Amazing Arunachal – Back to Tinsukia via Along, the Journey Ends

May 25, 2014May 25, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 19:

This day was actually the start of our return journey and for next 4 subsequent days we would keep returning via Jengging, Along, Shilapathar, Dibrugarh and Kolkata.

First stop was again back at Jengging but we knew the road conditions very well and thought of starting early by 6.00 in morning. We had a tough time in Tuting to find diesel as there was not much electricity available in these places during winter (due to low water level in Siang and these places depend mainly on Hydro Electric) diesels were very costly as they used in generators locally and used for local jeeps / cars etc. Somehow from a Bengali shop keeper we managed to get 15 Ltrs of Diesel and that was enough for us to reach up to Jengging. We took our late breakfast / early lunch at Migging as we knew for next 100 km we would have nothing to eat. Siang as usual was following us, this time in left and we took relatively fewer stops as we wanted to explore Gandhi bridge in Moying. We found the locals here still were hunting small animals, birds with their guns (everyone in Arunachal is having gun license), they are really sharp shooters even from a young age. We reached Moying around 3 in afternoon and tried to explore the 2 km downwards towards the river. This was again a no road and we somehow managed to reach the point and had a walk on Gandhi Bridge. Though again a similar kind of suspension foot bridge but certainly it is much better built than other such bridges we encountered. We could this time spot the Yingkiong town very clearly just in opposite side of the Siang. The ferry was running regularly carrying the jeeps and people. There is regular Jeep services between Tuting and Yingkiong, those cross Siang regularly from this point. From Yingkiong there is Shared Sumo service available for both Along and Pasighat. We spent quite sometime in Moying and so when we finally reached Jengging, it was already evening but our caretaker was so kind he arranged for Cha and Pakoda which was really required after such a tiring day. We enjoyed the dinner too and retired for the day. This was our 2nd night in Jengging Circuit house, undoubtedly the best one I stayed if I consider location and warmth I received there.

Siang on the way back:

Driving through the fog and mist:

Siang still accompanying us:

Beautiful Landscapes:

Ferry Service between Moying and Yingkiong across Siang:

Gandhi Bridge:

Yingkiong during Sunset:

Day 20:

We started our day little late as we had just 130km to go to reach Along. We decided to break again at Along in the Circuit House. We were tracing back the same route but now for consecutive 4th day we were driving along with Siang and we still were finding it so exciting, feeling like taking snaps in every turn and bend of this mighty river. We took a tea break in 65 Miles again before proceeding further. There were lot of pretty faces and cute kids across the whole journey, especially in Siang side but they were too shy to pose for photographs. Whenever I asked for permission it was declined. When finally I got a chance to get a snap, you would see in below snap how the lady turned her back towards Camera. But anyway I got another cute face in the same snap We reached Along and checked into the circuit house around 3.00 in afternoon. We were very happy as the trip was almost over with no major hiccups and we completed whatever we planned to do and most importantly in Arunachal got at least 90% of our trip days absolutely cloudless and sunny. While discussing with Along Caretaker about next days plan, we suddenly realized that we had a tough day ahead as we had to cross ferry at Shilapathar and ferry service might get irregular after 1.00pm. Also each ferry could take just 3 cars, so we might have to wait long there in queue for our turn. The road till Bame was bad we knew and even it was worse till Bashar and some further ahead would make it some 8 hours to reach Shilapathar Ferry ghat. We didn’t want to take any chance as we had a flight booked for next day, so we decided to start as early as 3.00 in morning. This was little surprising as we didn’t think that this might be so early a journey in a winter morning that could be very bad with fogs and mists.

Sun Rise in Jengging – See the mist on Siang behind:

It’s the time to say good bye to Siang:

They are not so camera friendly :

Day 21:

We started the day at 3.00 in the morning sharp but it was really a scary journey in a foggy late night with poor visibility. We all were feeling sleepy too. Anyway we drove till Bame where fortunately got a shop opened, had few cups of tea and kept ourselves a little warmer we started again and morning sun started showing its first rays when we just crossed Bashar. We finally reached Likabali gate and Ashim made the entry in check gate as we were leaving Arunachal finally for this trip. We reached Silapathar around 11.00 am and found we are in queue and could get a ferry of 12.45 only. It cost Rs. 800 per car to cross but now after being in hill for 3 weeks started taking its toll. We started feeling irritable heat of Assam and decided not to wait at river banks for 2 more hours. Little bit of search yielded results as we were offered to take the ferry to cross in just double price @1500 for the car. We negotiated further down to 1200 and then started for Dibrugarh. The half done Bogibil bridge would be on one side and it’s difficult to tell when that would finally be completed. There was no bridge connectivity in Upper Assam after Tezpur to cross over Brahmaputra. We crossed the river in around an hour and then on the other side again a long drive of almost 25km brought us to Dibrugarh. First thing we did was to do a car wash, the owner probably would have been shocked, if he could see his brand new car after a 15 days trip in Central Arunachal. After that we started for Tinsukia, another 50km road journey through nice tea estates. We reached Tinsukia and checked in to Hotel Mayur Jyoti, the same hotel where we stayed in our last trip in 2010. That was our last night of the trip and we had a dinner invitation at Ashim’s place. Enjoyed the evening with his family and had a great dinner but we were very tired as we started our day around 3.00 in the morning on that day. Fortunately we had an afternoon flight from Dibrugarh on next day, though it was preponed by an hour but we would still had enough time in our hand to do packing next morning.

