nEg'z .........

Finally on the Christmas day of 2008 we boarded the train from sealdah to reach our destination, the snow-clad peaks of Arunachal. 3 brave souls Me, Bose & Pritam, despite many constraints (read that budget-constraint, time-constraint, health-constraint) & also braving many warnings (almost all the expert-travelers warned us that December wasn’t the ‘Right’ time to visit Arunachal & not to mention the usual family & boss warnings) we were finally at the sealdah station at the crack of dawn to avail the train to Guwahati. After traveling for nearly 24 hours in the overcrowded train we finally reached our destination Guwahati, but our first experience wasn’t actually gateway-to-heaven like! Just coming out of the railway station we pitted at a local panshop & the keeper robbed of 50 odd rupees. Anyways braving this early setback on a really early morning we found out that we have to travel to the new bus stand to avail the bus to Tezpur, which is the base to travel to...

Day2 : Bomdilla (27 th Dec) Next day we started early morning to Bomdilla. As it rained throughout the night, the morning was quite cool, but still there wasn’t much ‘wintery’ feel to it. We driver whizzed pass through the empty roads of Tezpur & soon we were traveling through the forest area of the famous Kaziranga. Though it wasn’t in our tour itenary, we had a few free days, so we decided to make a small trip to Kaziranga if our budget permits. At around 10.30 we reached Bhalukpong – the entry point to Arunachal. We already had our permits made from Kolkata, so the checking process was brisk & quick. We had our breakfast there & also couldn’t refrain ourselves from a little on-road photo shoot. Soon we sighted the snow clad peaks of ‘Sela’-through which we have to pass to enter the district of Tawang, but today our destination was the town of Bomdilla. The scenes of the roadside were quickly coming close to that of picture-perfectness as we entered Asia ’s biggest Orchi...

Day3 : Conquering Sela (28 th Dec) The next morning was cold, but by then we had acclimatized a bit. Dressing up in our heavy woolens, we got out to stroll by the city as our pick-up would be coming from Tezpur & would be taking quite a bit of time. We utilized the time clicking photos around the city & our off-roader came by noon. It was already late & we have to pass the ‘World’s 2 nd Highest Motorable Pass’ – Sela Pass, which would be extremely difficult after the sundown, so we started immediately. We whizzed pass the comparatively smoother terrain, stopping just once for lunch. But the roads were starting now very thin & not at all in a good shape. Just a few months back (in September actually) there have been a flood which has washed away bridges & damaged roads greatly. Every now & than we could see roads & bridges under construction & scarred mountains & damaged houses & cars as the sign of the recent disaster (of course adding to our fe...

Day4 : Tawang (29 th Dec) The next day I woke up to another surprise. It was the first snowing day of the season in the town of Tawang . We concluded that the heavy rain at the first day in Tezpur had set an amazing chain in motion for us that we were indeed witnessing the ‘Glory of Winter’ in this amazing place, but we were unaware that Mother Nature had still held the last & the optimum card to herself. We ran to the rooftop for our early morning photo-session & truly the view was amazing. Later as we came down for breakfast, we realized that our driver was nowhere to be seen. We were to explore Tawang & also to visit the Seno-Indian Border – Bumla which was further up & the weather was worsening. The snowfall had by now grown from a mild drizzle to a heavy fall which was piling up in our heads & jackets. Though it was an experience of a lifetime, but we were growing uneasy as it was nearly 2 hours & no one really knew the whereabouts of our driver. At last n...