and quickly headed over to the one tyre replacement shop in town to get the tyre fixed.

Mid way through the tyre replacement ordeal, we forgot the order of the rear axle components that go back into the rear wheel, and proceeded to mess things up for a good while much to the angst of the technicians at the tyre centre. Finally after a call back to the Kawasaki tech home, we managed to get things right. Not before the bike fell over on my mate and pinned him under!

We finally said ur good byes after having spent a good few hours at this place. The technicians gifted us a few sets of puncture repair strips. Good lads.

The day was coming to a close, and we had to head back for our final night at Namsai. We spent the evening walking the streets of Namsai town.

The next morning we were off back into Assam. We had originally planned to cross Kaziranga and go straight towards Guwahati, the capital of Assam. But I stopped midway and changed plans on the fly - as I always do.

I particularly remember this photograph because this was our first chai stop for the morning. But more importantly, I had a longish conversation with the little family of mother and daughter who were running the shop.

This area falls along the might Brahmaputra. The Brahmaputra is a huge river that flows straight in from the high glaciers of Tibet and barrels down into the Sunderbans of East India. During the monsoons, the river destroys its ridiculous embankments and proceeds to flood everything around it - including the highway, farm, and the shop you see above. The family lives right behind this shop, and the rains are not usually kind to their thatched lego style hut. Everything comes off, people have to flee, and the return to rebuild almost every year. People lead such tough lives all the time, so what did I actually do to deserve the soft, uncomplicated, chamois life that I was leading now? What decided that the girl I was talking to was born in those circumstances as opposed to the circumstances I was born in?

We also began riding past vast tea estates from where the very chai we were drinking was coming from.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

People lead such tough lives all the time, so what did I actually do to deserve the soft, uncomplicated, chamois life that I was leading now? What decided that the girl I was talking to was born in those circumstances as opposed to the circumstances I was born in?

Pure luck, random chance, that's all, nothing more. People like us, we just won the genetic lottery to be born in to families and circumstances that could provide the good health, education and opportunities that we got to be able to live the comfortable lives we are leading now.

The tragedy would be to start thinking that we had anything to do with it, that we "deserve it" and become the kind of people who are dismissive about others less fortunate than we are. Or worse, to ignore the causes of inequality and poverty and start justifying those as somehow "their own fault". And to become scornful and oppose the social efforts to address those. It happens all too often, sadly.

Interesting though, I had a similar moment during my Arunachal ride. We were riding along for kilometers, an hour or so without even seeing another vehicle or building on the road. Suddenly we heard sirens and a convoy passed us from the opposite direction. SUV with the arrogant red beacon, a couple of police escorts and an ambulance. The sight of the ambulance really rankled because for so many kilometers we hadn't even seen a primary health center, forget hospitals. The locals would have to travel for hours to reach anything resembling health services. Pregnant women would probably need to risk home births with a midwife. But this political clown- in such a region, he gets his own ambulance on the slight chance that his highness might have an accident. Ridiculous. Criminal by any moral standard. That triggered similar thoughts to the ones you have posted about.

I'm not going to virtue signal- it's not like I came back and started wholesale acts of charity. Or stopped spending money on useless things.

But yeah, when you travel by bike, you get to see more of our country, really what it's like, than when you travel by car where you are insulated from what is around you. And you realize these things even more so when you use public transport in such areas. (Also did a trip using buses across some of the other North-Eastern states for a couple of months in 2016.)

A friend once said, we're so focused on wanting to catch up with the 5-10% who have more than us, that we forget the 90%+ who have so much less than we do. And that just makes us feel more and more that we don't have enough when the reality is exactly the opposite.


(Sorry to have rambled on so much. But both of us having similar thoughts triggered by similar experiences while on bike trips in the same region, a decade apart is crazy. I had to post and tell you.)

[Red Liner]

After some more photo-shopping - in the real world - at the verdant tea estates that welcomed us into Assam, we pushed on.

These tea workers are interesting. They pluck the leaves and put it in a sack behind their back. They are usually paid by how much leaves they collect in a day - the sacks they bring back to the factory is weighed in. Nothing mechanised with the plucking - things are still done by hand and I think its a good way to go. Leaves are carefully inspected before being plucked.

Being a tea worker is a rather prestigious job in these parts of the world. A qualified tea worker gets an ID card, which allows him or her to work on tea estates. This card can be passed on to the next generation - like a family heirloom, and their children get access to becoming a tea worker simply because of birth. This ensures that employment on tea estates is strictly amongst the locals - folks from other parts of the country cannot necessarily overrun local employment opportunities.