The driving distances for the day:

994 – Along
039 – Bame
050 – Basar
134 – Likabali Check Gate
145 – Shilapathar
150 – Meet NH52A at Akaijan
171 – Shilapathar Ferry Ghat
195 – Dibrugarh
250 – Tinsukia

The Journey Map of the Day : Along to Tinsukia

Mighty Brahmaputra and unfinished Bogibil Bridge:

Crossing Brahmaputra on Ferry:

This needs some driving skill:

Lot of Tea Estates between Dibrugarh and Tinsukia:

Day 22 :

Nothing much to write about the day, Ashim was in time and we packed, had our lunch and left for airport sufficiently ahead of time. Indigo, usually very punctual, took us to Kolkata before the sunset and what a trip it was, my dream of covering whole Arunachal was almost done except few places in Upper Dibang Valley like Anini and North Eastern most Tirap. I would surely be back to these places again as this is one of my most favourite destinations in India just because it is still so unexplored and non-commercial with warm hearted people and awesome natural beauty.

Previous: Amazing Arunachal – Gelling Continued

The End

Amazing Arunachal – Gelling Continued

May 25, 2014May 25, 2014 by Kaushik

Indian Air Force Helicopter bringing weekly Rations for Locals:

Glimpses of local heroes:

Pretty Village of Gelling:

Gelling Monastery:

Lord Buddha in Gelling Monastery, looking angrily to the enemies (He was looking towards Tibet/China):

The elderly local who told us the old stories of Gelling:

Gelling Village, Ridge Behind is McMahan Line, mountains further are in Tibet / China:

Gelling IB:

ITBP Horse to take rations to more remote areas across the border:

Young Lama:

Local posing at the end of motorable road just ahead of McMahan line:

Siang Entering into Arunachal (India), in Tibet its named as Tsangpo:

Tuting Monastery:

Cute Young Lama:

Tuting Monastery Hostel:

Previous: Amazing Arunachal – Journey to Tuting and Gelling

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Amazing Arunachal – Journey to Tuting and Gelling

May 25, 2014May 25, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 17:

We started by 6.30 with our packed breakfast of roti and sabji and first look at Siang made us spellbound. As I mentioned Jengging is higher up and it looked like as if there was a layer of fog and mist someone carefully put just through out the Siang river basin. It was absolutely crystal clear with all snow peaks visible around but there was no trace of Siang river. It was completely covered in fog and mist. After a drive of 15km, the road suddenly turned into a no road condition. It looked like a sliding zone with proudly named as ‘Pagal Nala’ (not sure how many Pagal Nalas exist in India). The road condition in driest time of the year with no rain in last week suggested it was almost impassable during the heavy rains of Arunachal in monsoon. We crossed the section carefully and reached a big town called Moying. We had our breakfast in Moying, met a nice person from Ludhiana who spent almost his whole life there and married a local tribal woman and settled there. He told us this is the place where if we go down another 2km by side road we would get ferry to cross over Siang on boat with our car to Yingkiong. So that means Yingkiong is located just opposite to Moying but due to heavy fog and mist it was not at all visible. We also came to know that famous Gandhi bridge to cross over Siang by foot had to be approached from Moying only. We kept all these during our return leg as we had a long way to go before we could reach Tuting, another remote place where there was no available accommodation except the Inspection Bungalow. I booked this IB as well by speaking to ADC and CO of Tuting but somehow I thought of calling the number of the caretaker (Mr. Kombo) last afternoon from Jengging and that really made the difference. Anyway we kept going by the side of Siang and further 100km of drive from Moying took us to Migging which was again a small stopover with few tea stalls. We took a tea break and then started the worst part of the journey in terms of road. Road slowly got vanished after Migging as the scenery started getting better and better and further 65km of tiring drive took us finally to Tuting Inspection Bungalow. Now again a surprise, a local girl married to someone from Nagaland committed suicide and lot of her relatives came from villages around to Tuting and it was a mess. The IB was almost fully taken by them and CO / ADC was available there in Christmas Vacation. My yesterday’s call to Kombo finally did the trick, he managed us one room but again we had no room for Ashim to stay, though Mr. Kombo shared his own room for Ashim, Ashim preferred to sleep in lobby rather than sleeping in sharing room. This was a tough place for visitors with no electricity, no mobile network (Mobile networks work only for couple of hours during sunny days through solar energy), no hotels, no accommodation. We somehow managed to have a dinner made by cook in IB and retired for the day as next day we were about to touch McMahan line again in last village of India, called Gelling.

