Hitchhiking in India

Guwahati - Once burned, twice lucky

The capital city of gateway to the North East (Assam), Guwahati is a bustling cosmopolitan city. We were in Guwahati thrice – first time when we got there from Silchar, second time when we were on our way to Arunachal and the last time at the end of our trip. Our experiences there have been different each time and they only got better each time. The first time, we had to spend a fortune (relative to our budget) and book a hotel room as our host had to leave town on some urgent business. The second time, we got an amazing host and were treated royally. The third time, we became good friends with someone who we had only known online earlier.

Our first visit to Guwahati was quite chaotic. We got there after multiple tedious bus/taxi rides from the Assam border via a supposedly disturbed area (Bodoland) and it was already dark by the time we reached. We were not only tired, but hungry too. To add to this, our host had left town on some urgent business. Now we were hungry, tired and without a place to stay. After a few frantic phone calls, it was clear we were not getting any other hosts for that night. So we got to the hotel our ex-host booked for us and crashed. The hotel room was totally out of our budget, but we had no other option at that time. The next morning, we were clear that we had to leave the hotel room but had no plan of where we were to go next. When we got to know that there may be a bandh the next day, we decided to get to Shillong (which resulted in one of our most interesting rides).

The second time we got to Guwahati, we had a little more experience traveling and so had a plan, accommodation set and a backup plan too. Plans have a funny way of not working out though. We wanted to leave Guwahati as soon as we got our permits for Arunachal Pradesh (we had accounted for one day), but things got mixed up and we had to actually stay there longer. Our hosts were ever so gracious and didn’t mind our sudden change in plans though. Talk about coincidence though - remember the beautiful paintings painted by school kids on the walls of the stadium compound? Our host was the principal of that school! We got to hang out with our host’s son and his friends for a bit too. The interesting part was that our host was a great traveler and motorbiker - his most recent ride was to the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. We later met his nephew who had done a solo motorcycle ride from Pune to Pondicherry!

While we were in Guwahati and not running around the Arunachal office, we visited the Kamakhya temple. The temple sits atop a hill and is one of the 51 Shaktipeethas. We were lucky to have an informative gentleman standing next to us while waiting to get a darshan of the deity. He explained to us the importance and the history of the temple and why there is no statue of the deity in this temple - which would have flummoxed us if we hadn’t heard the story first. The big surprise for me (Ajay) was when I saw animal heads inside the main temple! I got to know later that animal sacrifice is common in temples built for Kali mata. A little distance before the temple, you can great views of the city.

One of the sacrificial altars at the temple

Views of the city from the viewpoint near the temple

The third time we were in Guwahati, we stayed with another traveler friend - Subhadeep. He had already helped us with tips and advice for traveling in the NE. He is a motorbiker too and a travel freak. He had earlier driven to Tawang on his bike! Not just that, he had driven there in the winter when there was snow and ice on the roads. We were just back from Arunachal and now knew what a task it must have been! It is not easy to drive there even in a 4X4, let alone a bike. Our stay this time was marked by heavy rains, waterlogged streets, warm hospitality and a celebratory dinner to end our trip.

With Subhadeep - our celebratory dinner.

Tawang

We had earlier been told that the tourist lodge in Tawang was booked full and we could only get a room if there were any cancellations. Still, we decided to test our luck and walked up to the lodge, a short distance up old bazaar. Luckily for us, we did get a room! The caretaker was apprehensive and was telling us that the rooms were not that great, little did she know about where we had lived in the past one month. The room had two beds, razais and a geyser in the bathroom – this was luxury! As we had arrived in the afternoon and the sun was still out, we quickly got out to explore the place and also to have our lunch. We were surprised that most of the shops in the market were closed. On asking a shopkeeper, we got to know that Monday is the closing day for the market here. When told that we wanted to have lunch, he came with us and showed a nearby restaurant. This was one thing we saw happening again and again in Arunachal – the locals go out of the way to help you. We enquired a little bit on what we could do in Arunachal and roamed the markets a little bit. As in other towns of the North East, the people retire early and so did we.

