Hi all. I’m
doing a bit of a catch-up here, so this post will be high on forward motion and
light on impressions and description.
We are now in Shillong, Meghalaya, the state south of Assam. Shillong was the British capital of
Assam when Assam covered the entire NE, what is today seven states. It is in the highlands and was
knick-named by the British the Scotland of India. At 4,800 feet, it is very comfortable. Today is Saturday, April 19, and I last
wrote you last Sunday night.
Summing up:
Monday; Guwahati;
the first day of the Assamese New Year (from an email I sent home):
We met at Deboo’s and were invited for a traditional
Assamese tea by Deboo's wife. The 5 of us (4 really, as Deboo's wife's
English is not so good) discussed permits, Bihu, the sweets she had made
(there's always one that is nauseating, which you just have to grin and
gag down) and our previous day. Deboo then drove us to our third festival
site (called pandals), as he was going that way anyway.
And there, again, we were celebrated as guests to the
festival. The invitations we had stumbled on the other day got us into
the prime section, first behind a barrier, then in front, then in the front
row. We were each presented with another Bihuwon, a souvenir festival
book (only 4 pages are in English!), given bottles of water and Sprite,
and chips (crisps). Later tea and cookies were served.
The last move, the one to the front row, was so we'd be next
to the TV presenter, a beautiful woman of amazing complexion, dress, poise and
English, who was narrating the event. Apparently the evening was beamed
live to the Assamese community world wide, to 22 countries we were told
(".....including the UK, Canada and the United States.....") Thus, when we were interviewed, God
knows who saw it! Amazing! We had divided our story between us, so
we could look well spoken and prepared. But the interviewer set Ann back
on her heals for a moment when she asked whether she thought that spreading the
beauty and pageantry of Assamese culture could make a positive
difference in the world. Ann recovered nicely with a non-response
response. We joked later that, No, McDonalds will eventually crush you,
but for now it's pretty wonderful not having a "Big MacAssam" on the
menu. (By the way, I've seen McDonalds in Mumbai, but not in Kolkata,
though it is surely there. But here, with nearly a million people, I
don't think there is one. Ahhhhh.)
Still later, we were invited to the offices of the
organizers for some food. We said yes because Ann needed a toilet and the
pandal didn't have one, except in the office. (Amazing, as there were probably 5-10,000 people there!
Of course it was trashed, but a western style, which Ann hates as there
is the sit-or-don't-sit problem!) Another problem was that this locked us
in for the evening, so our planned "early night" ended at 01:20 when
the auto-rickshaw dropped me at the turn-off to their hotel and I walked the
rest of the way back to Deboo's.
Again the dancing and costumes, the music and pageantry were
amazing, but there is little way to convey that in writing here. And in
the front row you got it full force, but napping was harder there and I was
tired. And there was always someone else to be introduced to. I
think the fact that we are from three different countries, with three different
English accents, adds an air of "delegation" to us.
Tuesday: It was
back to work Tuesday on getting our permits. The internet didn’t work, tours were way too expensive, and
even the coffee place had changed its menu for Bihu and the “Black Coffee”
option was not offered! Things
were pissy, we were irritable, and all was shitty.
Then, as if sent by the gods, one Aussie found another in a
bar (how typical!) and all looked brighter. Here’s what happened.
We had returned to a tour operator for the umpteen time looking for a
woman who just would not show, and Jim spotted a bar. A beer was just what we needed! About 30 minutes later an Aussie with his Canadian wife
entered the bar; they were
catching a train 3 hours later and planned to spend the time in the bar. They had been in the NE for THREE
MONTHS! and were full of advice!!!
It was manna from heaven.
And we all walked off intoxicated, in all ways.
Wednesday: We
headed off to Kamakhya Mandir for a gruesome morning. This is worthy of a post of its own, so I will write about
that next. When we returned to
Guwahati, we put the Aussies’ advice to the test.
Wednesday: We
headed off to Kamakhya Mandir for a gruesome morning. This is worthy of a post of its own, so I will write about
that next. When we returned to
Guwahati, we put the Aussies’ advice to the test.
