Monday, July 10, 2023

East Sikkim road trip June 2023

Toorsa river
June 5: Jaigaon to Rongli

The sun was like a fireball in the sky and it was hard to sit out in the verandah in front of our room at the Amidst Serene resort at Jaigaon. After our usual coffee, we went on a walk towards the Toorsa river. We sat on the high bank and watched the water flow for a while. 

After a late start - it was past 9 am by the time we had settled the bills - we faced our first google caused goof up: a bridge under construction preventing us from joining the highway towards Siliguri. After retracing our route, we were eventually guided by a tempo driver through a tea estate to the highway.

The narrow road along the Teesta, serving as the common access to Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Gangtok was choked with traffic and was a difficult drive. We stopped at Rongpo for Pizza at a Dominoes. The road from Rongpo to Rongli along the Rongpo Chu was broken and dusty. We reached our guest house in Rongli around 4 pm and Bibek Chetri was there to welcome us. Boyish and easygoing, he quietly took charge, parked our car properly, got our luggage shifted to our rooms and organised tea for us.

Zuluk
Over dinner we found out that Chetri studied Engineering in Bangalore and worked for a few years with the forest department of Sikkim before moving out into the travel business.

June 6: Permits for East Sikkim - Rongli to Zuluk

Yesterday morning, Chhetri took me to a travel agent who inspected my car related documents ( registration, insurance and driving license) and the photo ids of the three passengers - Chinna, Chupu and Lata. There was some running around for printing the photos of the three passengers from WhatsApp images. Then a form was filled up seeking the permit and an application written by me for the same. I went with all the above to the Police station where a policewomen cross checked the information and stamped a seal of approval on the permit. We went back to the travel agent and obtained multiple copies of the permit to be handed over at the various check points on our route. The whole affair took close to an hour and cost Rs 550.

Hairpin bends above Zuluk
I thanked Chettri for his hospitality and help with the permit and we took leave after taking a group photo with him. We visited a lake being developed as a tourist attraction by the government before heading for Zuluk.

The couple running the Tibetan Villa homestay at Zuluk - Bhutia and his wife - were very welcoming. As we reached the place around 2pm, thunder gave way to rain which quickly picked up in tempo. We were wet and cold by the time we covered the distance between our parked car and the homestay located at a height above the road.

Mrs Bhutia gave us a nice lunch in the dining room located in a an adjacent hut along with the kitchen. Our room had a large window with a nice view of the village. We rested after lunch, walked around the village a bit in the evening and then after another nice meal settled for the night.

Kanchenjunga above the clouds

June 7: Around Zuluk

This morning, we left about 8 am and drove up to Elephant lake near Kuku village absorbing all the sights. We got magnificent views of Kanchenjunga, Zuluk, and the road rising up from Zuluk in numerous hairpin bends. At a tea shop located at the crossroads to Nathang valley, I bought 20 litres of diesel for Rs 1400 leaving the tank with enough gas to drive up to Gangtok. At Nathang village we heard from a local resident some context to the memorial to British soldiers. These soldiers had been killed in fighting with a Tibetan army at the battle of Tuku La in 1898. Tuku La overlooks the Nathang valley. The British soldiers had come there at the request of the King of Sikkim.

Nathang Valley 
June 8:  Zuluk to Gangtok

We reached Gangtok around 1.30 pm. The views of Kanchenjunga were obscured by clouds. The new baba Harbhajan mandir held no attraction for us. We stopped at the war memorial and looked through a scope that pointed at Nathu La.

The highway into Gangtok was carrying heavy traffic and we could not find a restaurant with parking. So I ended up dropping Chupu and Lata at their hotel after agreeing to meet them at dinner in the pedestrian mall,  and then driving to our hotel. Chinna and  I walked over to the mall and had a relaxed lunch with beer in a little restaurant called The Hungry Kitchen.

Later that evening we all met at the pedestrian mall and after some shopping, found a nice window seat at a restaurant called The Lazy Chef. The mall was overrun with people and it was nice sitting on the open air second floor, looking out over the crowd from a safe distance and enjoying our food and drink.

June 9: Gangtok

This morning we visited the Rumtek monastery located on a hill across the river from Gangtok. The monastery is the seat of the Karmappa, the head of a Buddhist sect that has a large following in Sikkim. The monastery wasn’t particularly impressive. The old 17th century monastery in Rumtek which we also visited was set in much more beautiful surroundings.

Gangtok
Chupu and Lata treated us to a farewell dinner at another restaurant on the mall after which we said our goodbyes. They would be leaving for Chennai tomorrow morning while we are here for at least one more day.

June 10: A day of planning

Chupu and Lata left this morning for Chennai. We got the news that they had reached after 8 pm, 12 hours after getting into a cab for Bagdogra.

