[nilanjanray]

Awesome travelogue. Rated 5 stars. Inspiring. Arunachal has been on my 'to visit' list for a while. After reading this, I have started becoming restless about another long roadtrip.

Do you gather tinder for building a fire, or carry a few fuel cells for emergency?

[Sheel]

Your camping on the river bed experience was amazing. I am sure, it must have been a high point in the trip.

Your T-Log is fabulous, detailed. And I love those roads, Lucknow - Gorakhpur - Muzaffarpur - Purnia.

Thanks for sharing

[Ashkait Kapoor]

Awesome travelogue there!
Your veeru looks so much at home in those hills and jungles of the north-east!

Originally Posted by gowda79

Jay one word Awesome

Had the rain gods slept at Chirapunji, that was a shocker not to here about rains at that place.

Cherrapunji used to have a brief dry season between December and February but sadly now a days the dry season extends to the months of March and April.
Most of the heavy rain occurs between June and September.

[jaysmokesleaves]

Originally Posted by gowda79

Jay one word Awesome

Had the rain gods slept at Chirapunji, that was a shocker not to here about rains at that place.

Thanks.
Surprisingly, Cherapunjee is no longer the wettest place in the world. That title is long gone elsewhere.

Originally Posted by nilanjanray

Awesome travelogue. Rated 5 stars. Inspiring. Arunachal has been on my 'to visit' list for a while. After reading this, I have started becoming restless about another long roadtrip.

Do you gather tinder for building a fire, or carry a few fuel cells for emergency?

Thanks. You should "Just do it".
In Arunachal wood is available everywhere. I used an axe to chop some dry wood and lit it with some hay and newspaper. You can also carry 500 ml of kerosene as a firestarter.

Originally Posted by Sheel

Your camping on the river bed experience was amazing. I am sure, it must have been a high point in the trip.

Your T-Log is fabulous, detailed. And I love those roads, Lucknow - Gorakhpur - Muzaffarpur - Purnia.

Thanks for sharing

That was one of the high points of the trip, the other two being the drive back from Tuting, the drive from Pasighat and The double root bridge trail.

Originally Posted by Ashkait Kapoor

Awesome travelogue there!
Your veeru looks so much at home in those hills and jungles of the north-east!
Cherrapunji used to have a brief dry season between December and February but sadly now a days the dry season extends to the months of March and April.
Most of the heavy rain occurs between June and September.

Yes sir. Veeru seems to merge into the flora quite well and i guess was designed for the terrain of Arunachal.

You are right about the Cherapunjee weather.

[redeye10]

Hi Jay,
This was an awesomely written travelogue with minute detailing which would help future travelers. Enjoyed reading this a lot! Thanks for sharing.

Couple of observations from my end:
1. I traveled from Guwahati to Shillong by car 5 years back and at that time,it was a single lane with lot of construction work going on for the four-laning. This caused quite infamous traffic jams on the highway. So the instruction was to leave Guwahati as early in the morning and reach Shillong even before trucks and normal traffic blocks the highway. Hope after this four-laning, its an enjoyable ride all the way!
2. Cherrapunji has a beautiful place to stay called Cherra resort - its around 15 kms from actual Cherra town, located on top of one hill, overlooking Bangla plains. Definitely no-go for one night trips. Good to know the roads are fine now.
3. Siliguri has to be avoided in the day before Holi and Holi. Everything gets shutdown, even emergency services like hospitals/nursing homes. Even more, only very few petrol pumps remain open. I was traveling from Sikkim to Siliguri on the 'Holi' day and it became 'unholy' for us as the driver was too eager not to miss out the fun, so drove like crazy, banged the car behind a truck on Sevoke road. We are lucky to see this day alive. Funny thing, after that, we had gone to 2-3 nursing homes nearby and found all of them either closed or doctors/emergency services not available.
So since then, thumb rule, never expect anything in Siliguri during Holi ( of course local contacts really helps in such scenarios).

Anyways, back to your travelogue, awesome!

[D4D]

Terrific TL here. Some lovely pictures

Originally Posted by jaysmokesleaves

to be greeted by a posse of bribe hungry cops...bribe for the roof carrier, since it was not registered on my car RC.

Honestly is there any law which demands this?

I just ibolt the roof carrier on my innova in 5 minutes when we do interstate trips and remove it later. As far as I know, dad's never registered it.

[Secretariat]

What a trip and what a TL. Worth waiting for !!

Your descriptions of Mechuka, brought back all the recent memories vividly. What a wonderful place that is. Gebu must have been surprised at two motorists in quick succession landing on his doorstep from two far off corners.

