Journey to Tawang
Day 3
March 17 2008
Bomdila
Apoorv and myself woke up before everyone else and we were ready. Soon we heard aunty singing her song of the day,
"Kaho na pyaar hey... kaho na pyaar hey..."
Prem went to her and requested her to give him hot water. Soon he was also ready. Gokul and Rahul were enjoying their sleep as much a possible and we had to go and wake them up. Anyways, by the time it was 6:00 AM, we settled the bills and were ready to leave. But there was a problem...
Our driver bhayya, Bittu the great hasn't come yet!
We waited for half and hr. We waited for 1 hr... Still no sign of Bittu! After one hr, Apoorv suggested we call Meeraj and tell him the situation. We looked around for an STD booth and found one and dialled him.
We heard the ring on the other side and suddenly we heard the message. "The number you are trying to reach is busy.. please try later.."
We tried again and it said ""The number you are trying to call is currently switched off.. please try later.."
It was clear that Meeraj was avoiding us. Now why would he do that? We waited for half an hr more and decided to deal with him later and think about our options. I felt i did a big mistake by paying him the whole amount. I should have paid half the money and laid my terms and conditions.
Apoorv was really pissed off with Meeraj as well as Bittu. We had clearly told Bittu that we have travelled this far in-order to see and enjoy the north -east. We want to start as early as possible so that we can cover more places. We both knew that if we are starting late, it means we will not be able to cover all the places and skipping a spot is the last thing we wanted to do. All the surfing in the net and std calls for gathering information of NE, will be a waste!
Then I remembered Bittu talking to the Sumo's owner the earlier day. All of them had planned this the previous day itself and Bittu was going as per his plan. The gut feeling I had yesterday that this guy would do anything to delay our start today, has proved right!
At 7:30, Apoorv said .. Praveen, come. Let's see if he still in Bomdila or not. If he is not here, we'll have to look for an alternative. Theres no use sitting idle. We walked till the main road and were wondering which way to go. There was another telephone boot. One more time I dialed Meeraj and it was switched off. @#$###$#%@# (censored)
While standing there without knowing what to do, we saw Aunty and her friend coming towards us. I told her abt the situation and she said she heard everything from others back in the lodge and was comming to search the driver. She knew a place where all the drivers usually stays. We were walking towards the place when we saw Bittu coming towards.
He just said, "Kal rath ko der se soya tha.." thats why he was late!
I kept quiet. But couldnt stop Apoorv. He started shouting at Bittu for his irresponsibility and after some time he calmed down. Aunty also scolded him and we told him lets not waste any more time. Lets start.
I realised that, he had not expected this. He was planning to delay us as much as he can and then hand us to the new driver and go back to Tezpur. But since the situation was not good he didnt give voice to his bullshit ideas and silently started our journey to Tawang. It was 8:00 AM and we were almost 2 hrs late.
We reached a place called Nag Mandir where we had our lunch of Rice, Dal, Alu Mattar and Papad. Fresh water fish and chicken was also available. We tried everything and it was very delicious. There was a chutney also with the rice. Though it was very spicy, it was good.
After lunch, we continued our journey to Tawang. From what I had read about the Sela Pass, I knew that it will become foggy while approaching the place. True to the info, it did started getting misty. It was too chill outside we had to close all the windows. However there was a surprise waiting for us. A few kms before Sela Pass, patches of snow was visible on the road side. For some of us, it was the first view of snow (other than inside the freezer compartment in our fridge). We asked Bittu to stop in one place and started clicking photos. Soon we felt the climate too hard to bear and we came running into the sumo.
From that place it was snow all around us. Even the road was covered with snow and it was hard driving on it. But Bittu drove well.
We reached the famous Sela Pass around 11:15 AM. All of us just gaped in wonder at the white expanse around us. Before we could get out, Bittu gave his usual 'gyan'..
"Sir, here the oxygen level is very low. It is very dangerous to stop here, so come back in 5 minutes...."
No use talking to this guy... We just went out and played in the snow as much as we liked। Its true that the oxygen level is low. But its not that dangerous as this bloody said. Common yaar we also know things!
The frozen sela lake
We started our onward journey and around 1:30 PM and reached Jaswant Gargh's war memorial. We paid homage to the couragous Jaswant Singh who fought chineese soilders single-handedly for 3 days (he ran from bunker to bunker- firing and creating an illusion of an entire army present) and sacrificed his life in that place.
After thanking the soilders posted there, we moved on।
The Bunkers
Our next plan was to stop at was Jang Falls which was some 10-15 kms from Jaswant Gargh. Bittu started protesting that we have to go away from the main road and the road is not good... blah blah blah..
But we knew how to deal with him. We stubbornly told him that we have to go there. Atlast he took us to the place. The falls was near a hydro-electric project on the way to Tawang. It turned out that the road was ok and we didnt have to go far from the main road!
If we had missed it, we would have missed a lot in the North East trip!
The place was awesome. The roar of water falling from more than 150 feet and the rainbow. No more invitation was required for me to get into the water. Carefuly I walked in knee deep / waist deep water and reached two rocks right where the water falls! Standing there with trembling legs and looking up... it was an awesome experience!
After a refreshing bath in the freezing Jung falls, my stomach started protesting that it needs something. Also we were tired. We continued our onward journey and around 5:45 PM we reached Tawang. We checked a couple of hotels before checking in to a decent and budget hotel.
March 17 2008
Bomdila
Apoorv and myself woke up before everyone else and we were ready. Soon we heard aunty singing her song of the day,
"Kaho na pyaar hey... kaho na pyaar hey..."