After extending our stay in the hotel by another day, we spent the whole morning trying to find a place near Kurseong for the next few days. I dropped the plan for North Sikkim after becoming aware of several issues. The permit would have to be obtained in Mangan using an authorised travel agent and we had to make bookings for a homestay in Lachung. The weather also appeared dicey with  predictions of increasing chance of rain over the next week which would make the roads dangerous and keep us indoors in our homestay a lot of the time. Chinna was falling prey to stomach issues often and I was also becoming weary from travel. These were reasons enough to consider an early exit from Sikkim.

A wall mural at the old monastery, Rumtek
I had a bad experience with GoIbibo ( now taken over by makemytrip). After booking a homestay, I found out after calling them that they did not have a room available and that they had not advertised their rooms with the site.Then followed many calls to try and get a refund and find another place. 

We booked for 11th and 12th at the K-Den Homestay near Kurseong and tickets to fly to Bangalore from Bagdogra on the 14th. The plan is to ship the scorpio to Bangalore. I have identified a couple of transporters who will do it for around Rs 24000. 

June 11: Gangtok to Kurseong

Murals on a rock face in Naya Basti
We packed and left Gangtok around 7 am for Kurseong. At Teesta Bazar, we crossed the Teesta and took the narrow but well surfaced Peshok (later Rishi) road towards Darjeeling. At a small village called Lamahatta, we passed a beautiful forest park but did not stop because of the crush of parked vehicles on the road. Villagers were selling fresh carrots, turnips and beet roots by the roadside and we picked up some. We turned towards Kurseong on Hill cart road and then drove down along the toy train tracks. At Kurseong, I had a hair raising time trying to take the Scorpio up on narrow and extreme steep roads towards our homestay on Dow hill. I had to use 4L mode and take the car up on first gear. Google map brought us close to the homestay but not quite there. With the help of a passerby, we located K-DEN Homestay and Pema was by then on the road to receive us.

Pema, turned out to be an interesting and helpful person and soon put us at ease. After a nice lunch and rest she took us to the nearby monastery, a pleasant walk. We came back by a longer route walking on the road with fog enveloping the valley and the pine trees in the hill above.

June 12: A walk the a Spruce forest

This morning, I booked a hotel in Siliguri for Tuesday the 13th. Our flight tickets to Bangalore are booked for the 14th. The plan is to start early tomorrow, check in to the hotel at 10 and after that visit the packers and movers and leave the car in their custody for shipment to Bangalore. Pemma helped us with a few cartons and we used them to pack the left over food stocks and some odds and ends that cannot be carried by air. 

Last night it rained cats and dogs and there was much thunder and lightning that kept us awake part of the night. We woke up to a wet and fog bound morning. So we lazed around until breakfast and then went for a walk through the forest and past the forest department campus in Dow hill till we had covered 2 kms. There was a slight drizzle during our return journey and the fog started descending again. The forest itself was beautiful with mainly spruce trees ( or so we gathered). The air was so fresh to breathe. We were back in an hour and a half, thoroughly refreshed.

Our stay in the Upper Naya Basti was relaxing. The home cooked food was really good. The birds, trees and the nearby forest created a lovely atmosphere. The rains, clouds and fog, though obscuring views, brought the temperature down to a pleasant level. Overall we enjoyed our two days here.

June 13: Kurseong to Siliguri

We left Kurseong early this morning as I was nervous about negotiating the steep road down from Naya Basti to the Hill Cart road. As it happened, Pemma’s brother offered to drive us down till the junction with the main road. The whole family was so friendly and that was a major part of the charm of the K-Den homestay. Among other things, he told me that he was not in favour of their ex landing their homestay beyond the two cottages they had now. Pemma would get married and leave the place. He planned to remain in Siliguri till his son finished school. Perhaps they would come back to Kurseong after that and manage the homestay. Pemma was a practising lawyer at the Darjeeling district courts and had a decent income but still wanted to do something on her own and started the homestay. His eldest brother was teaching in a village near the Nepal border and visited home only on weekends.

We drove down the scenic Hill cart road and checked in to the Loft which turned out to be a welcoming place. Next we located Raju of Anokhi Packers and Movers in a slummy area next to the Mahanadi. The handing over of the car was done in double quick time. Raju promised that our car would be in Bangalore within 9 days. Let us see how things turn out.

June 14: Homeward Bound 

Nice breakfast at the hotel. An air conditioned car was waiting for us by 9.15 am. Smooth drive and we were at the airport by 10 am. The Airport was really crowded. After standing in line for a while, we reached the check in counter only to be told that we had to run our baggage through a scanner. The waiting area near the boarding gate was packed and it was difficult to get a seat. Our flight was full. A breezy captain kept talking to us from the cockpit. When we flew over Vishakhapatnam (Waltair) he gave us a lowdown on the history of naming of the town. Unfortunately, we were on the wrong side and could not see the city or the harbour with civil and navy ships. We arrived well before time in Bangalore, a fact gleefully stressed by the captain as we landed. We were home by 4.30 pm.

