North East Road Trip - 7: Kaziranga, Guwahati

Day 31, Jan 27. 

I guess I must be winding down from this trip already. I have missed two days' diary entries, and am writing this two days later even though these days have been less busy than the earlier ones.

We left Hotel Pushkara Sarovar in Dibrugarh after breakfast. I must say it was a welcome change to stay in a room where all the amenities were in tip top shape. We didn't stir out of the hotel, just had good baths and unwound.

After about 5 hours drive, arrived in Agoratoli Resort near Bokokhat. It's walking distance to the entrance of the eastern range of the great Kaziranga National park. Set amidst fields and  tidy villages. A truly rustic environment. Staying in a comfortable mud house in a shady compound. Bittoo, the young man in charge of the place, is cheerful and energetic.  Amazingly, he also speaks Tamil, obviously once fluently, although now it has become a little rusty.  This makes him the third young Assamese man we have come across by sheer chance who knows some Tamil at least -- imagine what the total number must be!

Took a slow evening walk along one of the quiet roads outside. Came back and sat next to a small bonfire with a couple of other guests and chatted comfortably. He is a German diplomat based in Kolkata, and she is an American who has spent 9 years in Haiti.

Day 32, Jan 28.  

Set off in a jeep after an early breakfast for the great Kaziranga safari. Earlier, we had thought we would skip it, but it seems rather pointless to be here and not even try to catch a  glimpse of the wildlife.  As it turned out, we saw at a distance a couple of rhinos, herds of wild buffalo with great horns, hog deer and swamp deer, and a host of migratory birds, including bar headed geese and Northern Shovelers from Siberia. A lovely spotted owl stared at us from a tree branch.  No luck in spotting tigers, but we were lucky to suddenly come across a wild mother elephant feeding on plants with her young calf just by the side of the road.

Evening, took a 5 km walk along the road from this place in another direction. An elderly man stopped to chat and then, with an eloquent gesture of his hand, bade us follow him. He took us to his house, pulled up a couple of chairs outside and invited us to sit. We sat chatting for about 20 minutes, during which time his wife and college going son arrived. Later, a mama goat with its two kids came strolling in nonchalantly. Our host said his older son works inside the Park. Offered us tea, but we said we wanted to get back before it got dark and took our leave.  On the way home it was lovely to watch the villagers rounding up  their cattle, goats, ducks and geese from the fields and ponds, all of them heading to their respective homes. This was accompanied by the loud bellowing of calves and bleating of tiny goat kids.  All of this as the sun set slowly behind us.

Day 33, Jan 29.  

Our last day, or half day, of sightseeing. Set off in the morning to see the Kakojan waterfall, about 40 minutes away. This is in the tribal Karbi Anglong district, and one could see the change in the looks of the people and the clothing they wear. Assam is home to so many different peoples, like most of the North East.

The waterfall didn't disappoint. A half hour trek, on a nicely  demarcated path, takes one to the waterfall set amidst mainly bamboo forest. It was good to see that people mostly stood at a respectful distance on a foot bridge, and that one was not subjected to the sight of fleshy men stripping and cavorting in the water, as I have seen at other waterfall spots. It was lucky that we went early, because by the time we returned to the parking lot, it was chock full of people and cars. 

Met our jeep driver from yesterday at the waterfall, bringing another lot of guests from our own resort. He told us of several other things we could do, including visiting the Numaligarh fort, boating on the Brahmaputra, and attending a tribal dance performance at night at the Kaziranga Orchid Park. Kannan was all charged up to do these things. Looking at the map he even got the idea of doing a quick foray to Dimapur in Nagaland, but there I put my foot down. 

 

As it turned out, we did none of these things. After getting our mud-caked Scorpio professionally washed (it emerged gleaming), we had only enough time and energy to go home for lunch and sleep. Then, from about 3.30 to 6 pm, we did a mammoth job of sorting all our belongings into what flies home with us, what remains with the car, and what will eventually get discarded. Felt more in control of things after that, but effectively, that marked the end of our holiday.

Day 34, Jan 30.  

Reached Guwahati in good time, four and a half hours. Checked into the now familiar Bougainvillea. Time to arrange for the disposal of our faithful Scorpio.  Our road trip of over 6000 Kms has come to an end.

North East Road Trip 1