Pity you couldn't enjoy Tuting at all , but those early morning snaps are enough to die for. Much surprised at the lack of hospitality both by the locals and by the army - you were unlucky on that one. And real bad luck with the rains. I had completely dry weather all through my travel - not even a shower. Just two weeks before you, a guy I know went to Anini and had perfect weather. Other than the still severe cold, he reported everything fine. Alas, in Arunachal, the weather can turn 180 deg in an hour, but you really drew the short straw. Maybe this was all to only tempt you into coming back.

Beautiful pictures, beautiful narrative that I can relate to completely. Good that you made the detour into Meghalaya . Hurray to you for doing the 3900 steps at Nongriat - did Veeru do the drive next day on his own, or where your legs willing to cooperate

Completely second your views - the two Wanderers in Assam are absolutely special. Join you in saluting them.

Great trip Jay ; Take my hat off to you. From now on you can't escape Tlogging any of your trips.

[wanderernomad]

Just returned from a long, tiring, bone chilling cold trip to Tawang. Superb tlog and narration. Fabulous pictures and congratulations to you, ma'am and every for living many a man's dream. With you and secretariat covering the central and eastern AP I think i'll pitch in with my Twang tlog to cover almost the entire state now. Once again salute to your resolute spirit for the double Decker root bridge and then willing your legs to work again the next day.
It was an absolute pleasure to host you and šecretariat and hope others will follow your pioneering steps.

[DriveTrain]

Great to finally see your travelogue , you had a fabulous trip. I almost planned a similar trip last winter but had to postpone at the last moment. Will definitely contact you for details once I get into planning mode again.

So there is a motorable road till Dambuk and there is a operational ferry service that lets you cross onward towards Roing ?

And a ton of thanks to wonderernomad who was helping me with information on road conditions , when I was planning my aborted trip.

[Ashkait Kapoor]

Originally Posted by jaysmokesleaves

Yes sir. Veeru seems to merge into the flora quite well and i guess was designed for the terrain of Arunachal.


You are right about the Cherapunjee weather.

Please do not call me 'sir' sir. I'm not even 20 yet.

Originally Posted by redeye10

Couple of observations from my end:

1. I traveled from Guwahati to Shillong by car 5 years back and at that time,it was a single lane with lot of construction work going on for the four-laning. This caused quite infamous traffic jams on the highway. So the instruction was to leave Guwahati as early in the morning and reach Shillong even before trucks and normal traffic blocks the highway. Hope after this four-laning, its an enjoyable ride all the way!

2. Cherrapunji has a beautiful place to stay called Cherra resort - its around 15 kms from actual Cherra town, located on top of one hill, overlooking Bangla plains. Definitely no-go for one night trips. Good to know the roads are fine .....!

The four lane highway was scheduled to be completed in 2013 IIRC but unsurprisingly the work is still going on.

There are a few more resorts which have opened up in Cherra in the past couple of years such as coniferous, sai-mi-ka, orchid and they are equally beautiful to stay in.

[wanderer4x4]

Originally Posted by DriveTrain

So there is a motorable road till Dambuk and there is a operational ferry service that lets you cross onward towards Roing ?

The road till Dambuk is easily doable in car. But, there is no official organised ferry service as yet to cross over to Roing. People use those precarious wooden "ferries", though even the locals don't count much on these. Preferred way of crossing is through the dry river bed to reach Roing/ Mayudia. But that again is a hit or miss due to the vagaries of the weather. Mind you the distance through the dry river bed is almost 15 kms wide at places as you can make your own road, which gives an unparalleled landscape to the traveller. Now just imagine that expanse of water in spate...in one word, awesome!

[DrANTO]

Hai Jay,
Thank you for this wonderful travalogue. This is the best travalogue i have read in our forum for a while. I envy you about a lot of things - your beast ( " veeru "- my favourite SUV), Your destination ( north east India - which i dream about everyday) , your passion for doing this long and enduring journey, support from your wife and finally the amount of time you could spare for thic trip.... hats off to you brother.

Can you please share the amount of money you had to shell out for service /repair of your Safari after going through this hard terrain? any big expenses or just the routine stuff ?

You travalogue merits a seven star rating ...

[jaysmokesleaves]

Originally Posted by redeye10

Hi Jay,
This was an awesomely written travelogue with minute detailing which would help future travelers. Enjoyed reading this a lot! Thanks for sharing.

Couple of observations from my end:
1. I traveled from Guwahati to Shillong by car 5 years back and at that time,it was a single lane with lot of construction work going on for the four-laning. This caused quite infamous traffic jams on the highway. So the instruction was to leave Guwahati as early in the morning and reach Shillong even before trucks and normal traffic blocks the highway. Hope after this four-laning, its an enjoyable ride all the way!
2. Cherrapunji has a beautiful place to stay called Cherra resort - its around 15 kms from actual Cherra town, located on top of one hill, overlooking Bangla plains. Definitely no-go for one night trips. Good to know the roads are fine now.
3. Siliguri has to be avoided in the day before Holi and Holi. Everything gets shutdown, even emergency services like hospitals/nursing homes. Even more, only very few petrol pumps remain open. I was traveling from Sikkim to Siliguri on the 'Holi' day and it became 'unholy' for us as the driver was too eager not to miss out the fun, so drove like crazy, banged the car behind a truck on Sevoke road. We are lucky to see this day alive. Funny thing, after that, we had gone to 2-3 nursing homes nearby and found all of them either closed or doctors/emergency services not available.
So since then, thumb rule, never expect anything in Siliguri during Holi ( of course local contacts really helps in such scenarios).