PS : The Scorpio was loaded in a container truck on the 15th June ( Raju sent us a picture ) and delivered home early 24th morning in good condition. It had reached Nelamangala the previous day.


Friday, June 30, 2023

West Arunachal road trip May 2023

May 11: A troubled beginning 

Raju took us to the Bengaluru airport in good time and we had breakfast at the card lounge in the new terminal - poor food for which we paid Rs 1300 as my card was not entitled. Chinna had started to feel unwell. We thought at that point that it was just her stomach.

By the time we landed in Guwahati, Chinna was feeling worse. I persuaded her to come with me to Merwyn’s apartment with the assurance that we would not stay long. 

Merwyn was welcoming and quickly put us at ease. He said the car was in good shape. He had used the 4WD L for a 50 km bad stretch while driving in Ukhrul district and said it performed well, steadily pulling along the car. The car had come in really useful for him ( his car probably was in repair) during the period I had left it. He had been driving mostly to Arunachal ( Ziro area) and to Ukhrul in Manipur. He said he was now thinking of buying a used scorpio 4WD for himself.

We talked a bit about his work - currently with communities to turn Arunachal villages into zero waste areas. In Manipur, their project was about turning hemp into a usable fibre to provide a source of income to farmers growing the crop.

Merwyn asked about our itinerary in West Arunachal and approved it. He mentioned that we may not be able to take a self driven car to Northern Sikkim - something I needed to worry about later. He also mentioned that if we had to stay out of Arunachal because of the bandh, it would be better to hole up in Nameri rather than in Bhalukpong, the later being just a small market town while Nameri was situated near a national park.

I would have liked to spend more time with Merwyn and learn more about his projects seeing his enthusiasm for them. But Chinna was feeling worse by the minute, so we took his leave promising to meet up with him if possible on our return from Arunachal or in Siliguri if it turned out that his dates for visiting Delhi matched with our dates for shipping the scorpio out.

May 12: Preparations for the trip

The night was not very comfortable at our Guwahati guest house as the AC stopped in the middle of the night. Chinna looked better this morning. She remained in the room while I drove the car out to the service Centre reaching there just before 9 am. The room made me claustrophobic and I was glad to be out.

At the service station, I asked for the 80,000 km service to be done and additionally asked for an inspection of the suspension and rectification of the rear parking camera. The service manager persuaded me to add hub caps on two tyres and rustproof the chassis. On the way back from the service station, I bought a mercury thermometer. Chinna had a temperature of 99. By lunch, this had climbed up to 100. 

It is afternoon and I have repacked my bags and we have made a list of things to buy at the Quick Shopee just across from us on Baruah road. The car is due at 4 pm.

May 13: We get to Arunachal

The Kameng at Bhalukpong 
Somehow, we made it! We are in Arunachal and settled in the Mandal Ghang hotel in a large comfortable room with a fabulous view of the Kameng  river curving below us. 

This morning things did not look too good. 

Chinna still had fever, just a little below 100 degree F. She had a bad stomach after the adventure with the artisan pizza yesterday. And she was in no mood to jump out of bed and make an early start. I took the time we had before breakfast to go down and set up the storage area of the car with the cartons containing car tools, emergency cooking set, milk and lassi tetra packs and packaged foods. There was plenty of time as breakfast was at 8.30 and we were up at 5. I returned to the room and took my time to brew coffee. I showed Chinna pictures of our hotel in Bhalukpong. Seeing the pictures of the Kameng in Bhalukpong and after realising that the drive was under five hours, Chinna agreed that we could proceed from Guwahati.

So here we were in Bhalukpong. Our room was on the third floor overlooking the highway and the river. The moment Chinna saw the room, she was a changed person. We sat in the open balcony just outside our room and watched the river and the traffic on the Tawang highway till darkness set in.

May 14: Mrs Khandu makes our day

We had a comfortable bed at the Mandal Ghang hotel and the AC worked without a glitch. I managed to sleep reasonably well though I am generally not fond of sleeping in an AC room. It was bright outside much before 5 am. There was a strong wind blowing and the temperature in the open balcony pleasant. Chinna wanted to rest in the morning, so I made coffee for myself and an oatmeal porridge for Chinna and packed at a leisurely pace. 

We were just about to leave for Dirang around 10 when a Mrs Khandu - the owner of the hotel - dropped in to see us. The interactions with Mrs Khandu that followed turned out to be the highlight of our stay at Bhalukpong. Mrs K asked us where we were from and after learning that Chinna was from Kerala told us about her schooling at a Ramakrishna Mission school with teachers from Kerala. Teachers from Kerala were really good, she said, and schools employing them were much sought after by parents in Arunachal. Mrs Khandu had travelled to Bangalore and Kanyakumari but not to Kerala. She had the impression that people in Kerala were well educated and well off. Assamese workers were hard to get in Arunachal as they were moving to Kerala and securing better paid jobs.