As we pushed on, it was time for lunch and we treated ourselves to a full traditional Assamese meal - by our touristy standards at least!

Thats rice steamed in a leaf - the flavours of the leaf percolate into the steamed rice and the lunch was divine!

It was already noon and beyond...and the heat was unbearable. Coming back from the cooler climes from Arunachal, we were not enjoying the drastic change in temperatures. Remember, we were still in April - the ride had begun in March. We were on the roads during the hottest part of the year in India. We stopped at this gas station to have a little chit chat with the locals, broke the heat with a few jokes, and gulped down enormous gallons of water.

Somewhere after this, we were heading into the Kaziranga National Park of Assam. Kaziranga National Park is a protected area in the northeast Indian state of Assam. Spread across the floodplains of the Brahmaputra River, its forests, wetlands and grasslands are home to tigers, elephants and the world’s largest population of Indian one-horned rhinoceroses. Ganges River dolphins swim in the park’s waters. It’s visited by many rare migratory birds, and gray pelicans roost near Kaziranga village.

I had visited and stayed at the Kaziranga park in the past. But my mate hadn't. So I stopped him and asked him if he would like to. He was wavering a bit, and I told him it didn't matter if I had visited already - what was important was - had he visited it and would he like to? With some encouragement on my part, he said he would like to stay put for a day or two and so our new plan was done! Kaziranga it was!

Now we had to find a place to stay for the next few nights. I spotted this very nice cafe by the road, and we decided to get in there to cool off and find a spot for the night.

After a few enquiries on the phone, we managed to hook into a fabulous place right inside the jungle for the next few nights. We definitely did NOT want to stay by the road! So back we were on little jungle trails!

Our jungle "resort" did not disappoint!

We had booked ourselves into one of the quaint mud style cottages with fabulous showers. This was going to be a treat! After a quick but lazy shower, a wash of clothes, we found out that the local community groups team up to throw a cultural evening for visitors and tourists. The last time I was in Kaziranga was purely a wildlife expedition visit, and I didn't have very much insight into local culture apart from visiting a village with no road access, binging on locally made rice wine and falling sick thereafter lol!

So later that night, we rode out to the "cultural" evening. Not before encountering some very cute traffic who had absolute right of way!

[Shubhendra]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

After a few enquiries on the phone, we managed to hook into a fabulous place right inside the jungle for the next few nights. We definitely did NOT want to stay by the road! So back we were on little jungle trails!


Our jungle "resort" did not disappoint!


We had booked ourselves into one of the quaint mud style cottages with fabulous showers.

What a coincidence, we stayed at the same place during our return journey to Guwahati

[Red Liner]

Later that evening, we headed to the spot where the local community in coordination with the tourism department showcased a curated cultural event. I am going shut up now and let the pictures do everything.

[Red Liner]

Next set of pictures from the performance follows.

[Red Liner]

We had a great time talking to all the performers and hearing their stories and backgrounds after the whole performance was over. It was a fantastic time well spent!

[Red Liner]

The next morning was a late one and quite rightfully so. My mate headed off to the Kaziranga National Park for a safari, and since I had already done all the animal sightings, decided to go explore other sights.

My first and only halt for the day would be the mighty Khaiphalongso waterfalls.

I had to park the bike after a bit, to walk the rest of the way. I met a couple of "local" boys who were happy to have this solo traveler along with them. We chatted quite a bit while we ambled up to the waterfalls through thick jungles - i felt a bit like Indiana Jones really.

And then suddenly, there she was!

The location was idyllic, the waterfall was dreamy, and the sun was pitch perfect! Just right to get into the water and soak it all in.

We spent more than a few hours just messing around in the water and letting the falls just drain away all the stress and pain from the body. As always, I carried nothing to eat or drink, but the boys were smarter than me, and we shared what little they had.

Sadly as you can see, lots of trash abound. I encouraged the boys to collect "our" trash at the very least and take it back into town for recycling. Its important that tourists and travellers such as us do not sound very preachy about such things at the places we visit. The locals certainly don't need our sermons. Change takes time, and every hand helps.

We left the waterfalls soon after, and found a little garden shack cafe (and i mean cafe in the loosest possible way) at the next village. I treated the boys and myself to some well deserved eggs and what not. Everyone was happy - the shack cafe owner and his wife for the business, because no regular tourist would ever stop at a place like this - their loss though. The hot plated food was fantastic, and the conversations with the local family was even better. The boys were thrilled to get a surprise treat, and I - well I was just happy seeing everyone around me happy.