When we landed in Tawang, we were really happy to see the sun shining bright. It still was a little cold, but the bright sun lifted our spirits. When we woke up the next day however, the whole mountain was covered in a heavy cloud. However, we braved on to our first stop – the Tawang Gompa. Tawang is the birth place of the 6^th Dalai Lama – the religious leader of the Buddhists and Tawang was also the place where the 14^th Dalai Lama crossed over to India more than 50 years ago. It is apt that it has the biggest monastery in the world. The Gompa is a huge complex – schools, a museum, prayer halls, center for religious and cultural studies are all located inside the monastery complex. We were lucky to witness a small procession of the Lamas as we entered the gates of the monastery.

The clouds which had come down upon Tawang had not yet cleared and we were left wanting with a view of the Ani Gompas. Background – Buddhist monks are generally male and they do not marry. It is a practice among Buddhist families to give one male child to the monastery at a young age and are educated in the religious texts at the monastery itself. However, there are female monks too, called Anis. They become nuns voluntarily. There are three Ani Gompas in Tawang and it our plan was to hike along the hills to them from the main Gompa. We had been tipped of this trek by Phejin – our friend in Nagaland, who had done in a couple of weeks earlier with some tourists. We asked for directions and were pointed to a narrow dirttrack going down the hill near the main Gompa. We had made a new friend at the Gompa – a student from N.I.T Silchar who had completed his engineering course and was roaming before joining his job. Off we went along the trail – it was quite slippery at some places and our running shoes weren’t a lot of help. We were worried about leaches and were doubly careful while walking. On the way, we found a roaring waterfall which was just as beautiful as Phejin had described on the phone!

After a longish photo session there, we started climbing uphill to the meadows we had seen earlier on the way to the main monastery. A meadow on the top of a hill with cows grazing peacefully – an idyllic scenery. We went exploring to the peaks at the edge of the hill and then set about pitching our tents! The location was picture perfect for a night of camping.

However, our joy was short-lived as a few locals there warned us against camping as the seemingly peaceful cows were only half domesticated and by 4pm the whole meadow would be full of them. With a heavy heart, we packed our tents and went on our way to the Ani Gompa.

We had earlier seen a diversion in the trail to the meadow and had guessed that this was the way to the Ani Gompa. We backtracked to this point and took the diversion – big mistake. After we went on for a short while, we found that the trail divided again. This kept happening and we kept going on till the time we were quite lost. Now, we were on the same hill as the Gompa and we could see it too, but going further was getting harder and harder because of the thick brush. It was already late afternoon and would get dark soon too. We decided we would push it through the brush anyhow and kept going. Those couple of hours were quite enervating – there was no proper trail and we were climbing at a very high altitude. We did finally get to the Ani Gompa however – with some clothes torn and a few scratches. The Anis at the Gompa had some kind of a prayer going on and we were hanging around outside, reluctant to go inside and disturb them. Seeing us, some of the younger Anis called us to their kitchen to have some tea. They told us that the prayers would go on until evening anyway. So we had some of the famous butter (made from Yak’s milk) tea and made told them about what we were doing there. Contrary to the reports we had read earlier about the Butter Tea, the one we had was not smelly. It was a little bland though.

In the Ani Gompa kitchen

The Ani Gompa we went to

The Gompa we missed because of the all encompassing mist

We enquired and found that there was the road to Tawang was further up the hill. The distance was nearly 12km and it would not be possible to get any rides without booking a cab beforehand. After the tiring trek, this was not such great news. However, we braved on and got to the road. We saw an empty van parked there and that raised our spirits –maybe we could hitch a ride. We looked for the driver who we suspected we had passed on the way up from the Ani Gompa, but to no avail. We had no other option but to start walking and hope to get to the town before it got too cold. We got talking to a couple of locals on a motorcycle and they told us that there was another Ani Gompa on the way to Tawang. As we kept going, the clouds came down upon us again; we missed the road to the second Ani Gompa entirely! We walked a few km, asked rides from Army jeeps but got turned down but finally got a cab going to Tawang. A tame ending to an otherwise exciting day.

Postcards from Tawang

Sela top/pass

The lake at Sela Pass (on the way to Tawang)

The Tawang Monastery in the distance

The main Buddha idol at the Tawang Monastery

A procession of the monks in the Tawang Gompa

The Buddha in various Mudras

The Monyul Autonomous Region office in Tawang

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!