At some point, Mrs K learnt of Chinna’s stomach ailment. She reeled out the names of several medicines, went to her apartment and returned with a couple and called up a pharmacy to procure some others ( including an antibiotic). I immediately suspected that she was from the medical profession and that turned out right ! She had done her MBBS from Delhi. She said she was ashamed to tell customers at the hotel- who took her to be a head cook or manager - that she was a doctor and worked at the nearby Government hospital. Learning that we wanted Dahi, Mrs Khandu sent her husband to a shop to pick up some for us. Then she walked to the parking lot to see us off and give instructions to our driver. Was she surprised to learn that I was the driver ! We parted with Dr Khandu, overwhelmed by her concern for us and the extent to which she went to take care of our needs. What a lovely person we had the good fortune to meet today!

The Dirang
May 15: Sick in Dirang

Last night was hell. I was too hot under the blanket and missing my head cover. From the previous morning, my chest felt heavy. I woke up in the middle of the night and doused myself with medicines, terribly worried that I was heading for a chest infection. On the other side, Chinna’s diarrhoea was really bad and she was also throwing up. At some point I drifted off to a fitful sleep with the medicine kicking in.

This morning, Chinna was a wreck. Her confidence was down. I knew that we had to consult some doctors. We consulted our family (literally family) doctor and also a doctor back in Bengaluru on the phone, letting them also know about our remote location. Both concurred in their diagnosis that Chinna had travellers diahorea. I started Chinna on the antibiotic ( which was in our possession thanks to Mrs Khandu) and went on a sortie to Dirang town to get the other medicines.

The stadium in Dirang at dusk
It is evening now and Chinna has been stable. We can’t travel tomorrow, so I have intimated the Tawang homestay, our next planned halt, that we will be delayed and booked a room at another homestay in Dirang town.

May 16: A day of rest

The Wangdi homestay in Dirang provided us a spacious room with windows looking out over the river. The lunch - boiled chicken with bamboo shoot and rice - proved to be tasty. Chinna was slowly recovering, still being very careful about what she ate. In the evening we walked around, visited the old Kalchakra monastery nearby and then walked inside a large stadium which offered nice vistas of the valley. By evening, Chinna was feeling better and agreeable to travel to Tawang the next day.

Approaching Sela pass
May 17: To Tawang over Sela Pass

We started our drive before 8 am and google showed the drive to Tawang to be a little over 4 hrs. On the first steep climb out of Dirang valley, I started getting a headache. Looked to be effect of rapid altitude gain. From that point I was dreading the climb to Sela pass that would take us to 13700 ft. During the climb, I was really conscious of my throbbing head and feeling quite uncomfortable. As we neared the pass, visibility became bad with low clouds and a slight drizzle. A poor motorcyclist was tailing me as I would have been an easy target to follow.

Eventually we reached Sela pass and stopped at a small shop selling tea and coffee. We had small cups of sweet lemon tea and used the toilet near the commemorative arch at the pass. At the urinal, I stepped on crunchy snow. The women’s urinal was a mobile toilet at waist height and Chinna had to hoist herself into it.

Sela Lake
After the pass, the going got better. My headache improved. We reached Dondrub homestay at 1pm, a little over 5 hrs after starting from Dirang. We got a nice welcome from the host and Shankar her able Assamese assistant who spoke some Kannada, having worked in Bangalore for 12-13 years as a guard. The first floor room we got was very well furnished and provided beautiful views of the town and the famous Tawang monastery. In the evening, we visited the Monastery.

May 18: Tawang

Sunrise happens somewhere between 4 and 4.30 in Tawang. We were awake early and had the first decent coffee together after many days. Chinna said her stomach was back to normal - close to 7 days after she started feeling ill. It was a cloudy morning with the sun playing hide and seek. 

View of the Tawang Monastery 
We decided to go for a long walk to a nearby sacred grove as suggested by a fellow traveller from Bangalore. The roads had only the occasional car or bike and even fewer people walking. We were able to find our way easily to the stadium and after that obtain directions several times to reach the Rigaling sacred grove and Gompa. We were rewarded with views of a lovely stretch of a forest of fir trees. We took a shorter way back but by this time there were motor vehicles on the road and we ended up breathing in a lot of diesel exhaust which again triggered my asthma.

Later in the morning after breakfast we drove to the hill with a giant Buddha statue and then to an Ani Gompa, a nunnery set in a secluded place. And in the evening, after the rain had subsided, we visited the war memorial.

May 19: To Zemithang

We got up very early, brewed coffee and slowly enjoyed it in the balcony looking out over the town, followed by a breakfast of oatmeal and bananas. We were on the road to Zemithang by 6.30. The early start allowed us to have a relaxed drive stopping at many spots to click photos of the beautiful valley of the Tawang Chu. 