The driving distances for the day:

404 – Jengging
413 – Karko
428 – Gosang
439 – Moying
494 – Jumbo
519 – Mosing
540 – Migging
561 – Palsi
576 – Nigging
594 – Tuting IB

Clear Morning at Jengging:

Fog and Mist over Siang Over – an awesome sight:

Yingkiong on other side of Siang rising from Fog Cover:

Scenic Moying:

Friendly Locals:

Siang at its best:

Sunset at Tuting:

Day 18:

Our objective was to mainly explore Gelling, the last administrative circle and last village of Indian side across Line of Actual Control. We had a good breakfast and start our day around 9.00 in morning. It was a bright and sunny day and that way we were lucky, getting a bright day in this part of India is not that common. Gelling is around 30km from Tuting out of which first 15 km is pathetic and road was so uneven it was not even sufficient for the ground clearance of Bolero. Actually the road construction started from Gelling end and first 15km from that end was good. The scenery and landscape was dramatic with blue Siang flowing with all might and the lush green forests around that in the backdrop of snow covered peaks were making a fabulous frame. We found Indian Army was doing a practice of rock climbing in that area and just beside that we found another precariously hanging footbridge which was looking so scary but we still tried on it and gone almost till half way before it started swaying heavily and we returned from there. Finally after many stops to enjoy the vista, we reached Gelling around 10.30 in morning, what a calm and quiet the village was, it was very difficult to realize that this could be the head quarter of the whole administrative circle. Gelling looked so charming just on a ridge and the top of the same ridge was the border between India and Tibet which would be at max 3km and an uphill walk on the ridge would take an hour for locals, so it would be 2 hours for us for sure. In the mid way just a km inside border, we could spot our last ITBP Camp. There was a very nice Monastery on the top of Gelling and we walked up there, the lama was an old person and he narrated the old stories of the region. Before the English people divided it with McMahan line there were ten villages in the area. Once McMahan line was drawn, villages named Sirang, Mirging, Didung, Pongmo and Podum fell in Tibet side where as rest 5 villages, named as Kapu, Mayung, Mona, Bishing and Gelling were came to Indian side, still they could freely visit all the villages until China attacked India in 1962 and the border was completely sealed since then. They still have their older relatives in other side of the line which is again as close as 2/3km from the border but unfortunately they don’t have any communication now. In whole Tibet border across Arunachal starting from Zemithang to Kibithu, this is the place where probably you would find village closest to McMahan line in the both sides of border. The people in the village belong to Memba tribes who are Buddhist and they were very warm and welcoming. We were offered local foods and oranges along with tea in almost every house we came across in the village. Again like Mechuka and Zemithang, this is a place which is simply out of the world and probably my second closest visit to Tibet after 2011 trip to Demchok, Ladakh. Gelling was the last village in right bank of Siang, similarly Bishing was the last village in left bank which is connected from Gelling through a suspension foot bridge on Siang and locals take 3 hours to trek one side. Bishing is famous for its cascade waterfall which was even visible so far away from Gelling. From Bishing we heard this falls look awesome but unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to explore that. Also one could have a look at Kapangla Pass from there, the ancient trade route between India and Tibet which was operational till 1962. It was so nice, next time I would surely keep one or two full days in Gelling to explore these places more thoroughly. Gelling also has an Inspection Bungalow where one can stay but staying so close to border is always little tricky as you would find most of the times the GH was occupied by some or other army / ITBP officers. We started our return journey towards Tuting and visited Tuting new Monastery which was administered from Tibetan center of Bylakupe in Karnataka and also the Tuting Town. If you love trekking, Tuting is a place you would love to stay for long. There are few treks which originated from Tuting, one goes towards Tsitapuri via Singha, I had seen some photographs of this region and it could give valley of flowers a run for its money, so wonderful the glacial lakes and flowers you would see in right season. Also this region is named as Pemako region, one of the most sacred places for Adi, Memba, Mishmi tribes who are Buddhist by religion. They believe these places are still full of treasures / scripts by Lord Rinpoche and Guru Padma Sambhaba. Upper Siang district website might give you a better snapshot of what all treks are available in this region and in which season. We came back to IB and today we had more chaotic ambience with more locals in the IB, we somehow managed to stay the night and cook was really kind enough to arrange for our dinners and served it in right time in the middle of such a huge chaos.

