The Unforgettable Adventure -- Tawang
This is a trip turned into an adventure !. 17 of us planned a trip to the hillstation, Tawang (in Arunachal Pradesh) as we had 5 days of holidays for sankranti. We hired two sumos (i'll call them: red, white) and one bolero (call them: black). As you can imagine, all the vehicles were jam packed and there was little place to move inside. This was the initial problem we faced...but the worse was yet to come !!!
Day 1 (11th Jan): The Journey
Since some of the guys hadnt yet got the inter-state license to enter arunachal pradesh (its a sensitive area , so the restrictions) we decided to wait for those guys(black) at Khanapara(in guwahati) till they can get their licenses and join us there. There was a small hill near our stop..so me,pressy,vpk,varma,jaravind and vinay(l to r in the pic) decided to do a little trek up the hill to kill the time. Though vinay was scared in the middle of trek due to the slippery path, he continued with us after a lil persuasion. Finally we reached the top of the hill and waved to our remaining guys standing near our vehicles. After spending some time on top, we returned back along a different path. Surprisingly the downhill journey was easier than the uphill one which is not usual.
Next surprise was Prof. Mishra (of mech dept) and co. joining our group for the same trip. Seems he too planned the same trip with his family and a trio of his phd students as he was happy with the just concluded conference which he organized. Initially we thought that he would be a pain in our ass as we probably coudnt enjoy with him being around. But guess what, our journey was made easier because of his generous help which you will find out. Finally, the black guys arrived after getting their licenses and we resumed our journey to tawang at 12:30 pm with 4 vehicles (brown scorpio of Prof. Mishra).
Our initial plan was to stay in a place called Bomdilla for the first nite. But as fate had it in our trip, nothing took place as planned. This was a pleasant change though. Mishra had arranged for accomodation at a place called Tenga which was 45 km ahead of Bomdilla in a military camp. We were thankful to him, that we could call it a day 1hr before than planned as all of us were tired. Brahmi had already vomitted in the black sumo due to the twists and turns on the hilly path. We got three cottages for ourselves and also delicious dinner ready by 8 pm. As all of us were famished (you know how the hostel's food is like esp. iitg's) we pounced upon the dinner like hungry dogs. The cooks didnt except this and we were soon short of dishes. The people who ate last had to be satisfied with only one or two items. Since we were 17 guys (excluing Mishra's gang) with 3 cottages, we had 6 in each of the cottages except one. In our cottage... 6 of us cramped in one double bed and you can imagine how it would be like. For an outsider it would seem like an orgy for sure! Since we were tired we didnt mind and simply dozed off after watchin some television.
Day 2 (15th jan): The first of the twists
After having a nice breakfast (Poori) we took some snaps and started our journey. Since the whole journey for today was mountaineous we decided on a round-robbin rule for people who sit on the back side of our sumo. We had our initial twist just after we stopped for soup enroute. Our driver was young and relatively new to this trip so he was cautiously slow. 5 min after our stop, Mishra's scorpio slipped on the route and fell into a ditch on the right side of the road. This was because of the ice formed on the road. Luckily there was no casuality and with so many guys around we could literally lift the vehicle and put it back on track. Then Mishra and we guys parted our ways coz he had a different itinerary. So we were back to the three sumos -- the red (i was in this), the black and the white.
My main motive for making this trip was to see the snow for the first time in my life. Though I had been to europe, last summer for my internship, i couldnt play in snow there because of the season and place (austria). We were told that there was not much or no snow in Tawang but there was little ice. This disappointed most of us and especially me. I had already seen the worlds' biggest ice caves in Salzburg and was not so enthused by the ice. But fate had something else in its store for us !!
After an uneventful journey we reached Tawang at around 8:00 pm. We already booked our accomodation in Hotel Budha so we all collapsed there. Here we had 5 rooms for us and so two of the rooms required 4 guys. Again I was in one of those two rooms (im not gay btw). As we had blowers in all the rooms save one we had no probs. We had a pathetic dinner at a nearby restaurant called Gauri Chen and hopped back to our hotel. I was skeptic about eating non-veg outside as the place was notorious for mixing dog meat with chicken (can you believe it ?) Back in hotel we played cards (kyaa kare aadat chodi nahi jaati) for sometime and then dozed off.