The road was lined with chortens of various descriptions, rectangular ones having beautiful coloured inscriptions on stone or a row of prayer wheels, or little structures housing prayer wheels placed strategically under falling streams of water which kept the wheels moving and bells ringing. Our host at the Dondrub homestay had mentioned that there were 108 chortens on this route. We did not count, but this seemed likely.

On the way we stopped at several waterfalls and at the Gorson Stupa, a remarkable structure at a stunning location. It took a few missteps - or more literally, U-turns to find the Pangchem homestay located at the end of the market in Zemithang. The highlight of the afternoon was a trip to the border with China at Khinzemane organised by Gambu, our host.

May 20: A drive to remember 

This morning we set out early from our Zemithang homestay, crossed the Nyamjang Chu and drove up a zig zag road to the giant statue of Guru Padma Sambhava. The statue was located on a sheer hillside overlooking Zemithang and the Nyamjang Chu valley. We spent perhaps a half hour in the complex taking numerous photos of the valley unfolded before us with low moving clouds blowing across obscuring temporarily the peaks on the left bank of the river.

Nyamjang Chu near Gorson Stupa
While the infrastructure at the Pangchem homestay had some things lacking ( no wash basin in the bathroom, no geyser, no dustbin in the room, etc), the hosts Gombu and Tenzin more than made up by doing their best to make our stay comfortable. We took selfies with them and headed out on a different route back to Tawang, this time via Sungetsar lake and Y point junction. 

It was a drive to remember. The first part was a sharp climb of a 1000 ms from Zemithang (2200 m) with more hair pin bends than I have seen in any mountain climb in India. At some point during the drive, a thick fog descended on us reducing visibility and allowing only fir#t gear speeds. The climb was followed by a long drive along a ridge at 3200 m and then another climb to the Taktsang Gompa (3600 m). This road along the climb was in poor condition because of erosion by rain and the fog made driving really difficult on this road. 

Near Y junction 
After the Taktsang gompa, a short stretch fairly level stretch brought us to the high altitude (3700 m) Shungetsar lake. We walked around the lake taking in its spectacular surroundings. We had food at the cafe run by the army, I a Rajma Chawal and Chinna Maggie and momos. After Shungetsar, the road climbed to 4300 m before the Y junction (higher than the top of Sela pass) and we were above the snow line. The fog reduced visibility sharply. Eventually, we started the descent to a bitterly cold and grey Tawang.

May 21: Return from Tawang

Today was another Long driving day. We walked down to a spot near the stadium and back in the morning to limber up. Our start was somewhat delayed by a breakfast late in the arriving. We stopped at Jung to see the magnificent Fong Fong Ma waterfalls, something we had missed on our way up. 

Fong Fong Ma waterfalls
After that we stopped at a large well crafted statue of Tara. As we made our way up to Jaswant Garh memorial, we were again troubled by fog. The ride to Sela pass (4100m +) from the north side was quite smooth. This time neither of us felt any altitude effect as we had spent several days in Tawang. The descent on the south side towards Dirang was really steep with hair pin bends coming after very short stretches of level road. We were stuck behind a slow moving army convoy and it took a great deal of time and patience to overtake the vehicles in the convoy one by one. The ride from the highway to Thembang village - a distance of 14 km was on a narrow road cut out of the hillside. We arrived at the Kharjap homestay at 2.30, tired and really hungry. They had not kept lunch for us but on learning that we had not eaten, they scrambled some fast food.

May 22: Sangti Valley

On the spur of the moment, I took a decision yesterday that we would move to Sangti  Valley if we could get a room. Part of the reason was the room we got at the Kharjap Homestay - a small room with a leaking wash basin and a window looking into a back wall. The absence of our hosts at the homestay also contributed to my irritation. I called the Norbu Homestay in Sangti and  he said he could accommodate us. That decided our plan.

Entrance to Thembang village
At Kharjap, we met a nice family from Bangalore that was on its way to Tawang - Jinno a Malayalee working in a multinational company making road building machinery, his vivacious wife and a cute daughter studying in the 9th. Jinno had rented a car from Guwahati and had driven over straight from there to Thembang yesterday, reaching rather late in the evening. He gave me the contact of the rental company and we in turn told the family about our experiences in Zemithang.

This morning we walked along the paved road to Pangma village a distance of 6 km from Thembang. We turned around after covering about half the distance so as to get back to our homestay by 8 am. The road overlooked a valley all the way, but the valley was hidden by fog. We missed the vistas, but it was a good workout. After breakfast, we drove to Pangma only to be disappointed. The village consisted of just a handful of houses spread sparsely.

It was a short drive to Sangti valley and we settled into a large nice room by 12.30 and waited for our lunch to be prepared.

