Karbi Anglong - Travelling through Assam

thefitfoodietravel
May 10, 2023
9 min read

I woke up refreshed after a good night’s sleep. As I stepped out of my room, I was greeted by a cool breeze and a fog hiding my view. I did a quick workout and got ready. I couldn’t get the geyser to work and had a cold water bath. Thankfully, being all heated up from the workout helped. Trying to connect to my transport was a nightmare. The manager of my next stay – the nature’s nest was supposed to coordinate with me for the pickup. His phone was switched off, and Tribeni – the owner who I was talking to all this while wasn’t answering my call. I decided to first get to Nellie – the village where my pick up was arranged.

Guwahati had recently moved its main bus depot and was now outside city limits. The local staff at my stay had never heard of Nellie so I was wondering if it would be possible to get a bus there. I debated taking a cab to the bus stop or taking it to Nellie. Finally, Uber intercity won. Once booked, my cab driver called for details. And as it is standard, he asked me to cancel it and just go with him privately. This is to make sure they get all the money and not Uber. Ideally I shouldn’t agree to it for safety reasons, but I was so frustrated with all the back and forth that I went ahead with it.

Obviously as it always is, once my driver picked me (after getting lost a million times and not being able to read Google maps) he started complaining about the amount. It was 2200 on Uber and he started cribbing about coming back to Guwahati without a hire. We settled at 2500/- for the whole thing. As we started driving, he asked me if he could pick his cousin who needed to learn how to drive and on the highway would be the best place to reach him. Red flags and sirens started blaring in my head and I refused. We encountered some traffic as we were leaving. There was a walk organised for Unity day. I honestly didn’t even know such a day was celebrated in our country.

When we crossed the first toll, the driver announced that it wasn’t his car and he wasn’t sure if the FasTag had any balance in it. It hadn’t and he had to pay double the toll amount as per the rules. He was confused and I explained to him what had happened. He kept whining about the extra expense and I knew he was going to ask for more money later. Of course, I was right. I told him that was out of question. Him not following a national rule wasn’t my problem and I wasn’t going to give him another extra penny. He hung around pestering me for a while after I had reached my destination. I put my foot down and he had to finally leave.

I was waiting at a petrol pump for my bike ride to arrive. I had to wait a good half an hour and my mood had turned very sour. I kept calling the manager of Nature’s nest who kept assuring me that my ride was on its way. Finally, my ride was there. I was pissed but the moment I saw the driver, I realised it was a young kid. So, I decided to calm down and not give him a hard time.

The road was a nightmare but the view beautiful. I felt every organ in my body displaced by the bumps we were riding. I later came to know that the roads were in such bad shape because of the dispute of the locals with the state regarding their autonomy. At some places the road was almost non existent. My helmet was too large and was covering my eyes at every bump. With a backpack that was strapped on me and balanced on the seat, I had to make sure it didn’t slip and drag me off the bike. This meant, I was sitting at an angle which starting cramping my leg. Within 20 minutes I felt I was at the end of my tolerance and asked Manas how much more time it would take. The drive was 2 hours long!! I clenched my teeth and waited for it to be done.

We were driving through the buffer zone and I hoped I would get to see some animals, but obviously I wasn’t lucky enough. I kept hearing this super loud insect, felt like a drone coming down on you. To my relief we stopped at a point to take some pictures. My legs cried tears of happiness.

After a gruelling ride, we were at Nature’s nest. The place was pretty as a picture but couldn’t be an option for a retreat. The accommodation was too rudimentary. No doors to the huts and no bathrooms attached.

Now, let's look at the things to do in Karbi Anglong and Assam. Tenzing, the manager and co-owner recommended going to the local Tiwa tribe’s annual festival post lunch. I was dreading the night as it was already cold for me. Lunch was without any seasoning. No fiber and just too much rice. Rice and pork and chicken! I wasn’t, and still am not used to so much meat. Specially after following a predominant Vegan lifestyle for 3 years, eating meat was hard. I was sure I would turn into a football by the end of this trip if I ate so much rice!

I was driven around by Rogan in his Alto. We first went to the cleanest village of Assam – Shikdamakha. Simple system of bamboo huts every few hundred meters and the civic sense of people to actually use it.

On our way to the festival, we stopped at the 7 steps waterfall where I almost slipped and fell!

Finally, we were at Khalempoi – the annual Tiwa tribe’s event. It was very colourful and while I was taking everyone’s picture (with consent) I noticed the locals taking mine. I stood out like a sore thumb there! Rogan said there was going to be some dance and we waited a long time for it. I saw a little teen who were supposed to be performing, leering at me. I wanted to go box his ears! Eventually I lost patience and wanted to go back.

Rogan said there was a beautiful view point and took me there. It was nothing worth writing home about.

We came back to the event again hoping the programs would start, but just like every other Indian’s life, everyone was waiting for the chief guest to come.

I was done and we started our drive back home. Rogan showed me some government guest house on the way that could be used for the retreats. It wasn’t something I could use. It was decided, I wasn’t going to include this location in my retreat. Roads, stays, food, everything needs to have more options. This region isn’t ready for tourists yet.

