Amazing Arunachal – Ziro and Daporijo

Day 10:

Airtel Edge works at Ziro/Hapoli, so after long time we could connect to internet and HVK informed us Romin and Megha were in Ziro on same day and we could meet easily. They were a lovely couple, had been roaming the North East from start of October 2012 and almost covered entire North East in their backpack trip. Thanks to HVK for sharing their number. We started around 9.00 in morning after having breakfast, this day was reserved for a rest day after a long drive from Nameri and we decided to roam around Ziro on that day. We met Romin and Megha at Ziro and then first proceeded towards Hong Village, the largest village of Apatani tribes in that area. It was a nice one to soak into their cultures, Romin and Megha was taking serious notes of the conversation we had with the locals and I was busy as usual with my clicking. We tried to walk around the village and it was pretty nice though looking little dull after the crop seasons were over. I could imagine this place would look best during Spring / monsoon. In March they usually have the Apatani festival and may be one of the best time to visit this place. Once we completed our excursion to Hong, we proceeded to Momipholong, another nice place around 7 km away from Hong. You would get a good view of the valley from top. Then while coming back to Ziro, we went to see the Shivling which was natural and excavated some 10 years back. It looked quite natural and old but then it was discovered just 10 years back. The best part is the height of Shivling was around 25 ft and you would find Devi Parvati and Ganesha also embedded in the stones. There is also a constant flow of water just below the Shivling. Somehow I enjoyed the place which I usually don’t do much while visiting a religious place, we came back to Ziro and wished Megha and Romin best of luck for rest of their journey, had a very late lunch with just Maggi and went back to the Circuit House. It was amazing to see the evening approaching on the Hapoli from the Circuit House. We were about to go for another long journey tomorrow towards Daporijo, the heartland of Tagin Tribes.

Trek in Hong Village:

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Apatani man:

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Hong, the largest Apatani Village:

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Momipholong:

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Cute Apatani Girl:

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So many colors:

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Ziro Stadium:

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Ziro Circuit House:

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Day 11:

Ziro to Daporijo would be around 175km and we knew a long drive waiting for us. So woke up and quickly got our breakfast to start our journey by 8.00 in the morning. This is first time we have got the feel of typical Arunachal ambience, hills surrounded by dense forests and the serpentine road crossed through the deep green valleys with sun, clouds, mists playing around. Initially the day was sunny but more we proceeded, the sky started turning grey with clouds. In road side you would find locals selling fruits like Oranges. So cheap and so sweet the oranges were, just one costs a Rupee. We kept going at our own pace with some photographic breaks and a few tea breaks. The shared Sumo plying between Ziro and Daporijo were the only vehicles we encountered from opposite direction, otherwise it was a journey through the lonely road with mother nature all around.

The Driving Distances for the day:

479 – Start from Hapoli
538 – Tamen
558 – Raga
582 – Saddle
603 – Laa
655 – Daporijo.

Just before entering Daporijo, we could see the town just beside the Subansiri river, was looking so nice in the setting sun. This is a town in Arunachal which is not that welcoming in nature and you might have a hard time to find anything decent to stay here unless you book circuit houses in Daporijo or further 20km down to Damporijo. We booked the Daporijo Circuit house and even confirmed it from Ziro but by the time we reached there, the DC office was closed and the chowkidar declined us any accommodation citing that our name was not sent from DC Office as Guest. The trouble broke out, getting a phone be landline or mobile is extremely tough in this part of Arunachal, I started trying to contact the person in DC office with whom I spoken, fortunately I had his mobile number. He spoke to Chowkidar and confirmed the booking was sent from Office but Chowkider was insisting he couldn’t help unless he gets written permission. This is a major problem in Central and Eastern Arunachal where infrastructure is not yet ready and you have to depend on Govt CH / GH and availability of those accommodation would always be doubtful until you could finally check-in there. Anyway finally the Chowkidar found our names, he explained the paper gone below the stack as our name was sent quite early than usual. What a relief!!

The rooms were Ok and certainly the best possible accommodation in Daporijo. The cook prepared our dinner but we never saw the Chowkidar again as he was drunk completely by 7 in evening and was in his room only. We paid everything to cook and got receipts and signed the guest book as we understood we won’t be able to catch hold of the Chowkidar in early morning as we had to go for another 180km to Along on next day. We slept properly but this is the only place in whole Arunachal trip where we couldn’t arrange any accommodation for Ashim, finally he had to sleep in conference room sofa as that was a cold night and was raining almost through out the night.

Today’s Journey Map – Ziro to Daporijo

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Road from Ziro towards Daporijo:

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Cute and Pretty Faces:

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The winding road goes on:

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Daporijo, the first look:

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Daporijo Circuit House:

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