Geographical Location: East of Bangladesh and Brahmaputra’s Influence

After quite some time in India, including a longer period living there, I have to say: nothing is like the Northeast. Clocks are ticking differently here, even cities are different.

Geographically, India’s Northeast has been separated from the rest of the country ever since the state of Bangladesh was founded. During British colonial rule all seven states were called Assam but is no longer the case nowadays. The east is very close to Myanmar and, in the North, to Bhutan and China.

The area is strongly shaped by the Brahmaputra River which runs through the entire area. Three quarters of the population live in close proximity to the river. Most people stay in the more developed cities in the south and east. Many residents have tribal ancestors. The second largest area, are the mountain in the North (Meghalaya, Nagaland) that have been largely influenced by Christian missionaries.

Arriving from Guwahati and Assam

Center and most important city of the Northeast is Guwahati, Assam’s capital. When you travel northeast, you will arrive in Guwahati. Guwahati has 800,000 residents and is, for Indian standards rather small. Even the entire northeast is rather sparsely populated (45 million people in total, in contrast to 19 million in Mumbai or Delhi). Guwahati can be reached from all major Indian airports; there are tons of domestic flights available. You will not be able to find a nonstop flight from Germany, a stopover in Delhi is definitely needed. Guwahati is the gateway to all other states and cities in the northeast.

Guwahati, after all, is a more relaxed Indian city but a city like any other in India. You don’t have big problems with cab driver and rikscha drivers (very much the opposite from all other cities in India). You can find anything here: more traditional bazaars, little vegetable sellers as well as fancy shops, malls, big chain restaurants and stores, huge cinemas, restaurants and coffee houses. There are also many hotels with different standards and price ranges. You can use GS Road, which crosses the entire city and the Brahmaputra River as reference points to find your way. All in all, Guwahati makes a good beginning for India.

There are no big sights in Guwahati. Some temples and monasteries (Umanada Tempel , Kamakhaya Tempel, Navagraha Tempel). Holy temples of different religions can be found here in a big colorful mix: Madhava Temple where Buddha went to the Nirvana, Pao Monastery very important to Muslims, Hajo Pilgrimage which has five temples that are important for all five religions.

Moreover, Guwahati has three Bazaars: Paltan Bazaar, Pan Bazaar and Fancy Bazaar.
Three national parks can be found in the surrounding area: Mana National park (175 km from Guwahati), Probitora National park (40 km) and Kaziranga National park (217 km).

I would not plan too much time for Guwahati. 1 – 2 days is enough, you can recover from the trip, visit a few temples and if you are interested some Bazaars and Malls.
Things start getting interesting when to decide where to go next.

National Parks in Kaziranga and Mana

Distances are large, driving takes a long time because the streets are mostly bad. Yet, the national parks in Kaziranga and Mana are worth a visit. From Guwahati you should plan an entire day to drive there. After Guwahati, you need to drive up a mountain range, all vehicles can only move slowly, even though it does not sound that much, 200 km in India is in general a long distance, even more here in the Northeast. The further you travel from Guwahati, the worse the streets get.

Everything gets more rural, there are no more typical Indian metropolis but more “villages”. The term village might create some misunderstandings; even a village in India can have 200,000 residents. Don’t base that on the number of people living there. For Indians, a city with 5 million people is a small town. A village is rather defined by its bad infrastructure, bad streets, few hotels and that it’s difficult to reach. You need to lower your standards a bit here; many “Western” things are missing. One example is warm or hot water. It’s not available everywhere but, sometimes you find it where you least expect it. But you definitely need to accept certain lower standards when it comes to hygiene.

Close to the big attractions there are, rather surprisingly, upper-class hotels with higher standards. Target group of these places are wealthy Indians, who, in the end, don’t expect a lower standard than people from the West (Europeans and Americans).

We decided to visit Kaziranga, right at the Brahmaputra River, close to Bhutan. Visiting Bhutan in a second step would have been nice but is rather difficult, to get the Bhutan visa is very difficult.

Here you can read more about Kaziranga National Park.

The State of Assam

Kaziranga is at the edge, but still in Assam. During colonial times, Assam was the name for the entire region but nowadays it includes a much smaller area.

