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Showing posts from April, 2010

Amazing Arunachal

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Before heading out to Arunachal I spent a week in Calcutta working remotely. Met a few folks some of whom were surprised and appalled at me trying to go on my solo backpacking trips . A few even asked me whether I was trained in some kind of self defense (Karate) or carried Pepper Spray :) With my inner line permit already taken care of by applying at the Arunachal Govt Dept at Delhi I was all set. I took off from Calcutta to Dibrugarh and went around to Pasighat -YingKiong- Along - Menchuka - Along - Diparijo- Ziro - Itanagar - Guwahati - and back ! My blog posts here: Amazing Arunachal -1 : Dibrugarh-Pasighat-Yingkiong-Along   Amazing Arunachal -2 : Along-Menchuka-Diparijo-Ziro-Itanagar-Guwahati   Pictures here: Ziro/Along Yingkiong Menchunka

Amazing Arunachal -2

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Along-Mechuka Woke up and walked upto the bus station to get the share jeep to Menchuka. It wasn't a very good start to the day when I saw a motorcyclist being mauled down by a sumo and people trying to get in touch with emergency service and non came for almost 45mins I was there. Later heard the biker had succumbed to his injuries on the road itself. I tried to put the morbid thoughts behind as we started our journey through those long and tough winding roads, one mistake and one could go missing forever! There were bunch of passengers some who got down on the way and some who went all the way to Menchuka. We stopped for nice hot breakfast on the way and a hot cup of tea in the biting cold tasted out of the world. I spoke to some of the passengers in the jeep and again was thought of as a researcher, one of them mentioned a nice guest house run by a buddhist there. The journey took about 8hrs over the winding roads and huge rainforest like mountains and rivers and towards the

Amazing Arunachal -1

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Dibrugarh-Pasighat-Yingkiong Landed at Dibrugarh and headed straight to the ferry ghat.  Was told the last ferry left at 4:15pm and just as I landed there in the nick of time, figured I was at the wrong ghat ( BogiBeel ) and the ferry's didn't go to Pasighat directly and wouldn't find a place to stay where the ferry was headed.  With no other way out, headed back to town to find a place for the night. Woke up early and took the ferry from Mazin Ghat , filled with passengers, vehicles, live stock and anything one can imagine to Pasighat and then onto a share jeep. Pasighat  ,is a small little town surrounded by hills and a few scattered settlements. With 4hrs to kill before the bus to Yingkiong , I grabbed some food and dumped my backpack in the same restaurant and walked around town. After tea, I walked upto the bus station to find an ancient rickety old bus waiting that was christened "Yingkiong Queen " . A distance of 180kms takes close to 12hrs on these lo