We were falling in love with Shillong and the beautiful girls there, but then we realized that the one thing that stays constant in a traveler’s life is change. We stayed 4 days and 4 nights in Shillong and covered almost all the city on foot and got used to the city so much that we were even able to guide routes to new people :) The only disappointment in the Shillong stay is that we couldn’t visit couple of places partly due to the weather constraints and partly the budget. The Cherrapunjee visit was a dampner of sorts. Though we were happy that we got the taste of the wettest place, the mist made the visibility zero and so were our chances of savoring the beautiful Waterfalls and picture perfect Sceneries.

The journey to Agartala from Shillong, though just 450 KM apart, is a slow 18 hour ride. Most of the journey is on the dangerous Jantia hill stretch, so we couldn’t risk asking truck drivers for rides. So, we did the next best thing, took a bus. We were told that it takes 18 hours to reach Agartala from Shillong and adding to the woes, we had the last seats possible on a bus - seats 40 and 41 on a 39 seater bus (don’t ask me how they have 40 , 41 on a 39 seater). Little did we knew that this was the least of our woes and the journey would end up much more than 18 hours.

After bidding farewell to our new found friends, we started to Agartala. The bus was already late by couple of hours. Meanwhile we had a nice little chat with another new found acquaintance who was a local. He, in his state of inebriation, narrated his perception of how Meghalaya should not be a part of the Indian Union (which in fact was not the only one we heard till now in this part of the country). The bus started around 19:00 and we were to stop in Agartala next day afternoon. After 3 days of walking and touring, we just couldn’t stop doze off the moment the bus started. I was sitting by the Window and Ajay to the aisle and to make the matters worse, i had the bumper of water trickling down on me from bus top. The view of the Shillong city in the night was spell binding. There were thunders in the sky continuously. I tried to capture the city with my camera and you know what will be the result of a picture taken with high exposure, from the last seat of a bumpy bus ride - here it is

Next morning we woke to the news that there was a landslide and it might take some very long time to clean it up. We had no water, no food, it was unbearably humid and were sweating like a sieve. The drivers blocked the road on both sides not making it possible for the other side trucks to go and it made matters worse.

The bus took off after some 10 hours after stopping and we laid like logs in the bus totally exhausted until he reached a hotel sometime in the evening. After stuffing ourselves with food like someone who hasn’t been eaten for days, we set off again only to stop near Kumarghat, in North Tripura. The bus stops here as all the buses are allowed inside the Tripura forests only during specific times of the day. Lucky for us we could arrange our accommodation in Agartala from there (thats a different post!)

The ghats of the Tripura were indeed very scenic. But you have CRPF and TSR men with their Guns on every turn in the forests. After 41 hours of grueling Bus ride, we reached Agartala. May be because of the Shillong effect or we were totally exhausted by the bus ride, I felt the City of Agartala a just another Indian City unlike Shillong which has it’s own culture and character.

Almost forgot to tell, We got free accommodation even in Agartala, in a Church near G.B Bazaar.