Two ethnic groups mainly meet in Assam: immigrated Begalis and tribals. There were certain separations of tribals (e.g. Nagaland and Meghalaya). The states as they are today have existed since 1972.

In Europe, Assam is mostly known for its tea. This is one of the tourist attractions here: tea plantations. They are everywhere Assam has the largely connected tea plantations in the world.

Except Kaziranga and Mana, there are two smaller national parks: Probitora and Orang. Another interesting thing is the huge and powerful Brahmaputra river, in Majuli you find the largest river island in the world.

Traveling here is still easily possible. The streets were partly not that good, but progress is on the way. A lot of construction work can be found anywhere, in particular around the main attractions, tourism is common. There are drivers and jeeps for the national park, and tourism is well-organised here. I think, you can easily travel here you just need to decide what you want to see.

Meghalaya: Cherapunjee and Shillong

The same counts for Meghalaya, the state south of Assam and its capital Shillong. Shillong as well as Cherapunjee (Sohra) are main attractions for (domestic) tourism. The tribals’ root bridges are interesting. Information on that Cherapunjee can be found here.

Shillong is called “Scottland of the East”. There are mountains covered in fog but also lakes and old Victorian buildings. It used to be a British hill station. Shillong Peak is on more than 1500 meters and offers a great view of the Ward Lake. Plus, there are several waterfalls in the area (one example the fourth largest in the world, Nohkalikai Water Fall).

Bengal, Sikkim and Darjeeling

Some more states, that are often counted as Northeast States are Sikkim, Bengal and the very popular Darjeeling. All these places are further west, not east of Bangladesh and are not part of the Seven Sisters. That is which is choose to do an extra group called Sikkim and Darjeeling.

Here can be found information on…

Sikkim
Kanchenjunga
Khecheopari
Darjeeling

Off Assam and Meghalaya

Anything outside Assam and Meghalaya definitely makes the Northeast a place for adventurers. The not-so-good-streets become worse. It becomes difficult to move forward, there is rarely any tourism at all. But you can find more and more tribal areas that are protected which means you cannot travel at all or only with extra permit.

Arnuchal Pradesh: Has one of the most beautiful landscapes of the Seven Sisters, reaching from the foot of the Himalaya Mountains to the Brahmaputra River, also called Assam-Himalaya. A mountain state that difficult to access, with very mixed religious groups. Also strongly influence by its tribals even though China claims parts of its area.

Nagaland: largely stettled by tribals (16 different tribal groups), that are in vast majority Christians. Official language is English, but every tribal has its own language, not all of them are compatible among each other. There are four national parks here, but almost no foreign visitors. Some areas are restricted and cannot be visited by foreigners.

Manipur and Mizoram: The most eastern of the Seven Sisters and its southern neighbor form the border to Myanmar. There are mountains ranges with 3000 meter mountains (Patkai mountains) but also lowlands and valleys. No tourist development at all.

Tripura: close the Bagladesh Valley, a more communist state largely remote and secluded, mostly interesting for its landscape, can be reached by plane (airport in the capital Agartal) from Calcutta.

All these states have one thing in common: tourism is still in the very beginning. Problems of how to reach and how to move forward derive from that. Moreover, occasionally there are tribal areas that are protected, restricted or even fully closed. You should ask about these regulations right before your tour, changes come every now and then. One thing for sure: it’s not for India beginners, only for adventurers. But you can see pristine, secluded nature, quite often mountain regions of the Himalayans.

Religion in these states varies strongly: some have been strongly missionized (as bad as this is!), there are three mostly Christian states: Meghalaya, Nagaland and Mizoram. Influences here are Baptist.

If you think about going to any of these states, bring enough time and do some thinking about what kind of standard you can handle. I talk about factors of development of a county: availability of power, running water, transportation, streets, hygiene etc.

What is different in the East Compared to Other States?

The short answer is: much, basically everything. People are much more relaxed, life is more quite and calm. We were left alone, nobody followed us, nobody yelled after us, you don’t get cheated at in every corner, there were no “feelable” resentments against Whites.
There were in total fewer tourists, you are not trapped in these enormous masses of people. People seem friendly and, as a foreign guest welcome you without prejudice.

