[Ravveendrra]

Originally Posted by Sutripta

Actually, the border fence is quite a bit inside India. The tea gardens you see on the other side of the fence are Indian. Unlike estates, these are small holdings converted from food crops to tea, to supply a new breed of tea factories called the bought leaf factories.
The people who live on the other side of the fence have a trying time. There are fixed times when the gate is opened, and they have to pass through if they want to.

.....
Regards
Sutripta

If that fence was put up by a Hyderabadi it would have been well inside B'desh . Bit of a let-down that what we saw on the other side was still India, in the interests of interesting tales to tell my grandchildren - I shall pretend you never told me the above bit. My son and I saw tea being plucked in B'desh!

Originally Posted by tortoiseNhare

Excellent narration Ravvs and co. I missed the following stretch on my Mirik-Siliguri-Guwahati return journey on 31/12/08 as I had taken the Mainaguri-Dhupguri-Falakata-Coochbehar route.

All the areas covered by those roads are beautiful. I envy you for living in such a beautiful part of the world. You can use a different road each time you travel!

Originally Posted by genesis

@Ravveendrra: Lovely travelog. Thanks for sharing in such detail.

Question: How accurate was the GPS in those areas? I can see it shows one long road, which is probably the case in the inner regions

-genesis

The picture you referred to is really informative, that is why I like it so much. The speedo is shown, the front windshield shows a wall of green foliage, the steering is shown in turn position, the good luck charm dangling from the RVM is to the far left showing the rate of turn.

To anwer your question - see the GPS in the pic. It shows the car before the right turn, while the car is actually well into the turn.

As Arun has said, the roads are there but, their location is not accurate. Sometimes the voice prompt asks you to take a turn, where there is no possibility of taking a turn. After a while it became a guessing game as to when the GPS was correct and when it was not. At places the GPS was accurate, it was a great driving aid as it forewarns you about corners, turns etc.

Originally Posted by mobike008

Nice pictures Nazim. Some of the pictures of the landscape with river flowing in between so very much looks like the Himachal Terrain. You will know when similar pictures of mine will come up shortly.

Seems that Arun is still sleeping in the back-seat.

On a more serious note - The pics were taken by both Nazim and Arun using both the D60 and the D90. Sometimes they also used the FZ18. Nazim is entrusted with the task of posting the pics from the D60 and the D90. Poor chap did not know what he was in for, a lot of the pics are in RAW format and are taking a lot of time before they are fit for posting here. I am posting the pics from the FZ18 and the Kodak. Please ignore the date-stamp in the pics from the Kodak, the date got disturbed and I am too lazy to retouch the pics.

Originally Posted by prateekm

If I remember correctly, in some topic regarding Laura, you had mentioned that you had installed Petes but generally don't use it in the city driving. You said that you may use it on steep inclines, etc. So did you guys use it (and find it of any use) in those hilly regions?

The Pete's box stayed off throughout the trip. I also shifted to the stock paper type air-filter for the trip, as I did not want to take any chances with the dust. I am glad that I used the paper filter as the roads were very very dusty - a fine dust that got in everywhere. The air-filter was choked by the time we came down from Tawang and we had it cleaned in Guwahati on the way to Shillong. I shudder to think of any of that dust getting into the turbo and thereafter into the cylinders.

The car did not miss the Pete's box at any point of time. There was always enough power on tap. The fully loaded car climbed the steepest slopes easily and we were shifting up quite normally.

Cheers,

[ishotmydog]

just went through your entire thread. absolutely amazing!

[vnabhi]

Hey Ravvs,

Did I see 2 mirrors in your car, or did I see 2 mirrors?

BTW the pics are lovely. Feels like they have a Nazim touch!

[pulsar56]

Destination is not that far now!


This fellow was planning to headbutt me!


And I had to bolt after this shot!







It's mandatory to stop and then proceed


At the durga temple.


We skipped the sessa sanctuary. ADC continued to Sessa.

[akas_chauhan]

Very nice pictures. Keep them coming.

[pulsar56]

Some random pics on the way to Bomdila.








































Few shots of the Kameng River






The Shaitan Bridge.

[amikacin]

I have following through this thread for a long time now and am curious every time now that i log on the site.
The vastness of this country continue to inspire me.
From the deserts in my backyard to the scenic beauty of the forest and hills of Tawang. Our country is just fabulous.
One may need a life time to explore each and every corner.

Congratulations for your happy and safe trip and thanks for taking us all on a virtual trip.

[Ravveendrra]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

Hey Ravvs,

Did I see 2 mirrors in your car, or did I see 2 mirrors?

BTW the pics are lovely. Feels like they have a Nazim touch!