The Norbu Homestay


May 23: Stories of 1962

Our host Norbu at the eponymous homestay turned out to be an entertaining conversationalist and also helped us spend our time in Sangti Valley . On his instructions we crossed the river on a suspension bridge and walked along the left bank watching farmers - mostly women - planting chilli saplings in the sandy flood plain of the river. Tomatoes and Chillies were exported to Assam from the Sangti Valley, Norbu informed us. The sandy soil was not the best option, but people made do with whatever land was available. A woman farmer told us that they added chemical fertilisers to improve the crop.

This morning, Norbu took us for a walk to the old Sangti village to see his ancestral house. The village was located at an elevation on a hill, the houses close set, made of stone and wood, narrow lanes between them. A small Gompa occupied a central place in the village. Next to it was a Mani - a water mill operating prayer wheels - built by Norbu in memory of his father. Norbu told us that the village used to be surrounded by an impenetrable thicket of a type of poisonous bramble ( except for a guarded entrance) that served to protect the village from stray robbers belonging to tribes populating the neighbourhood.

One of the interesting stories that Norbu told us was about his fathers experiences during the Chinese invasion. They had come in along the Sangti valley and camped in the old Gompa. They were not carrying rations. For food they went around the village and collected pumpkins, then foraged for some leaves in the jungle, obtained large vessels from the villagers and cooked these together. The Indian troops on the other hand depended on the rations and were in trouble when the supplies stopped. The Chinese troops were at pains to convince the local Monpa that they were not their enemy. Only the bearded men ( Indians) were!

May 24: Shergaon

We have a lovely room at the DKT homestay in Shergaon, spacious, well furnished, with lots of windows and light. However DKT has one big problem. They have a new employee - a girl from the tea plantations who has been here only 6 months - as a cook and there is no one to supervise her cooking, the mistress of the house being away at work in Teju. After an awful dinner last night, I made up my mind to find another homestay to shift to.

View of Himalayan peaks from Mandala top
This morning we woke up to the sound of thunder. By the time we had finished our coffee, it had started raining. Around 10, the rain eased up a bit and e took a walk under umbrellas around the town. Just 10 mins away, we found the Lopon Homestay, located on the road coming down from Mandala top with a nice view. We liked the room and the landlady and even got her to prepare lunch for us while we went on a long walk to see two nearby monasteries. The lunch of rice and boiled vegetables was really tasty. We fixed with her that we would come and stay at her place tomorrow.

After meeting the Lopon homestay landlady and going on our walk, my mood lifted. I started appreciating the beauty of the Shergaon area and even the village. In the afternoon, we drove to the monastery at Chillipam, a beautiful structure located in breathtaking surroundings. Thee are still several places of interest to visit to tomorrow. After all, the plan to stay here three nights may have been the right one.

Chillipam Monastery 
May 25:

The morning started with Chinna’s coffee making which she has perfected over the last week of travel. We went for a walk on the old highway that runs through the upper part of the town enjoying the crisp morning, looking at the birds flitting about, undisturbed by vehicular traffic. We stopped at a tea shop where the owner came and sat down at our table and enquired about us. He had two daughters and a son, he told us. The eldest daughter studied in Delhi and was teaching in a school there as there were no jobs in Arunachal. The younger daughter trained to be a nurse in Bangalore and was now working nearby. His son had opened up a hotel near the SSB camp across the river. He had a house in Purani Basti near the Gompa and had shifted a while back to his current location. Before the new highway came up, they used to get much more custom at his tea house.

After a quick breakfast and bath we shifted our luggage to the Lopon guest house and went on a drive to the Buddha park located on a hill overlooking Jaigaon. The Buddha statue had been installed but the surroundings were still under development with construction work everywhere. I spotted a mason working meticulously on one of the108 pillars encircling the Buddha. He was from Guwahati and told me that he and his co-workers had been brought from Assam for the work. They had expertise in this type of work and had built the main structure standing the Buddha statue. 

On the way back to Shergaon, we stopped at the State Horticultural farm. We were walking about cluelessly till we spied a man sitting in the front porch of an office who hailed us and wanted to know what we had come for. Nimalama was from Darjeeling. He had been working in the farm a long time an₹ was settled in Shergaon with his family. Over the next half hour he gave us a conducted tour of the orchard showing us the apple, plum, peach and berry trees and treated us to a few ripening cherries plucked from the tree.


We returned to a sumptuous lunch provided by our host at the Lopon guest house. This is our last full day in Arunachal. Tomorrow we return to the heat and dust and traffic of Guwahati.

May 26: Last day in Arunachal

Our Arunachal trip ended yesterday. We left after an early breakfast around 7am. The distance to Guwahati was only 250 km but it took us over 7 hrs. The area around Shergaon and Kalaktang was really scenic. Lush green hills, vegetable cultivation on cleared slopes, villages perched high up, cotton wool clouds moving low across the hills and rain in flashes.