I was rarely photographed without asking (only once), nobody followed me and a very rare and outstanding thing: no men were talking to me, asking for my contact number, nobody touched me, annoyed or molested me. I, a white woman, was left alone. I have not had that anywhere in India, not even Goa.

I cannot guarantee anything for single women travelers but, I have felt save. Everything I have experienced was 100% positive; I have not though this was possible in India. You always need to be careful but I have always felt safe.

Not only women travelers have an easier life her: we could agree faster with Rikscha drivers, shopping was easier, the prices they charges were ok (of course always a bit higher for Whites, but not three times the regular amount). The bazaar had fixed prices, for me these prices were fine.

And: It’s much cleaner than in most parts of India. That came as a total surprise, I was not expecting it at all. Much less trash on the streets.

On a political level there are always some turmoils and separation movements. I find so many warnings about this online. I have seen very little of that. I think, at that point, as a visitor from Europe you have very little problems. , it’s more a domestic issue.

The Northeast was a positive surprise to me, I was not expecting this at all.

Der Beitrag India’s Northeast: the Seven Sisters erschien zuerst auf travelspotting.

How do these Root Bridges Come to Life?

Root Bridges grow from the roots of the rubber fig tree (ficus elsatica). Jainta and Khasi Art (both southern Meghalaya tribals) make these roots grow into a natural bridge to cross the river. Due to their organic material, these bridges get more solid and stable over the years. These bridges are able to maintain themselves for centuries if circumstances are right. Altogether a very fascinating process that shows how to live in unity with nature in a way only indigenous peoples are able to.

Ritymen Root Bridge in Tyrna bei Cherapunjee

There are several root bridges in and around Cherapunjee and in the Jainta Mountains. We visited the Ritymen Root Bridge.

You can reach Ritymen Root Bridge from the little village Tyrna from Cherapunjee (12 km, 30 min). We stayed in a hotel in Cherapunjee and like that reaching Tyrna was easy. You can also go there from the more popular Shillong (ca. 2 ½ hours). But you need a driver, you are far from all the big cities and should not rely on public transportation.

At first comes the Ritymen Root Bridge. If you continue descending, you reach a double root bridge called Umshiang Double Decker Bridge. Double means there are two natural bridges with on top of each other.

Descending the Ritymen Root Bridge

A sign at the entrance says “3 km to Double Bridge”. That is a bit of an understatement, it means 3 km of stairs. The descend is exhausting, we only walked to the first bridge, the single Ritymen Bridge.

Descending these stairs is still doable. We were there with a larger group of people, most of them athletes and fit. We had to walk down hundreds of stairs and that made all our thigh muscles shiver. But that was still ok.

There is a local tour guide who walks the group downstairs. At the entrance they rent bamboo sticks. Makes sense, of course there is no handrails at the stairs.

There are several smaller buildings every now and then that also sell beverages. Locals charge a small fee to see the bridge, 10 Rupees per person, 10 more for every camera. Close to nothing, even if they make you pay for every camera and phone you carry. Altogether it would still be less than 1 Euro (30 Rs about 45 cents).

Bridge and River With a Natural Pool

After a long, you finally reach the bridge with crystal clear water below where you can either swim or enjoy the sun while sitting on a rock. Swimming is only for men, I would discourage women from swimming here.

If you feel strong and energetic enough, you can continue your route to the double bridge. I cannot tell you anything about this. We were in a group of 9, nobody wanted to walk any further. The links at the bottom provide some more information about that.

Ascending From the Bridge

What stopped us from moving was the ascend that was waiting for us. We already had a 2000 steps descend, it’s supposedly another 1500 step to the double bridge.

I consider myself fit above average, I work out regularly and think I can do quite an amount of walking. There were marathon runners, football players and other athletes in our group. Yet, the way back was hard for all of us. It’s a steady 2000 steps ascend. It takes a long time and is exhausting. On the way back, we met several untrained but wealthy Indian families that had huge problems to walk back. Some of them were visibly suffering, looking quite unfortunate and only continued walking because there was no choice.

Our tour guide praised our fitness, said we were better in walking upstairs than the Indian tourists. How seriously you have to take this is another matter. Yet, you should know what you are getting into.

