[coriollis]

What a travelogue Sirjee!!
Escaping from your Mother in law, coming back and living to narrate the thrilling tale.. And what a tale it is. Simply awesome.

Incidentally my company has worked in association with IIT Bombay, IIT Guwahati and GOI to manufacture and install floating fish-cages in lakes of Ukhrul and Churachandpur in Manipur.

Sadly I missed the adventure and my partner completed the project to satisfaction of IIT's and GOI.
He was so moved with warmth and affection of the locals, the scenic beauty, and the dedication of BRO, that he has planned our next holiday in Meghalaya and Manipur.

There is one Lily flower which is found only in Ukhrul district in upper reaches of the Shirui hill. The Shirui lily is a sight to behold. We plan to catch the flowering season for our holiday.
I'm sharing this travelogue straight away with him.

Cheers,
AB

[rulerofsun]

Enjoyed reading and watching every bit of your travelogue. One of the best I have read in recent times. Not only did I love your details it also educated me in a most entertaining manner. Hope you do more of these trips ( hope your MIL drops in more often )

Thank you.

[rahul4640]

Originally Posted by RedTerrano

Just like almost the whole of India has heard of SD Burman, they have also heard of many Gorkhas. It's just that people are not aware they are Gorkhas!
Strange but true!

Sorry to intervene but did you say that S D Burman was a Gorkha? No way, he belonged to the state of Tripura and was even associated with the royal family there. Please read this.

[RedTerrano]

Originally Posted by nilanjanray

But I was a little lol re your apprehensions re West Bengal ;-)

Originally Posted by hothatchaway

Are you serious? If this is not written in jest, then I would request GTO to confer DBhpian status to all members from Kolkata & WB, just for the courage they display by risking life and limb, as they go about their daily lives, drive around the state and beyond and even live to tell the tale/TL

I hope you are able to make another trip to Bengal and spend time here. Am sure your opinion will undergo a transformation.

Keep travelling and keep sharing.

I wish to clarify something here.
Everyone has some level of apprehension, and understandably so, while travelling to some far off land.
Sitting in Pune, our primary source of info about the outside world (not just WB, even Mumbai for that matter) is the news media, print and digital. Our planning stage coincided with the Panchayat elections in WB and we had been reading about extreme violence there, where candidates were murdered on their way to file their nominations.
Then there is some travelogue incident from HKV's travelogue (I think) where I learnt about some law which essentially says the Govt can apprehend any vehicle during election time. This actually happened to HVK in UP (I think). He made a few calls and managed to get out of it.

Hope I have managed to explain a bit, why our mindset was in that particular way.

Having said that, now that we have travelled through WB without a scratch, our perception has of course altered. I definitely look forward to revisiting WB. Having read @BlackPearl's travelogues, Sandakphu sounds absolutely fun and thats on my to-do list.

[RedTerrano]

Originally Posted by coolrats

I have traveled a lot across country myself, read umpteen number of travelogues but never came even close to one that is witty, informative, picturesque and don't have words to add. Well written just brought me out of Monday blues. I can sense a writer in the making. Thank you

Originally Posted by dsnaveen21

Good write-up there, like the coffee part, will plan to visit 7 sisters, Keep writing,

Originally Posted by amit_3306

I was just glued to it. So much so that you can imagine I read this at one go on Monday. Awesome narration and sense of humour.
Felt like I travel back in time with you.

Originally Posted by catchjyoti

This is an epic journey that you guys took. And I really appreciate you guys investing your time and coming to know North-East closely. It is a less explored area of our beautiful country and needs to be brought more into the national consciousness.

But it is better to not discuss about things like how Gurkhas are misplaced in West Bengal. There is a famous saying in Hindi "Kos kos mein badle paani, chaar kos mein baani". Which means in India, in every few kilometers, the taste of water changes and in a few times more distance, the language changes. That way you will find areas in every state, including Maharashtra, where the people want to form a different state because they do not identify with the people from the other areas of the state. There will be no end to this.

Originally Posted by nilanjanray

Loved your travelogue and your writing style. Makes me want to head out on a long, long roadtrip again.

But I was a little lol re your apprehensions re West Bengal ;-)

Originally Posted by Secretariat

That was some drive. I had driven through most of your routes in the NE, and memories came flooding back. Things haven't changed it appears in five years - the same sections were bad and the same sections good when I drove.

You narrowly missed adding Myanmar to your tally. From Imphal, it's an easy day trip and you can get into Tamu and get back same day, without any visa or passport. Another reason to go back !

Nicely written in a distinctive style.

You have to go back, this time for 2 months. And roam all around the NE and write the next travelogue !