Journeys in the Land of the Highlanders (Mizoram)

Can you help but feeling that you are in paradise when you have views such as this one, every morning you wake up?

Aizawl, a place usually not on our radar (unlike some other areas in the North East, Mizoram and Aizawl are very peaceful and so stay out of news) is tucked away in the remote south of the North East of India. Mizoram is not frequented by outsiders much – partly because of the above reason and also maybe because it is a little hard to get here. But, our 6 hour ride sitting in the last row of a Tata Sumo with hardly enough room was totally worth it (and the picture above stands testimony)!

We had been warned that Aizawl was quite expensive; some even compared it with Mumbai (which is one of the most expensive cities in the world). However, we had not been warned about some other things. We landed in the city from Silchar late in the afternoon – about 3pm or so. And what do we see – tons of school kids! Of course, we had already read that Mizoram is the second most literate state in India (literacy rate nearly 90%), but seeing is another thing. After washing up, we thought we would go out for a stroll and see the city and we got another surprise. Most of the businesses close early in the evening – by 6pm almost everyone is home and the streets are empty. We found the reason a few days later – they open very early too – it gets bright by 5am and the markets are full by 6am. But on the first day, we were actually wondering if we had missed something – all of the friends, acquaintances, people we had talked to had told us that Mizoram is a very safe place. Turns out, it actually is; only the shops close early.

Our first outing was to the State museum in Aizawl. The museum is a great place to learn about Mizo culture, their textiles and traditional attire, etc. There were sections reserved for the local fauna and traditional equipment used by the Mizo people. One interesting artifact was a “head-hunting dao” – a sword-like weapon with obvious intentions. The museum is a good place to start off because it gives a glimpse into the way the Mizo people were. That is especially important because it is totally unlike what they are now! Sure, there are occasions when you will see them in their traditional attire, etc but the culture is very westernized now and at least in the cities, you will only be able to catch glimpses of the old. We could not do anything else that day as it rained heavily for a long time.

Next up on our trip to Mizoram was a trip out of the city to Tamdil Lake. It is a small lake about 90km away from Aizawl set amidst small hills. The Mizoram government fisheries department has a project here too. Getting to the lake meant we had to take a taxi (Tata Sumo) early in the morning from the city center in Aizawl. This was when we finally understood the reason for the markets and other establishments closing early in the city – they open really early. In fact, by 6am, the street side vendors had all put up their wares and shoppers were out too – plus, it was a Saturday, which I think is a weekly market day in Aizawl. Coming from down south in Hyderabad, we are used to seeing shops open by mid-morning, about 10am or so, so this was another unique experience. Our journey to the lake was not without adventure and delays – we had a flat and it took quite some time to get that fixed. We were again reminded that we were traveling in the wrong season when we went to the lake – the recent rains had washed a lot of mud and the water was all brown. It still was very beautiful – low lying clouds covering the tops of the surrounding peaks made a great backdrop for the lake and a lone Gulmohar tree covered with bright orange flowers amidst it all, a nice contrast.

Before heading back to Aizawl, we visited a couple of villages too near Kiefang – the nearest town from Tamdil lake. We had a local friend who showed us around or this would not have been possible. We first stopped at a village called Rualchawm which literally means ‘snake fed’ – the origin of the name is from a legend that the tribal people living in the village used to sacrifice their children by feeding them to a huge serpent living in a hole in the town. A serpent needing a hole as big as the one in the picture would surely have been big!

We next visited Ruallung where our friend lived. The one thing good about villages that we went to was that they were really clean and the roads very good. We went to the top of the hill there from where we could catch views of villages on nearby mountains. Apparently, on clear days even Aizawl city can be seen from there, but that day we were not so lucky. We enjoyed the views there for some time and then came back to Keifang to catch the next taxi back to Aizawl.