View from the Stairs and the Region’s Climate

In particular during descend,the view of the valley and the mountain is great: pristine nature that is indeed green and clean everywhere, for India very unusual.
The region is rather wet, Cherapunjee is called the “Wettest Place on Earth” (sometimes refered to as “Scottland of the East”).

It’s wetter and cooler than in the rest of India. Many Indians call it cold, but that’s a relative thing. To me, it still felt like summer, in particular around midday it was really warm. All those many steps don’t make it any better. It’s warm and the sun is burning. Definitely bring sunscreen and something to cover your head. We did not have any rain during our three days in Cherapunjee. Even the grass was partly brown and visibly dry.

How To Reach and Some Final Remarks

The root bridges are a spectacular play of nature, something totally different and new. The surrounding nature is nice, pristine, green and clean. All of this shows a very different face of India than the one in the big cities. Definitely worth a trip!

You reach Meghalaya from Assam. The best option is to fly from Delhi to Guwahati and take a driver from there (ca. 160 km, 5 hours). There are also public busses. From Guwahati, spend the night either in Shillong or Cherapunjee and make a day trip to the root bridges. We left it up to the drive how to reach the bridge that was the easiest way.

As usually in the Northeast, you are off the main tourist routes. Some Indians from other states spend their holidays here. We have not seen any other Europeans. Everything is relaxed, people are friendly and open. They let you be and don’t annoy you.

You can buy beverages everywhere, even Coke and other sweet sugar sodas. Yet, I would take a bottle of water just to be sure. But that is all you need, you don’t need to carry a bagpack full of water bottles with you.

Der Beitrag Root Bridges in Cherapunjee (Sohra) in Meghalaya’s South erschien zuerst auf travelspotting.

Animal Conversation Projects and Diversity of Species in Kaziranga

Kaziranga Nationalpark has had some great success in the last years and decades in terms of protecting the one-horned rhino. About two thirds of its worldwide population can be found here. After being threatened by extinction for years, its population has now recovered.

Apart from the rhino, the park also has wild Asian elephants and wild water buffaloes. There are also several deer species and three spectacular wildcats in the park: the Bengal tiger, the Indian leopard and the clouded leopard. Last but not least several smaller species of monkeys. This list is incomplete, the park has many more mammals and reptiles.

The park is also known for its vast number of bird species: water birds, swamp birds, birds of prey and many more. Even India’s national animal, the kingfisher lives here.

More information about Kaziranga’s animals can be found here:

http://www.kaziranga.co.in/mammals.php (list of mammals)
http://www.kaziranga.co.in/reptiles.php (list of reptiles)
http://www.kaziranga.co.in/birds.php (list of birds)
http://www.kaziranga-national-park.com/wildlife-in-kaziranga-national-park.shtml

Which of These Animals Will I Really See?

During our safaris, we saw many wild elephants. The rhino was everywhere and we could see the water buffalo on several occasions and spots.

The safari takes place on a private jeep. You drive on an unpaved road and can see several animals simply by looking look left and right. Several jeeps take a tour, everyone on a slightly different route; you don’t meet the other jeeps a lot. But the tours are fixed the jeeps take a pre-determined tour. All the animals know the vehicles and do not feel disturbed. For example a rhino was sleeping right next t o the street. A group of elephants was walking with all their baby elephants close to the road. The jeeps stop as soon as there is something to see and wait.

I would not expect to see a tiger. Tigers a shy and prefer to be alone. They don’t live in herds. Tigers usually walk away as soon as humans appear. At one of these tours, all the jeeps stopped because allegedly there was a tiger somewhere. But that either was not the case of the tiger long gone. You need to be very lucky to see a tiger.

Entrances to Kaziranga Nationalpark

There are three entrances to the national park:

• the main entrance in Mihimukh, Kohora
• at the West in Baori
• at the East in Agartoli

Kohora is the touristic center of the national park. Here, you find some hotels, shops and souvenir stores. It’s the park’s main entrance.

There is a second, smaller entrance in Agartoli. This is where we had our first safari because our hotel was only 5 minutes from the gate. This area is not busy at all; we had our best safari here.