Rogan was reeking of alcohol and was using indicator and dipper weirdly. Once back, my room was cold and was swarmed by big black ants. The water was so cold that I had a hard time washing my face. Tenzing asked if I wanted to take a shower. No way! Only tomorrow with hot water! The sun set at 5 and it felt like it was 8pm. I sat inside my blanket and hoped the ants would leave me alone. Now 6pm felt like 10pm!

I had to drag myself out of bed for dinner. As I asked for some vegetables in the morning, they made me some green leafy stir fry. But, they added dried fish in that too. Everything had dried fish in it and now that smell had permeated my skin. I didn’t want to offend them by asking them to exclude one of their key local ingredients. They were all surprised to see how little rice I ate compared to them.

Tenzin told me at dinner how he drove the process to get network connectivity in his region and the struggles he had to face. Post dinner, I huddled under my blanket and inside the mosquito net and hoped for a mosquito and ant free night.

Day 3

I woke up at 4 and then forced myself to go back to sleep. I could hear some noise outside but I had no interest to know who or what it was. Mainly I didn’t want to stay up and realise that I had to pee! I was in no mood to go on a mini hike to reach the bathroom. I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. The next time I opened my eyes, it was 6:45 am!! I was shocked! I quickly freshened up and got ready for the actual hike I was supposed to go on with Tenzin. Now the time showed as 6:49?! I realised there was a mismatch between the time on my watch and phone. I guess my phone was picking up Bangladesh’s time.

I had to wake Tenzin up and by the time we were ready to leave, it was 7:45am. We first walked towards Echo mountain. The walk was fairly easy initially and then it progressed into walking through heavy overgrowth. It was slippery at points but not difficult. The view in the end was good but again, nothing incredible. Tenzin screamed to show how his voice echoed. I couldn’t replicate that. As we started walking away we heard Langurs calling out.

On our way out Tenzin threw a bottle of water into the bushes. I asked him why he did that and he should pick it up. His response was that someone else will do it. I was so annoyed to hear it and decided to pick it up myself. Seeing that, he did it himself. Now, the plan was to walk up to a waterfall and we started hiking another way. Tenzin was telling me stories of how he had to quit playing football professionally because he had to work to make ends meet at home. He is a very enterprising man and at a young age of 25, has already successfully started businesses and has also brought a lot of reform to his village.

In a short while he realised that we had lost our way. Now we were pushing through thick growth like the Japs might have hacked through the North East Indian forests in WW2. Or like the Americans in Vietnam. I fell once but fortunately no harm.

We finally reached the waterfall. The water was cold and I had my own Liril girl moment. The hike was fine, but too messy to really enjoy it.

On our way out, we took the normal route. No bushes, just open, straight paths. We stopped by Tenzin’s aunt’s home. Beautiful little place. I met his aunt, nephew and the dog Guddu. They served me Pomelo and it was the first time I was eating a perfectly ripened Pomelo.

Once back to Nature’s nest, I saw it was filled with people! There was a couple making reels and it was a very funny sight to see. They got me some breakfast from outside. Roti, dal and boiled eggs. I was starving. They had double booked themselves and asked me if I would move into a tent as there were two couples and they wanted their own rooms. I refused, there was no way I was sleeping in a tent. And honestly, it wasn’t my problem when I had booked in advance.

Tenzin asked Rogan to take me to another place. I was very content just sitting and reading, but they insisted I check this place out. The ride was horrible and so long. I thought of moving to Kaziranga the same day. Even talked to Sunny to see if I can come a day early. But, the distances and lack of public transport made it hard. I would have reached Kaziranga by close to midnight and that’s something I don’t do when I travel solo. No late night travels. After a lot of thinking I decided to leave early next morning. Rogan agreed to drop me at Jagiroad for 2000 and I asked Abhinav to book me a bus ticket. I had no network to do that. Only enough coverage on the drive for me to send him a text requesting the booking.

Rogan took me to a temple. A temple were some rocks made a metallic sound when hit with another rock. It was such a waste of time. I was gone far beyond to even get angry. I just wanted to get the hell out of there.

Back to the stay, a hot shower in a bathroom which didn’t have a proper latch to close the door! I decided to skip lunch and had a cup of tea and a bowl of maggi. I read while watching the sunset. Beautiful parakeets, blood orange sky and rolling hills, this place was gorgeous but not worth the discomfort it took to get here.

I went into the room as it was getting very cold. I hit my head the millionth time while entering the low door. I was glad to have lots of precious quiet moments till now. No TV, phone, laptop, no people and not even activities to keep me constantly occupied. At dinner I sorted my bill. Rogan was asking for more money and refused flat. I met Sunil, Tenzin’s friend who had come to help him cook for so many guests.

I went to bed by 8:30 and decided to read for a bit and sleep. But had to get up to pee again soon. At 12:21, I woke up with the noise the other guests were making. I had to yell and ask them to keep it down.

I can’t wait to get to Kaziranga tomorrow and have my own private space.