Day 3: Final Destination
Our main destinations in Tawang were the Madhuri lake uphill and the Buddhist Monastry. We decided to finish off the lake because there was a restriction to not stay on the hill after 3pm. Some time through the uphill journey (we were at a height of about 13k feet.) all the three sumos got separated ! To our utter surprise, we found snow on the hill and were excited about it. We, the red ones did a halt at one of the snow filled places and played like hell. It was great, believe me.
Finally we found the other 2 vehicles near Madhuri Lake. Since we were already late we, the red guys, decided to not go down to the lake but wait for the other guys to come back. There was another small slope filled with snow rite at the place where we were waiting for the guys. So when the black guys came back, we played with the snow again. We had a funny snow battle, with everyone throwing snow on each other. Myself, Bharagav, Ciddu and Grc decided to take a paradox pic and removed most of our 5 layered protection (dont worry...only the upper portion). U can see the pic for yourselves. During that time, Brahmi started throwing snow on us and ciddu tripped in the ruckus that ensued. He got senti and sweared at Brahmi but then everything cooled off and started our way back. The white guys were still down at the lake and so we waited for them at the nearby military camp. They finally after a 90 min wait.
We succesfully came downhill before the 3pm deadline despite the delay but most of the guys wanted to eat something as they were all hungry after all that happened. So we decided to eat lunch and then go for Monastry. After having lunch/dinner at the same pathetic place it was already too late for monastry and we decided to cover it the next day. The rest of the day was uneventful with the usual television and card games.
Day 4: The ultimate Adventure
The day started off with snow fall outside. We were finally happy to see the much awatited snow fall. Our desires were fulfilled. But it didnt stop there !!! With the cars going to garage for some repairs, we had to start our back journey without covering the monastry. Many people were upset by this decision but we had to do this because of the deteriorating weather. Our hotel manager urged us to start early because there was heavy snow fall on our way back.
On our return journey we had to pass through one Sela Pass which was the highest peak around there. We had an inkling of danger as we progressed through the snow capped hills which were pleasant on our forward journey. The roads were covered with snow for the most part and it was difficult to drive. We halted at the Frozen lake which was quite an attraction in itself. Brahmi and others made a tiny snow man (if you can call it that! ) and we played again for 20 min or so. Few minutes after resuming our journey, we were into deep trouble. We , the red guys got separated from the blacks and whites. Hoping that they were safe we just tugged along the impossible roads. Our sumo skidded on a U-Turn beacuse of the heavy ice/snow laiden road. Though i was happy seeing the snow fall and 1 feet high snow, it was clearly trouble. Instead of immediately helping the sumo to get back on track, i was taking pics of our sumo. After facing some music from my frenz i also helped them and we got the sumo back on track. Other bypassers advised us to go back because the further journew was even dangerous and already many vehicles were stuck. But we didnt want to wait for one day and also we had to catch up with our other 2 vehicles which were quite ahead of us by now. By 4:30 there was complete snow fall, the path was covered with ice and to make it worse we had fog. So, we were travelling on damn slippery road, with dangerous curves, valley on one side and snow on the other and top it all with zero visibility. and almost zero fuel We decided to call it a day and save our ass asap.
As luck had it, we found a guest house just in time our fuel exhausted. By that time we were travelling at a speed of 1 kmph with hearts in our hands. It was so damn cold outside that the water on the windshield was turning into ice within seconds and every now and then we had to stop our sumo and scrap the shield to remove ice. So this guest house was like a life boat in the middle of an ocean. The situation reminded us of the old horror flicks where a group of frenz stop in the middle of the journey due to some car trouble and end up in a purani haveli (the guest house resembled the haveli). The cook/watchman of the guesthouse cooked us a sumptous lunch with eggs,dal,cabbage and we were full. Even the rooms were having fire places so it was really pleasant to have these comforts in such a drastic situation. Though it was chilling cold outside, we were happily playing cards in the warmth of our room. All the time, we were hoping that the black and white guys have safely halted at some place.