Our call to Himalaya Tours in Bomdilla started badly but
turned good immediately. The
person we were seeking was away, on his way to New Delhi, but he was still in
Guwahati at the moment, where we were!
We called his cell number and he offered to meet us during the 30
minutes he had before he left for the airport. We met on the street in front of the Museum of Assam, across
from where we had called him and he made it all very easy. His tour company could fax us our
permits as soon as Monday, to wherever we were then (we had only to call with a
fax number). But to do that, we
had to get him our information ASAP.
But we were ready, and we each whipped from our pockets a photocopy of
our passport’s front page and our VISA page. He was impressed, looked them over, and declared all was in
order. We also had to pay him,
more than we had on us, so he suggested we deposit it directly into the company
account. And lastly we needed to choose a date that our permit would
commence. A short confab about
timing and we chose the 26th.
We spent much of the next two hours accomplishing the
deposit: two auto-rickshaw rides,
a long walk, a wait in the ATM line and another wait inside the bank. But we did confirm the account
provenance before parting with our money, and we finally celebrated over a
Kingfisher Premium and some bad momos (Tibetan dumplings.)
I moved out of Deboo’s place (he had some relatives coming)
and into the hotel where Jim and Ann were. And that night, we were taken out to dinner by Momita and
her family (remember?, I met her on the train from Mumbai to Kolkata) to
Delicacy, what the Lonely Planet calls the best Assamese restaurant in all of
Assam. She wouldn’t let us pay a
dime.
Thursday:
Yesterday was all transaction time. We arose early, had a breakfast at the hotel (that took
forever!) and walked to the sumo stand near the train station. Sumos are SUVs and, like the grand
taxis of Morocco, they go when full.
We caught a sumo Shillong for 100 Rs each ($2.50) and 3 hours later we
were here. We had real trouble
finding a place to sleep, but finally found something acceptable, Jim and I
sharing a double bed.
Friday: A day
of rest. I wrote most of this
then. But also Jim and I walked to
Eiw Duh, the vast market where tribal people come in to sell their wares. It was one part Asian chaos, two parts
Middle East souk. All the Indians
wanted their photos taken, all the tribal people decidedly did not. Some roasted nuts were forced on us,
and we ate them overlooking the goat and sheep heads hanging nearby. By the way, part of the Scotland of
India thing is that people in the area wear their normal indigenous clothes,
but then top it all off with a tartan headdress. I can’t see that the different designs mean different things
as they do in Scotland, but they are quick colorful and varied.
Saturday:
Speaking of varied, we just got back from the Don Bosco museum of
aboriginal tribes. It was very enlightening, explaining all the tribes
that inhabit the NE. They included Sikkim in the NE, so there were 8
states featured. He was a missionary from Italy in the 1800s, and has
missions all over the world. But the museum was truly excellent. It
also gave us a good long walk and we took a taxi back.
Lastly we bought the book today that the Aussies
recommended, Strangers in the Mist, Sanjoy Hazarika, 1994. It's a bit
dated but it will give us good background to the tribes. (The Nagaland
tribes, the Nagas, were head-hunters/head-shrinkers. Some of the stuff we
saw today was chilling. We are assured that there is no more of that, but
we also know that Nagaland is probably the hardest place to get into, and even
harder to get into the interior, so we wonder.
Tomorrow, Sunday, and Beyond: We are taking a tour of Cheerapungee for the day tomorrow,
so we will be back here in Shillong again tonight and again tomorrow night.
Then we are off to the Jaintia Hills where we are going to take the
invitation of a woman that we met at the museum.
Then on to Silchar to take the train north to Lumding, and
on another stop to one of Jim's confluences (more on this later). After
that it is on to Tezpur, the jumping off point for Bomdilla and Tawang beyond
next Saturday, the start of our permit to Arunachal Pradesh.
That’s it.
Consider yourself caught up.
I’ll add a post on Kamakhya Mandir and one on confluences when I
can. Signing out from
Shillong. Namaste.