Originally Posted by coriollis

What a travelogue Sirjee!!
Escaping from your Mother in law, coming back and living to narrate the thrilling tale.. And what a tale it is. Simply awesome.

Incidentally my company has worked in association with IIT Bombay, IIT Guwahati and GOI to manufacture and install floating fish-cages in lakes of Ukhrul and Churachandpur in Manipur.

Sadly I missed the adventure and my partner completed the project to satisfaction of IIT's and GOI.
He was so moved with warmth and affection of the locals, the scenic beauty, and the dedication of BRO, that he has planned our next holiday in Meghalaya and Manipur.

There is one Lily flower which is found only in Ukhrul district in upper reaches of the Shirui hill. The Shirui lily is a sight to behold. We plan to catch the flowering season for our holiday.
I'm sharing this travelogue straight away with him.

Cheers,
AB

Originally Posted by rulerofsun

Enjoyed reading and watching every bit of your travelogue. One of the best I have read in recent times. Not only did I love your details it also educated me in a most entertaining manner. Hope you do more of these trips ( hope your MIL drops in more often )

Thank you.

Thank you guys!
I am glad your enjoyed reading it.

Originally Posted by rahul4640

Sorry to intervene but did you say that S D Burman was a Gorkha?

No. I didn't.

[saket77]

I see that you took a long time to complete this travelogue.

But a marvelous one. They say good things take time. And it did. Read your log in 2 sittings considering it was longish, to make sure I don't skip a part. It was a fun read with such flowing narration. Some subtle undertones, some enough to spill the morning coffee (no pun intended to your denied coffee ) Your style of writing reminded me of Sam. You should definitely write more often.

Epic trip, epic drive. Loved every bit. Thanks for sharing.

Regards,
Saket

[RedTerrano]

Originally Posted by saket77

I see that you took a long time to complete this travelogue.

Yeah. Real life has the irritating habit of interfering. Last year was was absolutely horrid for me and I could not find much time.

Originally Posted by saket77

Your style of writing reminded me of Sam. You should definitely write more often.

Epic trip, epic drive. Loved every bit. Thanks for sharing.

Wow! The Sam® !
That's very high praise indeed. Thank you! You just made my day!

[Travel master]

Very Interesting Travelogue. We visited Tawang,Guwahati,Dawki,Sohra in the month of Oct 2019. We started from Pune. Our first stop was Varanasi and Second Stop was Bongaigaon. We came back from Vijaywada - Hyderabad. Amazing experience. Keep traveling

[RahuKetu]

Originally Posted by RedTerrano

To cross the river, one uses the Farakka bridge.
This being the only route across, the road was full of trucks, the air full of dust, and we were crawling along. By the time we reached the bridge and paid the toll, it had turned dark.
So much for Ganga darshan.

Now this bridge is an experience in itself.
Consider this Swiss Cheese.
Attachment 1810494
Notice all those holes in it? Thats exactly how the road on the bridge is. All of it's 2,240 meter length.
Of course I couldn't see the road itself. The air was too full of smoke and dust. I could feel it! Every inch of it we travelled, the car was rocking to and fro, the keys rattling all the time.
Crawling in 1st gear, I think it took us 30 minutes to travel it's 2 kilometre span.
And for all this, we had to pay 40/- to cross over!
If this is not Govt sponsored highway robbery, I don't know what is.

Farakka crossed, coming up next, Malda.
Yup, the Malda.
Again, chaotic traffic, dust, garbage, stink all over the place.
Adding to it all were these electric rickshaws which ferry people around.
Here is a representative image of traffic in Malda.

Attachment 1810499

Usually, I would have admired these tiny green vehicles, but by now we were on the road for almost 10 hours. I was fed up with the heat, lost time and the crawling traffic.

Somewhere beyond Malda, the traffic eases off and we can afford to relax a bit. A quick halt for dinner and we resume onwards.

First of all, let me congratulate you for writing such a beautiful & witty travelogue. We literally felt like travelling with you in your Red Terrano.

I can relate with your experience of crossing Farakka-Malda road stretch. I worked in a very well known power generating PSU and was posted in Farakka for 8 months in 2007. Not only the road conditions but overall law & order situation was very poor in this area.

We didn't withdraw money from ATMs as the percentage of counterfeit currency in circulation was pretty high. We used to withdraw money from banks by filling in withdrawl slips the old fashioned way.

"Kalia Chak" was very notorious area then. This is the same area where one police station was burnt nearly two years ago. People used to throw goats in front of moving cars and then demanded INR 10000 to 20000 from the drivers as compensation.

