Kaziranga, Jorabat, and then Shillong.
Day 6
March 20 2008
Kohora - Kaziranga
Early morning we got up and were ready for the Safari inside Kaziranga National Park. The caretaker of the Hotel told us that the first Safari has been postponed due to rain! We had to wait for half an hr and at last the rain stopped!
As soon as it stopped raining we started toward the Kohora gate in KNP. There were other tourist vehicles waiting for the counter to open. As soon as it was open, we bought the tickets to enter the park as well as Elephant Safari. The caretaker of the Hotel was boy of around 25 or 26 and his father was working as a guard inside the park. On the way he explained many things about the park and the main attraction the Rhinos inside the park. Soon we reached the place from where the elephant Safari starts.
There were more than 60 tourists and around 10 elephants. 4 or 5 people were to sit on one elephant for the safari. We decided to split as two groups and enter the park. So we waited to get a suitable elephant. Since all the elephants were full we decided to go in the second batch. We clicked some snaps of the place and ourselves and waited for the second batch.
After some 45 min to 1 hr all the elephants came one by one and the next batch was ready to go. As decided earlier Gokul, Rahul and Prem got on one elephant and myself and Apoorv got on another elephant. We started our elephant safari and were eager to see the Rhinos in their habitat. On one side of the park was a big lake with so many big fishes. On the other side of the lake many Rhinos, bison, deer and boars were drinking water and grazing lazily. The remaining part was full of 'elephant grass' the favorite dish of the Rhinos. And this was where our mahout was taking us.
Soon we were able to see Rhinos very close eating the grass or lying in the water. One Rhino even charged at the elephant. Later we understood why it did so. There was a small Rhino standing nearby. Our mahout used a sling to stir one of the rhino that was enjoying in the pond near by. The stone hit him on his back but he didn’t even bother to turn. He continued to enjoy himself and we asked our mahout to move the elephant a bit closer so that we can get good shots of him. Soon our time was over and we returned back to our starting place. Thus Prem's dream of seeing the Rhinos was fulfilled. However he was a bit disappointed. He kept on saying.. “They are just big Pigs. That’s all.. I was expecting more” (we wondered whether he was actually thinking of Dinosaurs!!!)
We went back to the Hotel. We thanked Rangith Gogoi for all his help and checked out the hotel. We said our farewell to Kaziranga and left to Jorabat where our good driver Mr. Paing will leave us. From Jorabat we will take a shared taxi to Shillong. The journey to Jorabat was uneventful apart from each of us remembering the Bittu's brutalities and the beauty of Arunachal and Kaziranga. Around 1:00 PM we reached Jorabat and Paing talked to a taxi driver and arranged for our Shillong trip. We tied our bags on the top of the taxi and sat inside. Soon the taxi was full and we stared
to Shillong.
The way to Shillong was very beautiful we crossed the Bara Pani lake. But since we were in a shared taxi we couldn’t stop there. We decided to stop while coming back. We reached Shillong around 4 PM and were wondering where to book our rooms. Seeing our ‘terroristic’ looks one Army officer and us came and started asking who we were and where are we coming from... As soon as Apoorv said he was actually from Dharward in Karnataka his face brightened. He too was from that place and they started to talking in Kannada and when he knew we were looking for a good lodge to stay, he said come with me.. He took us to the main mall road in his jeep and dropped us in front of a good lodge. Before leaving he warned us to be careful and don’t try anything 'bad' while we were in Shillong. We checked the tariff of the hotel and it was a bit expensive for us. So we checked the nearby hotels and found another hotel, which was Ok for all of us. We checked in and took rest for a while.
In the evening we went out for the late lunch and also to look for a vehicle for the Shillong sightseeing and Cherrapunji visit. We came to know that Shillong sightseeing consists of 7 tourist spots and Cherrapunji is a separate full day trip. We met a taxi driver Mr Rajvinder singh from Guwahati who promised to take us to Cherrapunji in his car for 800/-. Sine we thought that it will be uncomfortable for the 5 of us in his car, we decided to look for some big car. However the Sumo owners were asking for 1500/- for the same trip we decided to go for Rajvinder singh's taxi itself. We gave him our address and he promised to come and pick up us the next morning at 8 AM.
We strolled in the mall road for a while and did a bit of shopping in the evening. After dinner we went to our room and slept.