Day 5 : The Reunion
After having maggi prepared by our cook we resumed our journey. Everything was nice except the fuel. It was almost zero and we had to refill the tank before we got stuck somewhere. So, we started asking every tom dick and harry on the way for fuel. We got an ass hole who tried to sell us kersone in place of diesel but luckily one of us spotted the blue liquid and we could the disaster. We came across a military camp and narrated our sad story. Here I would like to add that, the military people throughout our journey helped us in many ways. Without them it would have been a different story altogether ! 4 of the guys went to talk to the Colonel there and finally convinced him to give 5 litres of diesel. Luckily this guy was from Andhra Pradesh (like us) and so helped us. Finally we were happy, despite the 45 min blah blah of Col.Prince, that we had a enuf fuel to reach the nearby gas station.
Finally we were able to refill our tank at a place called Dhirang. At a checkpost near Tenga we came to know that the black and white guys passed the same point 1hr back. We were happy that the other guys were also safe in their journey. At Bomdille to our utter surprise we found the two vehicles parked near the road. When we disembarked our vehicle, we met our remaining frenz. The atmosphere was totally different than we expected. They were very relieved seeing us finally after our separation the previous day (we were too ofcourse!). We came to know that, they thought we stuck somewhere in the mountains in the yesterday's snow. They were so tensed up that they called up Mishra (he was back home to guwahati by then) and told that we were missing. He ordered these guys to stay at bomdilla till they can find out about us. He also contacted the military at the nearby area and it seems 5 patrol jeeps were sent to find our probably stuck sumo. After all this happened, they were really excited seeing us alive ! So it was a happy reunion for all of us and we vowed not to be separated again. But as i said...nothing went as planned
1 hr from Guwahati, at a place called Tezpur we decided to stop for dinner. It was alreay 6:30 pm by then. Suddenly , at a junction, the black and white vehicles took a right turn (for a short route). But our driver, did a wrong turn and the traffic police asked the driver to sideline the vehicle. In the tension, our fellow took a left turn and drove at 100 kmph in fear of being caught. Thus again we got separated ! Cursing our luck, we stopped at a restaurant and informed the other guys (mobile connectivity was working again as we were near guwahati by then) about the situation.
After having a light dinner we headed for our destination. By 11 pm we were back in campus (others came 90 min before us), and may be for first time in our 4 yr life here felt good being in the good ol campus.!!!
Day 1 (11th Jan): The Journey
Since some of the guys hadnt yet got the inter-state license to enter arunachal pradesh (its a sensitive area , so the restrictions) we decided to wait for those guys(black) at Khanapara(in guwahati) till they can get their licenses and join us there. There was a small hill near our stop..so me,pressy,vpk,varma,jaravind and vinay(l to r in the pic) decided to do a little trek up the hill to kill the time. Though vinay was scared in the middle of trek due to the slippery path, he continued with us after a lil persuasion. Finally we reached the top of the hill and waved to our remaining guys standing near our vehicles. After spending some time on top, we returned back along a different path. Surprisingly the downhill journey was easier than the uphill one which is not usual.
Next surprise was Prof. Mishra (of mech dept) and co. joining our group for the same trip. Seems he too planned the same trip with his family and a trio of his phd students as he was happy with the just concluded conference which he organized. Initially we thought that he would be a pain in our ass as we probably coudnt enjoy with him being around. But guess what, our journey was made easier because of his generous help which you will find out. Finally, the black guys arrived after getting their licenses and we resumed our journey to tawang at 12:30 pm with 4 vehicles (brown scorpio of Prof. Mishra).
Our initial plan was to stay in a place called Bomdilla for the first nite. But as fate had it in our trip, nothing took place as planned. This was a pleasant change though. Mishra had arranged for accomodation at a place called Tenga which was 45 km ahead of Bomdilla in a military camp. We were thankful to him, that we could call it a day 1hr before than planned as all of us were tired. Brahmi had already vomitted in the black sumo due to the twists and turns on the hilly path. We got three cottages for ourselves and also delicious dinner ready by 8 pm. As all of us were famished (you know how the hostel's food is like esp. iitg's) we pounced upon the dinner like hungry dogs. The cooks didnt except this and we were soon short of dishes. The people who ate last had to be satisfied with only one or two items. Since we were 17 guys (excluing Mishra's gang) with 3 cottages, we had 6 in each of the cottages except one. In our cottage... 6 of us cramped in one double bed and you can imagine how it would be like. For an outsider it would seem like an orgy for sure! Since we were tired we didnt mind and simply dozed off after watchin some television.
