Tawang trip Day 1-2

Our childhood friend Girish was posted in Tawang. Once he had mentioned that it is a very beautiful place and invited us to visit. Hence we decided it would be Tawang. Hectic search for the information on Tawang began and we figured out that it would involve hectic journey and food constraints both of which will be pain to the kids. Ishaan and Saanvi said they would rather stay in Sangli and enjoy their vacations. Rakesh and Jyoti were just back from a long Gujarat and Rajastan trip and they were enthusiatic about Tawang trip. Anand, Anita and two year old Vineet were excited too. First thing we did was to finalize the dates and booked the flight tickets. Our Another dear friend Naveen was working with IOCL at Digboi encouraged us to visit other places in Assam and Meghalaya too.

@ BIA - all set for long trip

We all met at airport had breakfast together and checked in our luggage. Most of the snaps we saw on the net were beautiful and they looked splendid with snow. However Girish had confirmed that snow had melted a month back and there is no chances of seeing any now. We carried our clothes accordingly. "Light woolen wear".

Some nice views of Bay of Bengal

Flight was on time. There were a total of 3 take offs and landings at Calcutta, Agartala and then Guwahati. Enjoyed nice views of Vishakpatnam sea coast and bay of Bengal.

Tawang Team @ Guwahati airport

Our driver Jayaramji was waiting for us, he loaded our luggage on the carrier at the top and we started our road journey from Guwahati airport to our destination for the day at Bhalukpong.

Guwahati - Tezpur - Bhalukpong

Selfie @ the start of road trip

Divider and the state boundary

After Guwahati there is a stretch on the road where the divider acts as state boundary between Assam and Meghalaya. In the snap, we are on the Assam side. Took us around 5 hours to reach Bhalukpong. Hotel owner Mr.Passang  came to the checkpost with our ILP. We checked in at around 10PM .. tired after a long day.

Reception @ hotel Solu

Hotel Solu had very basic accommodation. Has clean sheets and bathroom.  We had dinner at the hotel, food was not that good. All we wanted was to have something to eat and hit the bed to be fresh for the next day.

 

Good Morning - View from the room

This snap is taken at around 5:15 am in the morning, sun rises really early here.

Morning walk along river Kameng

Got up early in the morning and took a Walk on the bank of river Kameng flowing near the hotel. Felt the presence of Indian Army at most places. For most part of this trip the roads are along a river or a stream and that adds to the beauty.

Mist and the mountains

Pach, Rak and buds

We stayed here

Decided to have breakfast on the way and started our journey from Bhalukpong.

Bhalukpong - BomdiLa -Dirang

Our first stop for the day was Tippi orchid research centre. It was closed and not well maintained. Saw a few orchids through window. At the end of the orchidarium the river flows. A few kms further there is a Sessa orchid sanctuary which is a smaller place. We did not bother to stop.

Say Cheese

Kameng flowing at the back of orchidarium

We stopped for breakfast a few KMs after Sessa. It was a very small village with a 7-8 houses on a turning at a beautiful location. Devi hotel served us nice Maggi.  Here we learnt our lesson useful on the trip. We need to give complete order once. This is because of the limited staff and resources available. They prepare food only after the order. The owner was visibly upset because of our repeat orders one after the other. But masala maggi, dal roti and omlet were all Yummy. There was something burning in a tin dabba infront of the house eminating nice smell. On probing the owner showed us the herb (branches of a tree) they burn as Dhoop.

 

Breakfast at Hotel Devi

Dhoop infront of the hotel

Order only once - lesson learnt

We next stopped at a falls by the side of the road, although water was falling from good height, there was not much water..

Selfie practice

The curvy mountain roads had already started as we climbed up the altitude. It is amazing to watch how quickly we again altitude turn after turn. The play of valleys/ mountains/ fog/ clouds added to the scenery. As we were descending a mountain to ascend another one, we saw the Tenga river flowing alongside and  decided to dip our toes into its chilly waters. Water was crystal clear but extremely cold. A bridge and few peaks in the background added to the beauty. We also saw a local family picnicking on the other bank of the Tenga river. The family had parked their car and put on some music we could not hear. They were all dancing and having good fun. Tenga has a big army presence. We filled up Innova tank and bought some apples in Tenga.

Tenga river

Vineet busy searching for stones to throw into the river

We stopped at the Bomdi La Monastery. There was a huge prayer wheel at near the entrance and some beautiful views from this place.

Monastery @ BomdiLa

Big prayer wheel

View from the Monastery

We then crossed Bomdila town, a comparatively bigger place. One can opt to stay here also. Rockesh was playing music through his jawbone Jambox, on demand. More on that Later. Lunch stop was at another small place called Hotel Dawa. Views were spectacular from the top of this hotel. Food was good too. 

Hotel Dawa

Mountains and clouds

Another view from Hotel Dawa

We briefly visited another Monastery near Dhirang. Few of the little monks were enjoying the game of cricket. Most important was that they were playing with socks ball..Nostalgia for us Sainik School guys.

Monastery was closed

What a beautiful place to play cricket

Our Next stop was at Dirang Dzong. Also called Dirang fort. There are a few houses where people were staying and few kids playing cricket. Did not find any fort wall. It was used as prison, we could not find those prisons.