I passed another section of tea estates before heading back to the room to enjoy the evening back at the resort. This was our last night in the beautiful place and I wanted to enjoy every moment of it.

The next morning we were off on our travels again. We were heading into Assam proper now. Enroute, I saw the Amalgamated Tea Company's tea shop. This company operates India's very first fully organic tea estate - the Hathikuli tea estate. What made memories sweeter was my ex-girl's very sweet dad (and a dad to me too) was the General Manager of this very tea estate for the longest time. He is well known and respected around here even now.

And guess what, its Fathers Day today.

[Red Liner]

As I stepped out of the tea house, I was greeted by some marvellous friends!

I felt quite bad for these guys. They should be out there in the jungle somewhere having themselves a good time. Instead here they were walking on scorching tarmac to make ends meet for their caretakers. Life can be very cruel.

We were originally due for Guwahati, the capital of Assam. But somewhere along the way I saw a big route board on the highway which said Meghalaya, one of the beautiful seven sisters that make up the North East of India was closer! I stopped right there, and bade my mate stop too. It took just a 15 second conversation to change plans on the fly - Off to Meghalaya we were instead!

But we needed a Covid Certificate to enter Meghalaya! Even though internal borders were open, quaint states on the borders of India still needed tourists to show a certificate that they were tested for Covid and did not posses the dreaded disease. So we routed our plans for the night to the closest General Hospital we could find, to get our Covid Testing done.

Covid Testing was still highly regulated - not every place could do it - and not everyone was allowed to do it unless you showed symptoms or had travel plans that demanded the certificate.

We were going to stay at a friends farm house at a place called Puranigudam, which was a few kms away from Nagaon, the town which had a General Hospital run by the Government and offered Covid Testing.

We reached his farmhouse well in the day, and well before lunch even. The farmhouse was an old British era building, crumbling at places but large airy and spacious. The friend wasn't around but his dad was who took very good care of us - almost like we were his boys.

We didn't miss the guy, we made new friends quite quickly however.

Post a very heavy lunch, we decided to head into Nagaon to get our Covid testing done. The hospital was overrun with patients, and there was a separate building where covid patients were being treated. We were a bit apprehensive...what if we caught the damn virus because we were getting ourselves tested! Lol!

There was no cause for concern however, both of us checked out negative for the virus. So we got the prized certificate - almost a visa now - to cross the border into Meghalaya. Yippee!

We headed home, light in our hearts knowing that we could spend the next week or more enjoying Meghalaya - a place neither of us had been to. We were quite enjoying the way plans were being made for us.

I had trouble sleeping that night however. Daffy was hanging out right next to my bed, and I wasn't sure if I had to make bed time conversation.

The next morning, I was woken up by this little one.

It was time to get going. We said bye to the kind Gentleman who took such good care of us for nothing in return.

We reached the checkpost at Meghalaya's borders and there were HUGE queues to get the border entry slip - this was essential to travel across Meghalaya - you could be stopped at anytime and checked by the Police guards. And you get it only after showing your Covid Negative Report. After a few scuffles in the melee, we got our entry pass. I felt sorry for the mostly all women team of officials at the checkpost who were trying to manage the wickedly unruly Indian crowd.

We were now OFFICIALLY in Meghalaya!

[Red Liner]

The welcome into Meghalaya was unreal.

We were riding straight into Shillong for our first night. We found a fab place on airbnb the prior night and wasted no time in locking it down. We were keen to have a comfy place for the night and use the rest of the evening to explore the cafe culture of Shillong.

We were going to stay in an outhouse in the garden, by the bigger house which obviously had the more expensive rooms and a large kitchen where breakfast was served as part of our deal.

Spotted this cute handmade chair in the kitchen worthy of a picture.

We stepped out to make new friends around the place where we were staying.

We stepped out later that evening to explore the cafe culture at Shillong. Shillong is an older british era town, and hence was far more cosmo than most other towns in the area. Plenty of cafes, night spots. I am not going to lie, after traveling through the rural hinterlands, it did feel good to be about this buzz.

We spent time heading to different cafes, having a bit of food here, and a coffee there. The people were great to talk to, I ended up having casual conversations with folks as we moved around from cafe to cafe. Sadly, no dates for the night so we got back to our room to prep for our journey the next day.

The caretaker, who took care of us (lol), was a nice bright guy with an always smiling face and always ready to help. I had a brief chat with him as well over breakfast, found out where he was from, what his family was like back home and just...got to know him better. I always feel it is important (for me) to have these human conversations at places we travel to. At many such (3rd) world locations, we tend to be "served" by people taking care of us, and we leave with not so much of a thanks. And making conversation is very very different from actually getting to know another person - however short a duration that may be.