Prem went to her and requested her to give him hot water. Soon he was also ready. Gokul and Rahul were enjoying their sleep as much a possible and we had to go and wake them up. Anyways, by the time it was 6:00 AM, we settled the bills and were ready to leave. But there was a problem...
Our driver bhayya, Bittu the great hasn't come yet!
We waited for half and hr. We waited for 1 hr... Still no sign of Bittu! After one hr, Apoorv suggested we call Meeraj and tell him the situation. We looked around for an STD booth and found one and dialled him.
We heard the ring on the other side and suddenly we heard the message. "The number you are trying to reach is busy.. please try later.."
We tried again and it said ""The number you are trying to call is currently switched off.. please try later.."
It was clear that Meeraj was avoiding us. Now why would he do that? We waited for half an hr more and decided to deal with him later and think about our options. I felt i did a big mistake by paying him the whole amount. I should have paid half the money and laid my terms and conditions.
Apoorv was really pissed off with Meeraj as well as Bittu. We had clearly told Bittu that we have travelled this far in-order to see and enjoy the north -east. We want to start as early as possible so that we can cover more places. We both knew that if we are starting late, it means we will not be able to cover all the places and skipping a spot is the last thing we wanted to do. All the surfing in the net and std calls for gathering information of NE, will be a waste!
Then I remembered Bittu talking to the Sumo's owner the earlier day. All of them had planned this the previous day itself and Bittu was going as per his plan. The gut feeling I had yesterday that this guy would do anything to delay our start today, has proved right!
At 7:30, Apoorv said .. Praveen, come. Let's see if he still in Bomdila or not. If he is not here, we'll have to look for an alternative. Theres no use sitting idle. We walked till the main road and were wondering which way to go. There was another telephone boot. One more time I dialed Meeraj and it was switched off. @#$###$#%@# (censored)
While standing there without knowing what to do, we saw Aunty and her friend coming towards us. I told her abt the situation and she said she heard everything from others back in the lodge and was comming to search the driver. She knew a place where all the drivers usually stays. We were walking towards the place when we saw Bittu coming towards.
He just said, "Kal rath ko der se soya tha.." thats why he was late!
I kept quiet. But couldnt stop Apoorv. He started shouting at Bittu for his irresponsibility and after some time he calmed down. Aunty also scolded him and we told him lets not waste any more time. Lets start.
I realised that, he had not expected this. He was planning to delay us as much as he can and then hand us to the new driver and go back to Tezpur. But since the situation was not good he didnt give voice to his bullshit ideas and silently started our journey to Tawang. It was 8:00 AM and we were almost 2 hrs late.
We reached a place called Nag Mandir where we had our lunch of Rice, Dal, Alu Mattar and Papad. Fresh water fish and chicken was also available. We tried everything and it was very delicious. There was a chutney also with the rice. Though it was very spicy, it was good.
After lunch, we continued our journey to Tawang. From what I had read about the Sela Pass, I knew that it will become foggy while approaching the place. True to the info, it did started getting misty. It was too chill outside we had to close all the windows. However there was a surprise waiting for us. A few kms before Sela Pass, patches of snow was visible on the road side. For some of us, it was the first view of snow (other than inside the freezer compartment in our fridge). We asked Bittu to stop in one place and started clicking photos. Soon we felt the climate too hard to bear and we came running into the sumo.
From that place it was snow all around us. Even the road was covered with snow and it was hard driving on it. But Bittu drove well.
We reached the famous Sela Pass around 11:15 AM. All of us just gaped in wonder at the white expanse around us. Before we could get out, Bittu gave his usual 'gyan'..
"Sir, here the oxygen level is very low. It is very dangerous to stop here, so come back in 5 minutes...."
No use talking to this guy... We just went out and played in the snow as much as we liked। Its true that the oxygen level is low. But its not that dangerous as this bloody said. Common yaar we also know things!
The frozen sela lake
We started our onward journey and around 1:30 PM and reached Jaswant Gargh's war memorial. We paid homage to the couragous Jaswant Singh who fought chineese soilders single-handedly for 3 days (he ran from bunker to bunker- firing and creating an illusion of an entire army present) and sacrificed his life in that place.
After thanking the soilders posted there, we moved on।
The Bunkers
Our next plan was to stop at was Jang Falls which was some 10-15 kms from Jaswant Gargh. Bittu started protesting that we have to go away from the main road and the road is not good... blah blah blah..
But we knew how to deal with him. We stubbornly told him that we have to go there. Atlast he took us to the place. The falls was near a hydro-electric project on the way to Tawang. It turned out that the road was ok and we didnt have to go far from the main road!
If we had missed it, we would have missed a lot in the North East trip!
The place was awesome. The roar of water falling from more than 150 feet and the rainbow. No more invitation was required for me to get into the water. Carefuly I walked in knee deep / waist deep water and reached two rocks right where the water falls! Standing there with trembling legs and looking up... it was an awesome experience!
After a refreshing bath in the freezing Jung falls, my stomach started protesting that it needs something. Also we were tired. We continued our onward journey and around 5:45 PM we reached Tawang. We checked a couple of hotels before checking in to a decent and budget hotel.
maamu....lets finish this blog and start planning a new holiday!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeletemaamu atlast i did it!
ReplyDeletePls do lemme know ur suggestions.
hey maamu....finally...I am reliving those days as i am reading it...excellent!!!!!!
ReplyDelete