For more details of treks start from Tuting visit:

Upper Siang » Places of Interest

Nicely located Tuting IB:

Picturesque Tuting:

Siang Again:

Indian Army crossing a suspension foot bridge on Siang:

Closing to the Border:

Gelling where the road ends:

Gelling Village, Top of the ridge is McMahan line, other side is Tibet:

Previous: Amazing Arunachal – Back to Along and Journey to Jengging

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Amazing Arunachal – Tawang, Ziro, Along, Mechuka, Tuting : Introduction

May 24, 2014May 25, 2014 by Kaushik

When I last visited Arunachal, 2 years back I fell in love with the state, the awesome landscape starting from rainforests of eastern part to alpine meadows of western part meeting mighty Himalayas, the high mountains all around, deep gorges carving its way with blue waters gushing in, you can clearly see and feel the rapids from top. Waterfalls in almost every bend, in one turn its vast blue sky and in next turn in completely filled up with fog and mist. Arunachal will surprise you in every moment, the other aspect is the diversified culture, it’s completely a tribal state and there are 101 recognized tribes in Arunachal and mostly believe in different religions like Donyi Polo (Sun and Moon), Hinduism, Christianity etc. The state has borders with 3 foreign countries, Bhutan in west, Tibet (Now People Republic of China) in North and Myanmar in East. Tourism is not developed except the western part of Tawang sector, which was developed by late Mr. Dorje Khandu, the former chief minister of Arunachal who belonged to Tawang. The state buses sparsely run through the main towns but still Shared Sumo service is the most common mode of transport for locals, in almost all districts you would still find 30% villages not having any road connectivity and still depend on long trek to meet their daily needs. Actually northern part of Arunachal was more closely connected with Tibet through 4/5 different passes until British drew McMahan line in 1913 as per Shimla Accord with Tibet. The usual business with Tibet had been going on until China disregarded the McMahan line and attacked India in 1962 in both Ladakh and Arunachal sector. Since then all the passes were closed and the whole border with China/Tibet was closed and people were forced to walk 3/4 days through treacherous mountains and dense forests to come down to Indian plains to start their new lives. When we visited places like Gelling, merely a km from McMahan line, the elders were telling us the sad stories how they suddenly got partitioned from their near and dear ones living just couple of km across other side of border since 1962. The state is covered by mountains from west to east and deep river gorges from North to South including Kameng, Subansiri, Siyom, Siang, Dibang and Lohit that created mighty Brahmaputra river system. So traveling the state is extremely difficult from west to east as there is a lack of trans-Arunachal highway which is presently being built with the aid from Central Govt. Every time you have to come down 300 km to Assam and then again have to go up another 300km to reach another spot. So you need at least 45 days just for a touch and go trip to visit the prominent areas of state. So better if you could make multiple visits. Last time we covered Eastern Parts covering Lower and Upper Dibang Valley, Lohit, Anjaw and Changlang districts, this time we covered western and part of central covering, West Kameng, Tawang, Lower Subansiri, Upper Subansiri, West Siang, East Siang and Upper Siang.

The 5 major ancient trade points between Tibet and Arunachal was through Kenzamane (Zemithang), Bumla (Tawang), Kapangla Pass (Gelling), Lolla Pass (Mechuka), Dumla Pass (Monigong) and Kibithu. Except Bumla (where civilians are allowed with passes from DC and Army) all the other borders are closed for civilians. Our main intention was to travel as close as possible to these points to trace the historical McMahan line. We covered Kibithu in last trip, so tried to touch upon the rest of the points.

Our itinerary was like this:

Day1 – Kolkata – Guwahati Flight and drive to Nameri
Day2 – Nameri – Bhalukpong – Bomdila
Day3 – Bomdila – Dirang – Tawang
Day4 – Tawang – Zemithang – Tawang
Day5 – Tawang PTso – Sengetsar Lake – Bumla – Tawang
Day6 – Tawang – Sela Pass – Dirang
Day7 – Dirang – Bhalukpong – Nameri
Day8 – Exploring Nameri National Park
Day9 – Nameri – Balipara – Kimin – Ziro
Day10- Around Ziro
Day11- Ziro – Daporijo
Day12- Daporijo – Along
Day13- Along – Tato – Mechuka
Day14- Mechuka
Day15- Mechuka – Tato – Along
Day16- Along – Pangin – Jengging
Day17- Jengging – Tuting
Day18- Tuting – Gelling – Tuting
Day19- Tuting – Jengging
Day20- Jengging – Along
Day21- Along – Shilapathar – Bogibil (By Ferry crossing Brahmaputra)- Dibrugarh – Tinsukia
Day22- Tinsukia – Dibrugarh – Flight to Kolkata