[noidea]

Hello everybody.
This will be small photologue rather than a detailed travelogue mostly because I do not remember the finer details of the planning. The usual teasers follow below.

To the far Blue Mountains


At the foot hills


Through Here


And here


To finally there

[neel385]

Well this sure is a teaser and a pretty short one at that!! Do keep the ball rolling or else the tease effect might just not work!!

[noidea]

We flew from Kolkata to Guwahati and checked into Ginger Hotel. We had booked a vehicle from Guwahati itself for the whole trip (from the airport to the airport).

Ginger hotels maintain a high standard in all their establishments and Ginger Guwahati was no different

After a sumptuous lunch and siesta at Ginger, that evening we went to Kamakhya temple.Kamakhya temple had the usual crowd that is there in most holy places in our country but it was well organised and the visit took less time than we had anticipated. The temple is supposed to be very old and it does actually give the impression of being ancient.

One of the statues on the walls. Looks really old, does it not?

View of the temple from outside. Excuse the poor photography please.



Next Morning we drove from Guwahati to Bhalukpong through Tezpur


At Bhalokpong we stayed overnight. It is a very small town and after getting our permits checked we walked around the town. It is a single street town and takes about 20 minutes to go from one end to the other. Fishing and river rafting have started in the Kameng river, in which the kids showed no interest whatsoever. So we went to the Orchidarium instead. It was a nice quiet place to see a lot of unusual plants. Returned back to the hotel for the night. Hotels are quite basic and electric supply is erratic. It was hot there and the AC was not working while the generator was on, so we suffered a bit at night.

This is the lawn of the government guest house which is the best place to stay considering the scenery.




View from the other end of the lawn. That is the Kameng river where river rafting and kayaking have recently started.
I was with very unadventurous travellers and so we did not do adventure sports.


The kids were interested in the pitcher plant that trap insects for food at the Orchidarium.


Morning on the roof of the hotel. Nice cool weather because of a bout of rain early in the morning.

[noidea]

After breakfast we started for Dirang. We stopped for lunch at Bomdila, where most travellers stop for the night.
En route Dirang

The drive from Bhalukpong to Dirang through foggy and misty weather was exciting. The views of the mountains through the occasional windows in the fog and the mist rolling down the mountains was something else altoghter.

There are a whole lot of wild banana trees on the mountains of Arunachal. Since they are the wild variety they dont produce a lot of bananas and whatever little that grows is pretty much inedible.





The white Maruti 800 in this photo was part of our entourage and it was carrying its full share of passengers. It had no trouble negotiating the steep mountain roads and the engine was not stressed at all. The driver of that car was willing to lay a bet that it is the best vehicle for the mountains, better than most high torque diesel vehicles.

[noidea]

Here is my daughter doing her thing in Bomdilla. where we stopped to have lunch at the government guest house. Th guest house is beautifully located at the top of a hill and is an old old building. Very quaint. The mountains at the rear still have rolling clouds on them.


On the way to Dirang we stopped at this military camp. I am sorry I do not remember the name. There were a few shops selling curios and one shop selling excellent patties, pastries and the likes. The shops are run by the army for the civillians and tourists. The kids had a great time at the park.
There is a big mountain river just behind the camp which is quite picturesque, sorry I do not have pics to show.






Rock climbing?


At Dirang we stayed in Pemaling Hotel which again is beautifully located overlooking the valley. This is the view of the valley and Dirang town from the lawn of the hotel.



Our room had two windows and these are the views you see looking out.


From the front


I was told at the hotel that the red roofed blue house belongs to the local MP and he has a merc and a BMW in his garage.

From the side


I would have liked to purchase a house there but unfortunately one has to be an Arunachali to buy property. Most unfair, and I hope the laws change soon.

[noidea]

Pemaling Hotel's location is great and it is immaculately maintained.
Here are a couple of shots of the lawns and the mountains at the back.

Can see the whole of Dirang Valley from the lawn

On the way to Sela Pass. Misty day again. Could not see anything on the way up.



Customary shot at SELA

More mist covered mountains

Small brook just after crossing Sela Pass. It was army territory and photography was prohibited. One soldier came running and told us off very firmly but politely.

At Jaswanthgarh. The mountains looked pretty covered in mist.

Had a cup of complimentary tea served by the Army there. Tasted really good in the cold, foggy miserable day.

Finally at Tawang.

Next day was bright and sunny and the Tawang monastery could be seen from the room itself.
A couple of very early morning shots of the monastery




From the parking space





A view of Tawang town from the monastery

The main praying hall. shining wooden floor.

The main door, very bright

A lot of windows..

[noidea]

We stayed in Tawang for a couple of day. I had the best Momos from a local restaurant. My wife shopped around to her hearts content and then we were ready to head home.

Last shot from the hotel.

Up the mountains and away....


And further away.......

And further away.......

This is called nestling in the mountains I suppose....

Cloud Kissed mountain tops

There are a couple of small lakes at Sela pass and here is one of them.


On the way back to Dirang. Roads were fairly good most of the time.

[noidea]

There was a hot water spring on the way and it did not look very clean and wholesome, so we gave it a skip. We had to walk a little way downhill to reach the spring and walk back up again, and I can tell you that a fat middle aged smoker like me had better think twice about it.

Instead we visited a few apple orchards and nurseries around Dirang, all from the safety of our vehicle.
We stayed at the same hotel again. Tried a night shot of Dirang valley.



My daughter again.



Next morning we came back to Guwahati and from there flew back to Kolkata by evening.
The mountains get progressively smaller and smaller as you move towards the plains.












Thank you all very much indeed.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Travelogues Section. Thanks for sharing!

[laluks]

Thank you for the beautiful insight to Arunachal.
Kiddies seems to have enjoyed the trip very much

[samarjitdhar]

Very nice pictures. Seems you did the standard circuit. By the way when did you travel there? From the date of your posts it seems you started writing this 3/4 months back and have been updating this travelogue over the months

How did you find the roads? Were they too broken? I think the standard Arunachal circuit can be done easy in a hatch and with a little care in a sedan.

Incidentally when we did this same circuit 7 years back I think we also stayed in Hotel Pemaling in Dirang. It seems they have improved quite a lot in 7 years as back then they were just about average.

[noidea]

Thank you.

We did the usual tour, did not go anywhere except the recognised towns. We did not go the the China border and not even to see Madhuri lake a.k.a. Shungatser Lake but that was because our wives refused to budge out of Tawang, busy SHOPPING, you see!!

That white Maruti 800 had no issues on the road at all and so I do believe that circuit it can be done very comfortably in a hatch.

The roads are fairly good and only a couple of stretches were of concern, first from Tejpur to Bhalukpong which is being converted to a 4 lane highway and the second was the approach to Sela pass from the Bomdilla side, but this place was bad because it had rained heavily and the road was covered in slush.

[sach.sri]

Beautiful pictures - specially of the Tawang monastry. The first one - all cloudy and misty and then the ones next day taken from the room have come out very nice.

Thanks for sharing.

[gd1418]

Nice thread. A good picture of the Tawang Monastery atop the hill with a nice backdrop. Even to this day Arunachal retains its mystique of an unexplored land.