Google took us on a route that avoided Bhairabkunda and took us on a more easterly route to the boundary of the Orang National park and then along the Brahmaputra to Guwahati. The Assam traversal was on a two lane highway with heavy traffic making for slow speeds.

After upgrading to a deluxe room which cost us Rs 3000 more, we drove straight to the Quick Service Laundry to deposit nearly 9 kg of soiled clothes with the assurance that we would get them the next day.

Wednesday, June 21, 2023

Diary of a monsoon road trip in Maharashtra and Karnataka - Part 2

June 26.

Finally, the day we get to see the Badami cave temples. Didn't disappoint. The setting of the glowing red sandstone rock and the views, as much as the temples themselves. Built by the Early Chalukya kings from the later 6th to 7th centuries.  

The iconography was very similar to that in the caves at Ellora. The outstanding sculptures set against the walls were the 18 armed Nataraja (said to be unique), Varaha lifting up the earth, Vijayanarasimha, Vishnu in a seated pose (also unusual). Added bonus was to see traces of  painting on the walls (detectable by us only after taking a photo of it) and inscriptions in old Kannada script. Cave 1 was dedicated to Shiva, 2 and 3 to Vishnu, and 4 was a Jain temple, all patronised by the Chalukyas. Though cave 3 was the biggest and had the most carving, I felt that the ones in cave 1 were better, with a more delicate touch. 


Our guide, Raju Kalmat, has been doing this job for 25 years. He would have made a good teacher.  One always thinks that one can do without a guide in these places, and certainly there is enough to gaze and wonder at by oneself. But it's the smaller details that only they can point out.  

We decided to walk to the sites and back both in the morning and afternoon, as the distance was less than two kilometres. Saw a bit of the local life which goes on pretty much like in any small town,  almost totally unconnected with the amazing monuments just next door. Pigs and monkeys were everywhere. Have never seen so many pigs running around in any place I have been to. Why?  The monkeys were busy pelting stones at people from the rocks above the caves.  Small settlements co-exist cheek by jowl with the monuments, with people washing their clothes in the beautiful Agastya lake and draping their wash on the rocks and fences. I noticed that practically all the houses were pucca and the lanes concrete. But grubbiness and garbage everywhere.

After lunch at one of the innumerable Lingayat Khanavalis dotting the main road, we revisited the site. On the other side of the lake was the Bhoothnath temple. A very pleasing structure and the setting on the quiet side of the lake was beautiful. Ended by visiting the small museum.  Located in a small building made to blend with the surroundings. Someone had some sense when they designed it.   

We were exceptionally lucky to have cool, breezy, cloudy weather which allowed us to spend the whole afternoon walking around and sitting at the lakeside.




Agastya Lake and North Hill

Bhoothnath Temple
















































June 27. 
Today was the day for Aihole, about 40 kms from Badami. Called the cradle of South Indian temple architecture because of the number of temples dotting the small area (about 150), and also the experimentation with different styles. The Dravidian, with storied pyramidal roofs, the curved roofs of the north Indian Nagara  style, and a style unique to the area with sloping roof tiles interspersed with log-like projections. We went from one site to another. 

The following were memorable for me:   

The Durga Temple
the well preserved Durga temple with its unusual oval shape at the back; the Meghuti hill fort and Jain temple mainly for its location with stunning views all around; and the Ravanphadi cave temple with its beautiful dancing Shiva. Aihole seems to be some centre for ox carts. At the base of  Meghuti hill, we had to park our car in the midst of a good number of oxen, buffaloes and carts. In Chalukya times, it was known as a prosperous commercial centre. Hard to  believe now. 

Our plan was to explore the North Hill back at Badami in the evening. But by the time we woke up from an exhausted siesta and got over there, we only had time to see the lower Shivalaya temple, although we got a splendid view of the town below from there. Kannan was very disappointed we couldn't go higher. Access to the North Hill is not easy. Even autos can barely make it through the narrow lanes of the adjacent settlement full of pigs, dogs and little children playing.

Jain Temple on Meghuti hill

























June 28.
Yesterday evening we made a spur of the moment decision to head next towards Gokarna on the coast, in order to avoid reaching Bangalore before Padma's guests leave our house. Both of us felt that we had reached a saturation point with historical sites, and wanted a different experience.
But first we had to complete the trinity which we had come to see. So by 6.30 am we were on our way to Pattadakal, about 15 Kms away.


Unlike Aihole, the Pattadakal temples are all grouped together. This made it much easier to see. In those times, it must have been a busy place, with so many places of worship. The main point of interest in viewing these temples was seeing those in the southern Dravidian style and the northern Nagara style literally rubbing shoulders with each other.  It also has a living temple, Virupaksha, where local people were busy with their daily worship. Its twin temple, Mallikarjuna, was just a monument.   

The Arabian Sea at Gokarna
One thing we have noticed is that the carvings in structural temples like these were in much poorer shape than those in the cave temples. The real interest of the Pattadakkal temples was less in the carvings than in seeing so 
many temples of different styles in one place.