March 20 2008
Kohora - Kaziranga
Early morning we got up and were ready for the Safari inside Kaziranga National Park. The caretaker of the Hotel told us that the first Safari has been postponed due to rain! We had to wait for half an hr and at last the rain stopped!
As soon as it stopped raining we started toward the Kohora gate in KNP. There were other tourist vehicles waiting for the counter to open. As soon as it was open, we bought the tickets to enter the park as well as Elephant Safari. The caretaker of the Hotel was boy of around 25 or 26 and his father was working as a guard inside the park. On the way he explained many things about the park and the main attraction the Rhinos inside the park. Soon we reached the place from where the elephant Safari starts.
There were more than 60 tourists and around 10 elephants. 4 or 5 people were to sit on one elephant for the safari. We decided to split as two groups and enter the park. So we waited to get a suitable elephant. Since all the elephants were full we decided to go in the second batch. We clicked some snaps of the place and ourselves and waited for the second batch.
After some 45 min to 1 hr all the elephants came one by one and the next batch was ready to go. As decided earlier Gokul, Rahul and Prem got on one elephant and myself and Apoorv got on another elephant. We started our elephant safari and were eager to see the Rhinos in their habitat. On one side of the park was a big lake with so many big fishes. On the other side of the lake many Rhinos, bison, deer and boars were drinking water and grazing lazily. The remaining part was full of 'elephant grass' the favorite dish of the Rhinos. And this was where our mahout was taking us.
Soon we were able to see Rhinos very close eating the grass or lying in the water. One Rhino even charged at the elephant. Later we understood why it did so. There was a small Rhino standing nearby. Our mahout used a sling to stir one of the rhino that was enjoying in the pond near by. The stone hit him on his back but he didn’t even bother to turn. He continued to enjoy himself and we asked our mahout to move the elephant a bit closer so that we can get good shots of him. Soon our time was over and we returned back to our starting place. Thus Prem's dream of seeing the Rhinos was fulfilled. However he was a bit disappointed. He kept on saying.. “They are just big Pigs. That’s all.. I was expecting more” (we wondered whether he was actually thinking of Dinosaurs!!!)
We went back to the Hotel. We thanked Rangith Gogoi for all his help and checked out the hotel. We said our farewell to Kaziranga and left to Jorabat where our good driver Mr. Paing will leave us. From Jorabat we will take a shared taxi to Shillong. The journey to Jorabat was uneventful apart from each of us remembering the Bittu's brutalities and the beauty of Arunachal and Kaziranga. Around 1:00 PM we reached Jorabat and Paing talked to a taxi driver and arranged for our Shillong trip. We tied our bags on the top of the taxi and sat inside. Soon the taxi was full and we stared
to Shillong.
The way to Shillong was very beautiful we crossed the Bara Pani lake. But since we were in a shared taxi we couldn’t stop there. We decided to stop while coming back. We reached Shillong around 4 PM and were wondering where to book our rooms. Seeing our ‘terroristic’ looks one Army officer and us came and started asking who we were and where are we coming from... As soon as Apoorv said he was actually from Dharward in Karnataka his face brightened. He too was from that place and they started to talking in Kannada and when he knew we were looking for a good lodge to stay, he said come with me.. He took us to the main mall road in his jeep and dropped us in front of a good lodge. Before leaving he warned us to be careful and don’t try anything 'bad' while we were in Shillong. We checked the tariff of the hotel and it was a bit expensive for us. So we checked the nearby hotels and found another hotel, which was Ok for all of us. We checked in and took rest for a while.
In the evening we went out for the late lunch and also to look for a vehicle for the Shillong sightseeing and Cherrapunji visit. We came to know that Shillong sightseeing consists of 7 tourist spots and Cherrapunji is a separate full day trip. We met a taxi driver Mr Rajvinder singh from Guwahati who promised to take us to Cherrapunji in his car for 800/-. Sine we thought that it will be uncomfortable for the 5 of us in his car, we decided to look for some big car. However the Sumo owners were asking for 1500/- for the same trip we decided to go for Rajvinder singh's taxi itself. We gave him our address and he promised to come and pick up us the next morning at 8 AM.
We strolled in the mall road for a while and did a bit of shopping in the evening. After dinner we went to our room and slept.
Gr8 picssssss!!!!!!!!!!!lucky guy
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