Dirang Dzong

Inside Dirang fort

Almost all houses here have the pots with very colourful flowers.

There are real flowers - so colourful

We finally reached our destination for the day Hotel Pemaling in Dirang. It is strategically located to the nice views of Dirang valley. Since we had time, we visited Dirang market in the evening. We had dinner back in the hotel. Restaurant here has beautiful views. There was a pepper sized spice in our fried rice, I lost sensation on the part of the tongue for sometime after tasting that. There were lots of foreigners on birding trip staying here.

 

Dirang Valley

Lemons ..hard to extract any juice out

Dirang Market - prayer flags in the background

It was pretty cold in Dirang and we wore our woolen clothes. We also heard from Girish that weather was rough last few days and there was good snow on the mountain peaks. Tomorrow evening we will be reaching Tawang. Tawang don was tracking us all the while.

Click here for more photos from Day 1 -2

 

Tawang Trip - Notes

View of the Tawang Monastery

Following are some generic notes for friends who need information in planning for this trip.

What this trip is: 

• One lifetime experience.
• Soak in the beauty of Himalayas.
• Get to know the life of the people in these regions.
• Realise how tasty an apple can be and how colourful the flowers can get.
• Appreciate the sacrifices done by the great men of our Indian Army.
• Realise that photos we saw on the Internet do not do the justice to the beauty and magic we experienced.

what this trip is not: 

• Not a relaxed luxury trip. You might not find many luxury hotels on this circuit.
• Smooth roads and well planned itinerary. (These are young mountains and depending on the season and weather, there may be landslides and interruptions/delays)
• Google maps is wrong for the time taken. (You will have to go slow over curvy roads.. do not expect to cover 300kms in 6 hours)
• Not for checklist travellers.

ILP:

• ILP (Inner Line permit) is required to enter Arunachal Pradesh. More details here.
• While proceeding to Tawang from Guwahati, ILP is checked at the border post in Bhalukpong.
• In Bhalukpong, Hotels are on either side of the border. If you are planning to stay in Bhalukpong, you may require ILP to reach your hotel.
• Hotel owners will help you get your ILP done before you arrive.
• Our ILP was done before we arrived. After booking hotel, we had sent scanned copies of address and ID proofs to Mr. Passang owner of Hotel. He had got the ILP done at a nominal cost.
• Scanned  copies of Aadhar card and election ID card should be enough( or any other ID proofs).
• Remember to check your names properly in ILP. Some times they get mixed up.

How many days?

• For only the Tawang circuit (Guwahati - Tawang-Guwahati) : 5-6 days should be good enough.
• You can add 2  more days if you want to cover Nameri / Kajiranga
• Another 2 -3 days for Shillong / Cheerapunji.
• For Guwahati - Tawang-Nameri- Kajiranga-Shillong-Cheerapunji-Guwahati. We took 10 days which we felt was comfortable.

Food: 

• We liked the food at most of the places.
• You will get Daal roti / Daal Chawal at all the small places. We found this food to be good and hygienic.
• You can order chicken curry  / Omelet / mixed veg curry etc as side dishes.
• Food will always take time to arrive at the table. Almost all the hotels prepare food after you order, so please keep buffer time of 20 -30 mins.
• Also remember to order at once, if you order during your meal, it will again take time.
• Vegetarians should not have much problem. 

Vehicle: 

• Depends on itinerary and Budget. 
• Innova worked very well for us. If you are group of 5-6 people; innova is the best option. Remember you need a carrier at the top to keep your luggage.
• Lot of Boleros, Sumos, Maruti Altos, 800s, A-stars ply on this road.
• Many patches of roads not suitable for Sedans. 
• Vehicles with Assam passing cannot go to some sight seeing places in Tawang, check that before you book.

Places we stayed:

you can find many options on the net. Please make your selection depending on your itinerary.

1.  Bhalukpong

Hotel Solu

( It is Basic, No luxury, clean sheets, clean room, food was not that good)

Contact: Mr Passang email: 'info@hotelsolu.com'; 'passang_08@yahoo.com'

Prashanti cottages

Good Cottages, although on the bank of the river, it has no access to the river. 

Good Food, spacious clean rooms.

2. Dhirang

Hotel Pemaling 

(Good hotel , nice views. Nice restaurant, rooms were not spacious)

Hotel Awoo resort while coming back.

(Good hotel, nice views from here too, rooms were spacious) 

3. Tawang

We stayed at a friend's place ..

Heard that Zax star is a good place to stay

4. Kajiranga (Kohora region)

Namdung house

(Nice place, excellent hospitality, also guest house for IOCL/BPCL)

5. Barapani, Shillong, Meghalaya

IOCL guest house

(Excellent, good views, spacious bungalow, Good food)

6. Orchid Hotel, Shillong, Meghalaya

Good place to stay, good food, remember to book delux rooms only

Other points: 

• Oxygen is less at higher altitudes, do not run or strain yourself too much.
• Carry regular medicines.
• Sun rises pretty early here. You can expect to see the brightness of 7:00 am in Bangalore at 5:00 am in these regions.
• Shops close pretty early too. (7-8 PM)
• Drink a lot of water.