Packed up and left Mayura Chalukya around 10 am. We found it to be a spacious and comfortable, though not swank, place to be, with friendly people, right from the office staff to the waiters and cleaners. No airs.
On the drive to Gokarna, passed through fertile fields, followed by teak forests and then the ghat. Descended quite fast to see the sun coming down over the vast expanse of the sea just before we drove into Paradise Holiday Resort. Were greeted by a pleasant manager Suraj Padiyar and several friendly local dogs.
June 29. 
The lawns of the Mayura, Chitradurga


Rain, rain, rain.  Throughout last night from 7 pm onwards. Continued with barely a few minutes break into the morning. Our plans of early morning scrambling down to the beach, or spending another day in this pleasant spot, all went up in smoke -- or rather, dissolved in the deluge. We booked the Mayura hotel in Chitradurga halfway to Bangalore, and left quickly after breakfast. Maybe we can come back here again in better weather.
Arrived around 5 pm in dry and sunny Chitradurga. It now feels comforting to come to a state run Mayura hotel. You know what to expect, and the locations are great.  This one is located just opposite the fort, so we plan to visit it early morning before we leave. The broad road dividing the hotel from the fort has very little vehicular traffic and is used by local people as a promenade. It was nice to take a leisurely walk up and down this road and watch the citizenry stroll around, chat with each other or sit on the benches. People seemed quite friendly, going out of their way to ask us where we were from and suggesting places to see.  A long quiet evening after that sitting on our room porch and enjoying the pleasantly cool air outside, while watching the sun set behind the fort. 

June 30. 

Our last visit on this trip was the real surprise. We never expected the Chitradurga fort to be so captivating. Easily rivals many of the better known forts in the North in size, points of interest, historical colour and jaw-dropping scenery. Especially noteworthy were: the temple to the rakshasa king Hidimbeshwar; the many 'honda' (tanks) which ensured that the population inside never ran out of water; the tall stone swing posts; and the Okave Obavva Kindi.  This was the small hole in the rocks through which Tipu Sultan's soldiers tried to sneak into the fort, only to be smartly rapped on the head one by one by a vigilant woman with her okave (mallet), until she herself was killed. Tipu eventually took the fort, only for it to be later taken by the British. Initially constructed by the later Chalukyas in the 11th to 13th centuries, the fort was later occupied by the Nayakas and even the Vijayanagara empire. A whole lot of history there.
   
The one black spot. A senseless 'no contact' entrance system, in which you have to scan a QR code, enter a whole lot of unnecessary details such as the number of your ID card, nationality etc, and pay Rs 20 per person online. Obviously, there would be many glitches in the process. This resulted in crowds of people gathering around the lone security guard who could help them, and much delayed entrance. And all this to enter an ancient fort in an out of the way town, with no valuables in it! Getting into Parliament is probably easier. Since we had never seen something like this in any other site we have visited, I assume it's some hare-brained scheme being tested out on a pilot basis.  A great way to discourage tourism.

Getting back into Bangalore was smoother than expected, mainly because it was in the off rush hour period (if there is such a thing in Bangalore). We decided to end the trip in a holiday manner by grabbing paninis for lunch at a place just 5 minutes before home.

*     *     *     *     *     *

I started these daily jottings because I found that I remembered very few details of past trips we had done. I remembered the big picture and there were some snapshot memories of those earlier trips, but not enough remained in my memory. At my age, the capacity to remember details is bound to be even less! I set myself the not too ambitious goal of jotting down just a couple of paras a day on my mobile phone.

I began with the idea of just recording names of places and people, and some historical events and dates. However, the experience of the trip couldn't be confined to this, and stray thoughts and observations worked their way in.

Monsoon skies over Chitradurga fort
Adding photos was a later idea. I realised that one rarely looks later at photos in one's mobile phone, and figured how to transfer the most interesting ones to my computer via email. Once they were on my laptop, it took only a little more figuring out to insert them into the diary.

Looking again at the photos, I could see that a dominant theme was the monsoon, and especially the monsoon skies. What dramatic and eye-catching skyscapes there were!  One may have been trying to get a picture of a monument, but in looking at the photo one could see that nature easily rivalled the man-made construction.

The other theme was the Chalukyas. From the little Chandramouleshwara temple in Hubbali to the Chitradurga fort, they were ever present. I had of course heard about the Chalukyas in passing in my Ancient Indian History class, but knew little about them beyond the name. Travel opens up the mind, and also helps to give a more concrete form to the past.

This was a journey through a part of India which was not very familiar to us, despite being not too far. That added to the charm.  Living in Bangalore, and earlier Delhi, one tends to be a little metro-centric.  This is after all a land of small towns and villages. I don't want to romanticise life in these places, but it is good to come out of the confines of gated colonies in the cities.