Day 2 (15th jan): The first of the twists
After having a nice breakfast (Poori) we took some snaps and started our journey. Since the whole journey for today was mountaineous we decided on a round-robbin rule for people who sit on the back side of our sumo. We had our initial twist just after we stopped for soup enroute. Our driver was young and relatively new to this trip so he was cautiously slow. 5 min after our stop, Mishra's scorpio slipped on the route and fell into a ditch on the right side of the road. This was because of the ice formed on the road. Luckily there was no casuality and with so many guys around we could literally lift the vehicle and put it back on track. Then Mishra and we guys parted our ways coz he had a different itinerary. So we were back to the three sumos -- the red (i was in this), the black and the white.
My main motive for making this trip was to see the snow for the first time in my life. Though I had been to europe, last summer for my internship, i couldnt play in snow there because of the season and place (austria). We were told that there was not much or no snow in Tawang but there was little ice. This disappointed most of us and especially me. I had already seen the worlds' biggest ice caves in Salzburg and was not so enthused by the ice. But fate had something else in its store for us !!
After an uneventful journey we reached Tawang at around 8:00 pm. We already booked our accomodation in Hotel Budha so we all collapsed there. Here we had 5 rooms for us and so two of the rooms required 4 guys. Again I was in one of those two rooms (im not gay btw). As we had blowers in all the rooms save one we had no probs. We had a pathetic dinner at a nearby restaurant called Gauri Chen and hopped back to our hotel. I was skeptic about eating non-veg outside as the place was notorious for mixing dog meat with chicken (can you believe it ?) Back in hotel we played cards (kyaa kare aadat chodi nahi jaati) for sometime and then dozed off.
Day 3: Final Destination
Our main destinations in Tawang were the Madhuri lake uphill and the Buddhist Monastry. We decided to finish off the lake because there was a restriction to not stay on the hill after 3pm. Some time through the uphill journey (we were at a height of about 13k feet.) all the three sumos got separated ! To our utter surprise, we found snow on the hill and were excited about it. We, the red ones did a halt at one of the snow filled places and played like hell. It was great, believe me.
Finally we found the other 2 vehicles near Madhuri Lake. Since we were already late we, the red guys, decided to not go down to the lake but wait for the other guys to come back. There was another small slope filled with snow rite at the place where we were waiting for the guys. So when the black guys came back, we played with the snow again. We had a funny snow battle, with everyone throwing snow on each other. Myself, Bharagav, Ciddu and Grc decided to take a paradox pic and removed most of our 5 layered protection (dont worry...only the upper portion). U can see the pic for yourselves. During that time, Brahmi started throwing snow on us and ciddu tripped in the ruckus that ensued. He got senti and sweared at Brahmi but then everything cooled off and started our way back. The white guys were still down at the lake and so we waited for them at the nearby military camp. They finally after a 90 min wait.
We succesfully came downhill before the 3pm deadline despite the delay but most of the guys wanted to eat something as they were all hungry after all that happened. So we decided to eat lunch and then go for Monastry. After having lunch/dinner at the same pathetic place it was already too late for monastry and we decided to cover it the next day. The rest of the day was uneventful with the usual television and card games.
Day 4: The ultimate Adventure
The day started off with snow fall outside. We were finally happy to see the much awatited snow fall. Our desires were fulfilled. But it didnt stop there !!! With the cars going to garage for some repairs, we had to start our back journey without covering the monastry. Many people were upset by this decision but we had to do this because of the deteriorating weather. Our hotel manager urged us to start early because there was heavy snow fall on our way back.