Anyways, back to your travelogue, awesome!

Thanks for the appreciation.
The road to Shillong is almost 4 laned with work in progress in many places. We did not face any traffic jams though.

Everything was booked and Cherra had 1 room which we found out after checking in to Sohra for half the price of Cherra resort. Ofcourse, no comparision between a resort and a homestay.

One thing we learnt is to also factor in local public holidays and festivals in our travel plan here on.

Originally Posted by D4D

Terrific TL here. Some lovely pictures
Honestly is there any law which demands this?

I just ibolt the roof carrier on my innova in 5 minutes when we do interstate trips and remove it later. As far as I know, dad's never registered it.

Thanks.
As per my knowledge, according to the CMVR all roof carriers must be endorsed in the RC.

Originally Posted by Secretariat

What a trip and what a TL. Worth waiting for !!

Your descriptions of Mechuka, brought back all the recent memories vividly. What a wonderful place that is. Gebu must have been surprised at two motorists in quick succession landing on his doorstep from two far off corners.

Pity you couldn't enjoy Tuting at all , but those early morning snaps are enough to die for. Much surprised at the lack of hospitality both by the locals and by the army - you were unlucky on that one. And real bad luck with the rains. I had completely dry weather all through my travel - not even a shower. Just two weeks before you, a guy I know went to Anini and had perfect weather. Other than the still severe cold, he reported everything fine. Alas, in Arunachal, the weather can turn 180 deg in an hour, but you really drew the short straw. Maybe this was all to only tempt you into coming back.

Beautiful pictures, beautiful narrative that I can relate to completely. Good that you made the detour into Meghalaya . Hurray to you for doing the 3900 steps at Nongriat - did Veeru do the drive next day on his own, or where your legs willing to cooperate

Completely second your views - the two Wanderers in Assam are absolutely special. Join you in saluting them.

Great trip Jay ; Take my hat off to you. From now on you can't escape Tlogging any of your trips.

Gebu spoke very highly of you.
Well, after Nongriat, i was reminded of running down the Kota Kinabalu mountain in Malaysia, only to have extremely sore and frozen calf muscles for the next 4 days. Same thing happened again, however, I had no trouble driving. The drivers seat has magical healing properties for me. When i get off it is another story. Hahahahaha

About the wanderers I have only 1 thing to say - Truly magnanimous.
My love respect and best wishes for you two forever.

Originally Posted by wanderernomad

Just returned from a long, tiring, bone chilling cold trip to Tawang. Superb tlog and narration. Fabulous pictures and congratulations to you, ma'am and every for living many a man's dream. With you and secretariat covering the central and eastern AP I think i'll pitch in with my Twang tlog to cover almost the entire state now. Once again salute to your resolute spirit for the double Decker root bridge and then willing your legs to work again the next day.
It was an absolute pleasure to host you and šecretariat and hope others will follow your pioneering steps.

If your teaser pics are anything to go by, i cant wait for the full account of Tawang.
Arunachal isnt covered yet. I will be back soon to cover what was left out in even more finer detail, now that i understand the topography, people and weather a lot more.

Originally Posted by DriveTrain

Great to finally see your travelogue , you had a fabulous trip. I almost planned a similar trip last winter but had to postpone at the last moment. Will definitely contact you for details once I get into planning mode again.

So there is a motorable road till Dambuk and there is a operational ferry service that lets you cross onward towards Roing ?

And a ton of thanks to wonderernomad who was helping me with information on road conditions , when I was planning my aborted trip.

Yes, there is an operational ferry that 'probably' requires more courage to get on than covering entire Arunachal

Originally Posted by Ashkait Kapoor

Please do not call me 'sir' sir. I'm not even 20 yet.
The four lane highway was scheduled to be completed in 2013 IIRC but unsurprisingly the work is still going on.

There are a few more resorts which have opened up in Cherra in the past couple of years such as coniferous, sai-mi-ka, orchid and they are equally beautiful to stay in.

Dont feel shy to be called sir. I learn something almost each day from your generation. That was however, in light zest.
Yes, there are many resorts. However, Im a budget traveller. I spend on fuel and food and unless we have plans to completely rest and enjoy the resort, its ambience, its view, etc, they are worthless to me. I usually prefer budget accomodation with a clean bed and a clean toilet.