Putting negative things aside, I enjoyed my stay here as this part of the country was damn cheap. We enjoyed Samosas (Called as Singhara in Farakka ) for 1.5 INR, Tea for INR 1 etc.

Enough ranting for my first post here on Team-BHP.

[pganapathy]

Originally Posted by RedTerrano

The cutest cat in Sikkim - rubbing Dosa! In Sikkim!

Field Marshal Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw, MC, Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan.
But he still preferred to be known as Sam Bahadur
The only Field Marshal our Indian Army has had till date.
It think it's absolutely perfect, that a Fauji would be named Bahadur. Brave.
After all he served in the 8th Gorkha Rifles.
Sam Bahadur immortalised the Gorkhas, when he said
If a man says he is not afraid of dying, he is either lying or is a Gorkha.
Continued in next post

Not true. The first Field Marshal in the Indian army is Field Marshal KM Cariappa, of Coorg. He was made a Field Marshal post retirement admittedly, but was still the first. Manekshaw is the second. To date, they are the only ones who have become Field Marshals

[RedTerrano]

Originally Posted by pganapathy

Not true. The first Field Marshal in the Indian army is Field Marshal KM Cariappa, of Coorg. He was made a Field Marshal post retirement admittedly, but was still the first. Manekshaw is the second. To date, they are the only ones who have become Field Marshals

You are indeed right. I stand corrected.

[AdityaDeane]

I do not think that I have ever read a more captivating Travelogue ever. Thanks for sharing about your wonderful journey in such a special and wonderful way, loved every bit of it and rated it a well deserving 5 Stars.

[busydrive]

Amazing travelogue. Enjoyed reading it thoroughly. You have an amazing flair of writing sir, very nice dose of humor, facts, trivia and useful information related to the journey. In one word this was really amazing.

On a similar front I was wondering how can one obtain information before he starts on such a long journey to parts which are totally new for him. There is a section on road conditions - I think that can be one but if there are better options please correct me here.
The reason I said this is I come from Silchar. Though present location is Bangalore but I do travel to my hometown one or twice a year and is aware of the road conditions and connections. The road you attempted in your first try to reach Imphal was not something one tries at all. Other than NH37 its better to go to Diphu and try Imphal from the other side. The road via Aizawl isn't good and will take you a very long time. Btw Aizawl (NH 306) is a lovely city and maybe you could have taken that option.

Another surprise on this road is Barak - where you found brithplace of Obama! Barak is not a place, a valley. Silchar sits in Barak valley. BRO guys are funny. I am fan of their captions seen all over here in North East.

Traffic discipline is very good in North East other than parts of Assam. Mad honking is also not that common outside some parts of Assam. On highways there is a unwritten funny rule for night driving though - If the oncoming car gives a dipper sign you need to switch to low beam and same viceversa. However if the oncoming car is in high beam and you are on low and you do not change it to high beam and then switch back to low, he wont change either. I usually drive at high beam as traffic is sparse there and then switch to low whenever I see oncoming vehicle - he also follows suit.

For entering Arunachal, Mizoram and now Manipur you need ILP and you can get that in most of the larger towns; like Silchar while entering Mizoram. There is a Liaison office of Mizoram Government at Sonai Road Silchar where one can get this permit. Wrote it here as it might help potential travelers to this region.

Once again, thank you for penning this travelogue.

[RedTerrano]

Originally Posted by busydrive

On a similar front I was wondering how can one obtain information before he starts on such a long journey to parts which are totally new for him. There is a section on road conditions - I think that can be one but if there are better options please correct me here.

Our homework was quite exhaustive during the planning stage, in the sense, we had a very rough outline ready, of our route and more importantly places for night halts. Once we had the places identified, TBHP was a treasure trove for other information like route recommendations.

Unfortunately, Indian road conditions are dynamic and can alter drastically in days (think monsoon season havoc). As such we could get information only to a certain extent. Next best was talking to locals. Hotel staff, petrol pump attendants, even random strangers on the road. But we found out their knowledge was understandably mostly accurate to the next 50-60 KM.
And google maps.

Our daily (or rather next day) planning relied heavily on the combination of all these. It is not fool proof, but it is part of the fun. Something unknown adds to the adventure.

[ShivrajG]

One word for this Travelogue! EPIC!
The way you narrated the entire log is very captivating. This kind of writing proves you are a Punekar that too a Chitpavan . I was glued to this interesting post till the end and you didn't disappoint.
Do more travels and more logs for us to cherish.

I recently visited Sikkim and in process of writing the log, I dont know whether I will be able to do justice in front of such Logs like you, @SAM or @Dhanush.

We should catch up in a meet someday .
Thank you for this travelogue.