Hi Venu saab, Yes one is the regular RVM, the smaller one is to let me keep an eye on our navigator perched on his booster (safety) seat in the rear.

Originally Posted by amikacin

I have following through this thread for a long time now and am curious every time now that i log on the site.
The vastness of this country continue to inspire me.
From the deserts in my backyard to the scenic beauty of the forest and hills of Tawang. Our country is just fabulous.
One may need a life time to explore each and every corner.

Congratulations for your happy and safe trip and thanks for taking us all on a virtual trip.

It is that same sense of vastness, that made us decide on this road-trip. The idea was to experience a bit of the vastness and variety of our country. God willing, this will be the first of many long road trips in the future.

While Nazim struggles to resolve his problems with the RAW (format for pictures) and pushes us along beyond Tenga, let me share some co-incidences.

I had mentioned that I had chosen 'Tawang' randomly and that later I got a feeling that it was not pre-destined, something like a 'bulaawa'. At the time we decided on Tawang, none of us or for that matter almost no one in Hyderabad had heard of Tawang. Soon after we finalised on Tawang, it was on everyones lips thanks to the Chinese government kicking up a mighty row about the Dalai Lama's proposed visit to Tawang. I was pleased as punch that I had picked a destination that was now a 'celebrity' and was home to one of the largest gompas in the world when another co-incidence made me thoughtful - just a few days before we were to set off from Hyderabad, the Dalai Lama himself visited Hyderabad. Uncanny? I believe so.

We finalised our plans and started making bookings more than 2 months in advance, permits to travel to Arunachal were also applied for and obtained well in advance. A fair bit of planning and co-ordination was required and we were guided by several travelogues of other travellers and guidance by several route gurus including HVK, Sutripta, AKRoy, Sudipto, RobiMahanta, Predatoronwheels and others who had traversed these roads before. Guided by HVK's logs, I prepared rough route notes for our use. I also prepared packing lists and check lists of things to do. The packing list and check list proved invaluable in preparing for the trip. I am attaching the same here, just in case they come in useful to others. The files are Word files.

This is the check list, packing list etc.: tawang - plans.doc

These are the route notes which were to function as trip sheets: Trip plan & sheet.doc

The pictures poste by Nazim (some shot by him and some shot by Arun) brought back memories. That billy goat was really weird, he took a dislike for Nazim or maybe Nazim's camera and chased him all over the place looking very aggressive.

That portrait of the old man carrying wood is a good one.

Cheers,

[n.devdath]

I saw a huge gash on adc's Safari and the front right fender cladding too is torn off. Did this happen during this trip or was it an old injury??

[Ravveendrra]

Originally Posted by n.devdath

I saw a huge gash on adc's Safari and the front right fender cladding too is torn off. Did this happen during this trip or was it an old injury??

That wound on ADC's TMT was inflicted by a biker who insisted on weaving through the traffic blindly on the Durgapur expressway. It happened the day before we met ADC in Siliguri. Fortunately the only thing hurt was the biker's ego.

BTW: Will someone please identify the wild fruit in the picture posted by Pulsar.

Siuri will always have a place in the Laura's heart for that was where she was promoted to a 'Mercedes'!

Cheers,

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by Ravveendrra

BTW: Will someone please identify the wild fruit in the picture posted by Pulsar

That resembles so very much like Wild Berries/Cherry's to me. Is it something else?

Nazim, the raw image processing has come out pretty good. However, like i noticed with my images as well, some landscapes are over-exposed. I reckon taking pictures of foggy landscapes is a difficult task, dont you think?

[pulsar56]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Nazim, the raw image processing has come out pretty good. However, like i noticed with my images as well, some landscapes are over-exposed. I reckon taking pictures of foggy landscapes is a difficult task, dont you think?

Thank you. But I am still a noob in Post Processing Raw images.
As for overexposed landscapes, in some of the pics, I wanted it like that!

The brightness makes one feel closer to the SUN! LOL.

[amikacin]

Sorry for being OT but had to ask this, can we show the xerox copy of the RC and other car documents
instead of original or must we also have the originals with us. What about at various police check posts,
is it o k to show them the duplicate copies?

[pulsar56]

Originally Posted by amikacin

Sorry for being OT but had to ask this, can we show the xerox copy of the RC and other car documents
instead of original or must we also have the originals with us. What about at various police check posts,
is it o k to show them the duplicate copies?

It is always better to carry the originals along with few photocopies.
Initially, show only the photocopies of the documents to the guy who asks for them. If he demands to see the originals, then you take them out.

The sorry state of India is that, most of the guys at the check-posts cannot distinguish between a photocopy and a Original document.

[vnabhi]

Wow Ravvs, now I know why you have the secret mirror!
BTW, the young navigator has proved to be an all-weather navigator, eh?