Hitchhiking in India

Bomdila - Surprises, Gompas and New Friends

We got what we least expected after a great night’s sleep in Bomdila – stress. After we got ready to go exploring the little town, we were told by the caretaker of the guest house that we would have to vacate the room by 12PM! We were so happy to get a room after our arduous journey the previous day that we had assumed that the rooms were reserved for whoever was in them. Alas, that was not the case – we should have informed the caretaker that we would stay on for another night. Now we were without shelter and we were losing time trying to get one for the night instead of roaming around. We started our search for accommodation by first visiting the government circuit house – government lodging is usually the cheapest available in any tourist spot. Tough luck there – the old circuit house was closed and a new one was being built – strike one for us. Next, we went to some of the lodges whose signboards we had seen earlier. The prices we were asked were Rs. 1200 and above! We should be spending that amount over 4 days to be within budget – strike two. Now we were quite concerned, we enquired when we could get the earliest transport for Tawang – our next stop. The private taxis all start early in the morning and we did not have any at that time of the day. We thought of the options we had – request the caretaker to let us pitch our tent in the lawns of the tourist lodge, request the superintendent of police in Bomdila in the nice lawn in front of his office. The only problem was, it was a Sunday and the authorities would all be hard to reach. Anyway, we packed our backpacks and were mulling over our predicament in the lobby of the tourist lodge when Riyazul – our co passenger in the previous day’s journey came in announcing that he had found a place for his employees and rented it. Background – Riyaz is looking to set up his scrap business in Bomdila in the next few weeks and needed a house to rent so that his employees could stay here. Since he had already rented the place, we requested him if we could stay there for one night and he readily agreed – home run!

We went along with Riyaz and his local friend, interestingly named Bhai (brother) to the newly rented place. Here we met up with Bhai’s friends who stayed in the neighborhood – they were all college kids studying in Itanagar (Capital of Arunachal Pradesh) and working in Bomdila in their summer break. We dumped our backpacks there and went to the ticket counter to book our tickets to Tawang for the next morning. Now that we were set for our next journey, we had the afternoon to explore and visit the Gompas (Buddhist monasteries). Bhai and co offered to take us to the nearest Gompa and walked with us. Our first stop was the oldest Gompa in Bomdila, the sanctum sanctorum of which was closed because it was lunch time for the monk there. This Gompa was just a short climb from the main bazaar, but we were already huffing and puffing – feeling the effects of the altitude (around 8000ft).

Our new friends - Bhai and Co.

The oldest Gompa in Bomdila

Our new friends warned us that to reach the upper Gompa, we would have a climb up stairs ahead was harder than what we had seen already. However, there was a road too which was less steep but a little longer and we took that instead. This time we were a little luckier – we were able to go inside the Gompa (the first time for both of us!). We were not allowed to take pictures inside though.

The Upper Gompa

Spinning prayer wheels at the Upper Gompa

A kid spinning a giant prayer wheel at the Upper Gompa

Our friends next suggested we walk up to the Tower – a defense radio communications tower up the hill; this place is also called Bomdila Top. Since some of Bhai’s friends also hadn’t been there before, we set off in that direction eagerly. Rahul, one of Bhai’s friends in our party was saying that it was unfortunate that it was so foggy that day and we were not getting good views of the town. However, the mist and fog did clear up a little later and we got some picture postcard type views.

Now, the walk up the hill was pretty hard for us – a total ascent of nearly 1000ft over a distance of 5km. But it was totally worth it! Mithun (domesticated Gaur) grazing on the hillocks, swirling mists, views of remote Gompas on a nearby hill and New Bomdila town in the distance. Of course, we could not go check the radio tower itself, but we got pretty close to it. After resting for a little while, we headed back. There is a good road up to the hill and we had taken that while climbing, but while climbing down we were going to take ‘shortcuts’ – narrow trails used by the cowherds. Initially, we were walking but soon that turned into a run! Imagine running downhill on wet, slippery trails about 10 inches wide – exhilarating and scary at the same time! Thankfully, neither of us twisted our ankles or anything like that. But we did get caught in a torrential downpour. Luckily again, we were able to take temporary shelter at the water treatment plant being built on the way. Once the rain abated, we continued back to town and had our lunchinner J. We then visited the Lower Gompa which was at the end of the Bazaar Lane before the swirling mists closed in.

The Lower Gompa

We finally got to use our sleeping bags and rest for the night before waking up early for our journey to our most anticipated destination – Tawang!

Pictures from Bomdila

Winding roads in Bomdila

The same road, the next morning.

A remote Gompa (Monastery).

The lower gompa

Bomdila - a bird’s eye view

The Upper Gompa

Journey to Bomdila – a Nightmare

Our journey to Arunachal was the most difficult to handle. We had no help there in terms of accommodation and as expected, it is the one costliest tourist circuits. Our journey was along the Balukpong – Bomdila – Tawang circuit. As known, all the domestic tourists have to take an Inner Line Permit – ILP – to enter the state of Arunachal Pradesh. There are five government approved tourist circuits and one can get a permit for one circuit in a single permit. Unfortunately we had to stay in Guwahati for 3 days to get ILP, thanks to the holidays and small working hours of the office, but that’s a different story altogether.

There are no direct buses from Guwahati to Tawang, we should get a bus to Tezpur in North Assam and then to Tawang. We got into the bus heading towards Tezpur early in the morning at 5:30 thanks our host in Guwahati who took the trouble of dropping us at the bus stand. The journey to Tezpur was a bland one, as we had just 3 hours of sleep the other night, we did nothing but sleep in the bus. Reached Tezpur at around 11:00 AM and we realized that we missed the bus to Tawang and the next one was only on the next day. The only alternative we had is to go to Bomdila. Doing this we could also solve one more problem – Acclimatizing with the high altitudes. Ajay already had an attack of High Altitude Sickness when he was in the US and I didn’t want to take the risk after he told how it feels.

We got into a Tata Sumo headed towards Bomdila. As usual, we got seats in the last row. We were warned that some road stretches are not in a good way and being extended to 2 lane roads. The journey again proved us that the local knowledge is so important for a traveler. We stopped at the Assam – Arunachal border for lunch and the Sumo took us to a particular hotel. A local boy traveling with us told us not to go there and took us to another hotel nearby. Later we got to know from other travelers that the food was inedible and they haven’t eaten a bit of it. The part of the journey after the lunch on the ghats of Balukpong can be identified with words like vomit, nausea cramps. All the travelers, the local boy beside me, the lady in front of me and another business man on the left were busy puking out all through next couple of hours. The driver drove so recklessly that we had to place our hands on the roof of the Sumo so that our head don’t strike against it though it was only after couple of hits on the head.

We called up the Tourist Lodge at Bomdila and reserved a room for us.

One thing we didn’t realize amidst all the puking and the nausea is that of the weather. We were dripping sweat when we started in Tezpur and by the time we reached Bomdila, we realized that we were shivering.

The first impression that we got of Arunachal is that the people are very friendly. They went out of their way to help when we asked for directions. Also, every one was speaking Hindi which made our work very easy. The Tourist Lodge receptionist received us and showed us our room informing us that there is water problem and we have to use it carefully. One great thing about the Tourist lodges is that they have their own restaurants and that reduces a lot of burden. We had hot rotis for dinner and man!! they were so delicious. The best part about food in this part of the country is that whatever you eat – Rice or Rotis – they are unlimited with no catches.

After what we can call the most dangerous journey of our trip, we slipped under the razais and slept like lumber.