On our return journey we had to pass through one Sela Pass which was the highest peak around there. We had an inkling of danger as we progressed through the snow capped hills which were pleasant on our forward journey. The roads were covered with snow for the most part and it was difficult to drive. We halted at the Frozen lake which was quite an attraction in itself. Brahmi and others made a tiny snow man (if you can call it that! ) and we played again for 20 min or so. Few minutes after resuming our journey, we were into deep trouble. We , the red guys got separated from the blacks and whites. Hoping that they were safe we just tugged along the impossible roads. Our sumo skidded on a U-Turn beacuse of the heavy ice/snow laiden road. Though i was happy seeing the snow fall and 1 feet high snow, it was clearly trouble. Instead of immediately helping the sumo to get back on track, i was taking pics of our sumo. After facing some music from my frenz i also helped them and we got the sumo back on track. Other bypassers advised us to go back because the further journew was even dangerous and already many vehicles were stuck. But we didnt want to wait for one day and also we had to catch up with our other 2 vehicles which were quite ahead of us by now. By 4:30 there was complete snow fall, the path was covered with ice and to make it worse we had fog. So, we were travelling on damn slippery road, with dangerous curves, valley on one side and snow on the other and top it all with zero visibility. and almost zero fuel We decided to call it a day and save our ass asap.
As luck had it, we found a guest house just in time our fuel exhausted. By that time we were travelling at a speed of 1 kmph with hearts in our hands. It was so damn cold outside that the water on the windshield was turning into ice within seconds and every now and then we had to stop our sumo and scrap the shield to remove ice. So this guest house was like a life boat in the middle of an ocean. The situation reminded us of the old horror flicks where a group of frenz stop in the middle of the journey due to some car trouble and end up in a purani haveli (the guest house resembled the haveli). The cook/watchman of the guesthouse cooked us a sumptous lunch with eggs,dal,cabbage and we were full. Even the rooms were having fire places so it was really pleasant to have these comforts in such a drastic situation. Though it was chilling cold outside, we were happily playing cards in the warmth of our room. All the time, we were hoping that the black and white guys have safely halted at some place.
Day 5 : The Reunion
After having maggi prepared by our cook we resumed our journey. Everything was nice except the fuel. It was almost zero and we had to refill the tank before we got stuck somewhere. So, we started asking every tom dick and harry on the way for fuel. We got an ass hole who tried to sell us kersone in place of diesel but luckily one of us spotted the blue liquid and we could the disaster. We came across a military camp and narrated our sad story. Here I would like to add that, the military people throughout our journey helped us in many ways. Without them it would have been a different story altogether ! 4 of the guys went to talk to the Colonel there and finally convinced him to give 5 litres of diesel. Luckily this guy was from Andhra Pradesh (like us) and so helped us. Finally we were happy, despite the 45 min blah blah of Col.Prince, that we had a enuf fuel to reach the nearby gas station.
Finally we were able to refill our tank at a place called Dhirang. At a checkpost near Tenga we came to know that the black and white guys passed the same point 1hr back. We were happy that the other guys were also safe in their journey. At Bomdille to our utter surprise we found the two vehicles parked near the road. When we disembarked our vehicle, we met our remaining frenz. The atmosphere was totally different than we expected. They were very relieved seeing us finally after our separation the previous day (we were too ofcourse!). We came to know that, they thought we stuck somewhere in the mountains in the yesterday's snow. They were so tensed up that they called up Mishra (he was back home to guwahati by then) and told that we were missing. He ordered these guys to stay at bomdilla till they can find out about us. He also contacted the military at the nearby area and it seems 5 patrol jeeps were sent to find our probably stuck sumo. After all this happened, they were really excited seeing us alive ! So it was a happy reunion for all of us and we vowed not to be separated again. But as i said...nothing went as planned
1 hr from Guwahati, at a place called Tezpur we decided to stop for dinner. It was alreay 6:30 pm by then. Suddenly , at a junction, the black and white vehicles took a right turn (for a short route). But our driver, did a wrong turn and the traffic police asked the driver to sideline the vehicle. In the tension, our fellow took a left turn and drove at 100 kmph in fear of being caught. Thus again we got separated ! Cursing our luck, we stopped at a restaurant and informed the other guys (mobile connectivity was working again as we were near guwahati by then) about the situation.
After having a light dinner we headed for our destination. By 11 pm we were back in campus (others came 90 min before us), and may be for first time in our 4 yr life here felt good being in the good ol campus.!!!