Originally Posted by wanderer4x4

The road till Dambuk is easily doable in car. But, there is no official organised ferry service as yet to cross over to Roing. People use those precarious wooden "ferries", though even the locals don't count much on these. Preferred way of crossing is through the dry river bed to reach Roing/ Mayudia. But that again is a hit or miss due to the vagaries of the weather. Mind you the distance through the dry river bed is almost 15 kms wide at places as you can make your own road, which gives an unparalleled landscape to the traveller. Now just imagine that expanse of water in spate...in one word, awesome!

Absolutely right.. and i would add. There are 2 tracks leading across the river. 1 is for trucks that is best not attempted by small vehicles. The other track though do able can at times prove to be extremely challenging.

Originally Posted by DrANTO

Hai Jay,
Thank you for this wonderful travalogue. This is the best travalogue i have read in our forum for a while. I envy you about a lot of things - your beast ( " veeru "- my favourite SUV), Your destination ( north east India - which i dream about everyday) , your passion for doing this long and enduring journey, support from your wife and finally the amount of time you could spare for thic trip.... hats off to you brother.

Can you please share the amount of money you had to shell out for service /repair of your Safari after going through this hard terrain? any big expenses or just the routine stuff ?

You travalogue merits a seven star rating ...

Thanks for the kind words and the compliment. Im glad you enjoyed reading as much as i enjoyed sharing.
After returning we drove in and around Bombay for another 1500 kms or so.
Only expenses incurred over the entire trip was for routine service. Oil, filters and a thorough wash. Exact figures for service and oil change etc i will have to check, but it was around 6k.
Contrary to public perception, my Safari has not proven expensive for me to maintain, which is why i still have it.
By the way, Veeru has seen much more challenging terrain than what Arunachal had to offer on this trip.

[dreamliner17]

A phenomenal travelogue jaysmokesleaves and rated a well deserved 5 stars !
The trip is a classic example of a travelogue, true to its nature of being 'on the road, in the wild' with superbly narrated experiences. Excellent roads, non existent roads, hills, plains, greenery, rain, good visibility, no visibility, great food, food for sustenance, google maps, no google maps!, luxuries in a city, sheer survival - I think i can sum up your travelogue with these experiences/aspects of life, which we usually take for granted ! Most importantly kudos to you, your wife and veeru for embarking on this journey ! A special mention of veeru for enduring the entire journey with aplomb.

I managed to shorten the transit to 2 and a half days from Mumbai to Guwahati.

Very impressive !

I always believe, when the time comes, the road finds you.. You just better be prepared.

Well said !

Day 1 – Mumbai – Nasik – Dhule – Indore – Bhopal – Sagar – Jhansi.
From Mumbai - crossed Nasik at 0615, Dhule at 0815, Bhopal bypass at 1430, Sagar at 1750 and reached Jhansi at 1930.
Total distance covered 1200 kms. Drive time (including numerous stops) - 15 hours.

A fantastic pace to start off with the journey. Going by your statistics, you have been averaging triple digit speeds throughout the Mumbai - Jhansi leg! This is even bettered on your return journey taking 14 hours.

Though i haven't experienced many expressways in India, I consider the NH3 to be a mini Autobahn. I have done a maximum of Mumbai - Indore on the NH3 and its super smooth!

a posse of bribe hungry cops who could not find anything wrong with my documentation, so wanted a bribe for the roof carrier, since it was not registered on my car RC. From a demand of 8000, they settled for 500. We were not given a receipt but an autographed cover note(by the senior cop) to show to any other cops who stop us within Kanpur limits.

I didn't know that the roof carrier has to be registered on the RC too ! It's a thing i would have never imagined either.

I was once stopped by a policeman at breach candy, since i had folded the rear seat in my spark for carrying a carton during the shifting process of my house. The policeman said its illegal to fold the rear seat in private cars to carry luggage and demanded Rs 2000 as fine; i was let off without paying anything when he came to know that i am headed to the nearby govt quarters.

Bottomline is, you can never know the intention behind police officials stopping you and this sadly puts the state of legal affairs in our country into deep trouble since we are unable to distinguish between a correct and valid rule/law (i would be actually very very surprised if the rear seat cannot be folded, is a valid rule and i was unaware of it).

Soon as he started filling the Safari diesel tank, I could smell kerosene. By the time I stopped him he had already filled 20 liters in the tank. I asked him if the fuel was adulterated. He said, no. So I asked him to fill the 20 liter jerry can. After 10 liters of filling the can I asked him to stop and told him, I don’t want this diesel, since its adulterated and it smells of kerosene.

Again some sad state of affairs. I hope that there weren't many bad repercussions and veeru was able to digest it somehow

[Aum]

Amazing travelogue. Lovely places, have been planning a trip to Arunachal. This Tlog has given wind to fire. Thanks for staring, rated 5 star.