Agartoli in the east is particularly important to see many species of birds. For everything else, you can also take one of the other two gates.

We decided to do the west and main gate. Agartoli was too far from the hotel. You can reach all the gates on road 715 at the same time southern boundary of the park.

Taking a Safari Tour

There are many full packages available online. I think you don’t really need it. A hotel is enough; you can book a safari here. That is how we did it and it worked quite well.
In India, a car usually has a driver and an owner. Drivers a usually not well-off, rather poor, making little money and do not speak English (or very, very little). The safaris were not sold out at all. We had a jeep for 6 with only the two of us. Accordingly, the tour was a bit expensive, because we had to pay for the entire jeep. But it was a good thing to be alone on the jeep, not get disturbed and we could see very well in all directions, no one blocking our view.

The driver picked us up at the hotel, was in time and took us to the western entrance. One of us had to go to the park administration there we had to pay a second time and a ranger got in the car. A very unusual thing, from a German point of view was the fact that he was carrying a loaded rifle. In India, this kind of means we take care of our guests’ safety. From my point of view, there animals were not dangerous at all. The ranger tells the driver which road to take and they stop on several occasions.

At the end of the tour, the ranger left at the national park gate and the driver took us back to the hotel. There were demanding tip, demanding is too weak. They insisted on getting tip! As far as I know, India is not a “tip-country” (like e.g. the US). Claiming tip that strongly is unusual.

How To Reach Kaziranga

Kaziranga is a bit difficult to reach. You can go by plane to Guwahati, Assam’s capital. From here, it is another 4-hour-drive to Kaziranga, even though it’s only 200 km. Shortly after Guwahati, you need to drive up a mountain; these things are always rather slow in India. You need to plan an entire day to reach.

How Much Should I Book in Advance?

A basic rule is: you can do many things spontaneously and short-term in India. If it makes you feel better, book a hotel. But even that is not really necessary. You can easily organize the safaris when you are there. That’s what I would do. Traffic in India is unpredictable; you never know when exactly you reach.

Kaziranga – India’s Most Beautiful Nationalpark

Kaziranga was, to me, the most beautiful national I have seen in India. It was rather quiet, not too crowded and most importantly, we did indeed see animals. I never really expected to see a tiger. Our hotel room neighbors saw one, but that one was very far away and only became visible on the photo because of the big camera lens. For that, they were on the road for 12 hours straight with nothing but a short lunch break. I would not have made it twelve hours on that bumpy road and jeep.

One thing is very obvious: you are off the main routes, an area that is of no interest for all the big travel agencies. There were no travel groups from Europe of the US, there were rarely any other white people, but many well-off Indians on a holiday trip in their own country. This made everything more relaxed, friendlier, everyone was nice and open to foreigners.

Der Beitrag The Kaziranga Nationalpark in Assam: a Park at the Brahmaputra River in India’s Northeastern State erschien zuerst auf travelspotting.

We booked our hotel in advance. The Lonely Planet hotel list did not help: the hotels either did not exist anymore or were fully booked (as it happens so often to Lonely Planet Hotels). Online we found a place called United 21 Grassland Resort that was not even mentioned in Lonely Planet.

On google this hotel has 3.7 stars. I don’t understand why. Things worked very well for us. The rooms were spacious and clean; the facility has a small park, a pool, lawns, pavilions and a porch for the room. The pool wasn’t that great, but swimming in a pool in India as a woman, you should really think twice about that. There was a room service, the room was clean and we even had warm (hot!) water in the shower. The sheets and towels were clean and neat.

There is a restaurant with good food and service. They serve food everywhere in the hotel, not only in the restaurant. The staff was friendly and helped us organizing the safaris.

The hotel is only 5 minutes to the west gate (Baori). You can also easily reach the main gate. It’s only takes a while to reach the east gate (Agartoli). It was too far for us, our neighbors did the tour to the east gate.

I would come back any time. We even got a discount on makemytrip and the room was not even expensive.

Further information on our experiences visiting the National Park itself you can see here.

Der Beitrag A Suggestion Where to Stay in Kaziranga, Assam: United 21 Grassland Resort erschien zuerst auf travelspotting.