We had to fill gas first, and rolled into this nice and swanky gas station. Meghalaya is fantastic with respect to clean, well equipped gas stations and this was no exception.

We were off to Cherrapunjee - the wettest place in the world.

Not much of ride time, so we had a late start after a good breakfast. But the views were gonna blow our brains out.

[Red Liner]

The views were immensely gratifying. Jungles as far as the eyes could see layered over waves of mountains.

The tarmac was pristinely well laid.

Somewhere along the way, we spotted this "house on tractor". First time I had ever seen a tractor with doors - and maybe even air conditioning?!

We quickly made it to our stay for the night. A mansion! We had a nice cute bedroom in there, living with the family who were occupying the rest of the house.

I stepped out and made friends as quickly as we arrived.

Now it was time for lunch, and we decided to explore the small village of Cherrapunjee by foot. I have always found that the best way to get to know a place, its people, their food and their culture, and maybe even their women, is to walk around - slow travel. So that's what we did. My mate was gyrating to the typical restaurants that abounded the place, considering Cherrapunjee was a tourist town anyway. I bade him avoid these places and we continued our walking until...

I saw a whole bunch of locals, including a lot which just arrived by a local bus, cab drivers, all steaming in. I knew this was it. Tip: When at any place - tourist or otherwise - always find the place locals eat at and get in there!

What a delectable meal of fish, rice, lentils, and a salad. And I think the whole thing cost me less than a dollar!

The place was run by a team of two sisters and I made small conversation with them whilst they were bustling around catering to the crowd of hungry travellers who continued occupying any seat that was left unoccupied.

Tummies full, it was time for dessert now. lol!

[Red Liner]

Dessert was served right next door

I remember having a conversation about the bill with the lady, and every time I asked her she would tell me the wrong amount. I knew very well what the bill was, so I was just having fun with the young lass.

We were still early in the day, and so we decided to walk around and explore the little town by foot.

Meghalaya is one of the cleanest states in India and this is why. There are little dustbins EVERYWHERE! and I have seen kids who pick litter and put it into the bin. My hope however is everything is recycled the right way after.

My bed back home. I love the fact that bedrooms in such home stays were not sterile and devoid of character. Every single room that I had stayed so far on this trip with a family had something interesting going on inside the bedroom that gave me a glimpse into the family I was staying with.

I think I went out and shared that Hersheys candy bar with these little girls. They were thrilled but refused to share their bag of chips lol

Cherrapunjee is a village close to where you can spot the 7 sisters waterfalls. However this was dry season and all we could get was this.

The sun was beginning to set, but we still had one other place to go to before calling it a night. Tally ho then!

[Mainali]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

The place where we were parked was an actual "view point". We came down back to our bikes to spot this amazing old beat down soviet era truck still doing duty as a transport carrier. I think just driving this relic around would be an adventure. She looked like she just got through a nuclear holocaust.

These are know as Shaktimaan in Manipur, where I grew up. There are few videos in youtube, where these trucks go to places where no other modern vehicle with that much load will even dare to go.

These beasts are difficult to kill. These are 4WD or 6WD(they do have 6 wheels) I am not sure on what they are called. The service centre my dad runs in Manipur, we get vehicles which are like 30-40-50 year old with no bonnet and open engine like the one you have posted in your post.

This vehicle is helping and serving the remote places in North east India where normal vehicles can't operate. They are a lifeline for people living in far flung remote areas of North East.

More details here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakti...ories%20Board.. I have seen quite a lot of them in an around siliguri, West Bengal as well

[Red Liner]

I had found out that there was a street market in action at the next village a hop skip jump away.

Actually, it wasn't a hop or a skip, but if we took the route less traveled by walk we could be there in 30 minutes tops. As you may have already seen I quite like taking a walk through rural country sides, so I encouraged my mate to get his shoes on and off we went!

We scampered through peoples vegetable farms, outhouses, playgrounds, and little streets that served as nooks and corners for the locals winding down their day. We finally made it into town and the street market was electric with energy!

What you see here are tobacco leaves. Ready to be sold, and rolled.

I saw this lady sitting by her little shop. I don't know, I was just so captivated that I walked up to her and asked if I could shoot a portrait of her. She agreed right away.

Once I took the shot, she asked me for my phone and looked at the picture and said " How do I look? Not bad eh?". And she said this in the queens english. I will never forget this incident.

The day was coming to a close and we had a fantastic time. Now we had to find our way back by foot in the dark lol!