This was a trip we planned twice. Once we had it planned for Dec 2023. However, our dear friend in Assam mentioned we have to plan 3 months in advance to get the best of accommodations.
I will just cover the places we visited and share more about the trip later on. We visited in April 2nd week 2024. Post April mid, the rains start and it gets really hard to go to any place in the north east due to heavy rains.
Reached Guwahati on a direct flight from Bengaluru. We were a group of 15 including kids.
Got into a mini-bus after exiting the Guwahati airport. Had lunch at our friend's place.
From there our 7 day journey began. We had to reach Prashaanti cottage in Bhalukpong, Assam that night. It is the border town from where one needs a inline-pass to travel to arunachal pradesh.
We stopped near Anuaraag Dhaba, Borghat for a tea break which added to the delay in reaching Prashaanti cottage. Had dinner at Saffron Pind at Tezpur around 9pm.
Finally reached Prashaanti cottage at around 11:30pm. it was pretty late and we just got enough time to find our room and sleep!
Day 2: Had breakfast and left around 9:15 am towards Dirang. Passed through Tippi orchid sanatorium, Nag mandir. Had lunch at Chulha around 3pm. Finally reached a homestay in Dirang near Rama camp at 7:30pm
Day 3: Explored nearby hotels and stays available in Dirang as finding stays in Arunachal is not easy. Identified few places we can stay if we ever go again :)
Started for Tawang at 8:30am. Stopped at Jung falls (Nuranang falls). Stayed at Hotel Zax star.
Tawang is a hilly town with winding roads which lead to the monastery and beyond that is the border outpost of the army.
Day 4: Did local sight-seeing - Tawang monastery, Giant Buddha statue, Tawang war memorial and finally Chakzam bridge, the ancient iron bridge was built in the 15th century and is one of the last surviving Tibetan bridges in the area. Had dinner at the hotel and slept. We had got the permit for visiting Bumla pass for the next day. It is made of iron chains and bamboo, cane, rattan and straw and is suspended over the Tawang River.
Day 5: Visited Bumla pass and also the outpost were the chinese army is located at the border. There was a large group of tourists and the Indian army's representative shared the historical highlights. Evening we went to a cafe (Phun'scafe) in old market area.
Day 6: We started early at 5:50am as the sun rises early in the north east and we wanted to cover a lot of distance so we could visit Kaziranga national park the next day. We stopped at similar cafes that we stopped at previously. We skipped Sela pass and went through the sela tunnel and saved us an hour of travel. Reached Bhalukpong late in the night.
Day 7: Had lunch at Foxtail orchid resort. Visited Kaziranga national park. After the safari left for Guwahati.
Day 8: Local sight-seeing. Lot of temples in Guwahati. We visited Navagraha temple and then Assam state zoo which was under renovation. Later in the evening went for Brahmaputra river cruise which was very good as there were programs representing glimpses of the north east culture.
Day 9: Did some shopping and then had lunch at Shoolin Grand hotel. Then we left for the airport in the evening and back in Bengaluru by mid-night.
No comments:
Post a Comment