We will suggest one unlikely place which turned out to be a really neat experience – Mizoram University. We actually went there to meet someone we know but the place is so amazing that it would be a great idea for any tourist to visit. The university is relatively young – it was started only 10 years back and a lot of infrastructure still being built. It is a little out of Aizawl but well connected with local buses plying regularly (except on Sunday when everything in the city shuts down!) to Ramrikawn which is about 3km from the entrance gate. Just a walk from Ramrikawn to the university provides amazing views! After the university, there are only forests and hills and while we were there, the clouds moved in from beyond the hills. It was a sight which cannot be described easily in words - one moment we were watching the clouds moving in, and the next we are standing inside one! We did experience something similar when we were in a car in Cherrapunjee, but actually experience the mist and silence come down upon you is something else!

I still remember what Nicolitta said in One crazy ride, something about how paradise or heaven is always described as a place above the sky and how she had actually seen it on her trip. I can say that about every morning we woke up in Aizawl.

Traveling in Tripura

I can describe our travels in Tripura in two words - We sweated. Oh, you want more than that - We sweated, A Lot.

Of course, you guys want more that. Tripura has been a complete change from Meghalaya - the weather, dominant culture, everything here has been very different. The first sentence gave you a fair indication of how the weather here is - it’s humid, very humid. And for both of us, it’s been very hard to cope here. We’re used to the dry heat of Hyderabad and humidity is just unbearable. Anyway, enough about the weather. There are other things different about Tripura too. There are a lot of Bengalis here – it doesn’t feel like we are in the north east at all! That was quite a surprise for us. Apparently, there are a lot of people who crossed over (illegally) from the Bangladesh border and settled down here. The numbers have come down after the Indian army built a fence at the border. Another contrasting feature of Tripura is that the elevation above sea level is very less and the region is mostly flat (there are some hilly places in north Tripura). However, there still are lots of trees everywhere and lots of lakes around. Meaning nice views wherever you go.

Our first stop on reaching Agartala (the state capital) was G.B Bazar where our host lives. Got out of our stinking clothes and cleaned up after our marathon bus ride. It was already afternoon, so we didn’t intend to do much that day. Went to the Ujjayanta palace in the evening and whiled our evening away. It has been some time since I sat in a park in peace and saw people coming just to spend an evening there – instead of running, walking, etc – reminded me of my childhood days actually. This former palace now houses the Tripura state assembly too, so the entrance is restricted till evening 5pm. Unfortunately, the building was being renovated at the time we visited and so wasn’t a great sight to see. Inder still managed to get a great shot of the palace link.

We had big plans for our second day in Agartala – we would try to cover the Neermahal palace, Tripura Sundari temple, Kamala sagar lake and the Sipahijala wildlife sanctuary. All these places were closer than 55km from Agartala, but with our budget constraints, we had to take public transport and that takes a lot of time.

We first went to Neermahal – a palace in the midst of a lake. You reach the lake after a short walk from a town called Melaghar. The walk was enchanting – just 10m from a busy roadway, the street transformed into an idyllic village scene with palm and coconut trees, bamboo fences and paddy spread on the road. The local fishermen’s society operates a boat service to the palace but they needed 10 passengers to take the boat out. While we were waiting for other tourists to arrive, we made small talk with a soldier from CRPF whose team had come here for an outing. There a lot of birds resting on the water hyacinth on the short boat ride, although our lack of any ornithological intelligence meant all we could tell was the colors of the birds. The palace itself isn’t much to speak about – it is empty and not maintained in a great shape. Our next destination was the Kali or Tripura Sundari temple near Udaipur. This temple is one of the 51 shakti pithas and the idol here was installed in 1501. Since it was a Sunday, there was an animal sacrifice ritual going on as well. The sudden rain (which provided us relief from the sweltering heat) did not dampen the spirit of devotees in the temple at all! After spending a little while in the temple, we proceeded to Udaipur bus stand so that we could go to our most anticipated destination – Kamala sagar lake. This is an artificial lake, right on the Indian border with Bangladesh. To get to the lake, we had to first get down at the highway and take another transport to the lake. As with all of our travels in Tripura, this small journey was more beautiful than the destination itself. It was the first time either of us had visited any of India’s borders, living in the South of India means we’re quite far from the land borders. It was pretty exciting to finally be at one, but also funny that borders are such insignificant places – all you have is a fence and some soldiers. Well, borders are built by men, what else would you expect?

One wing of Neermahal palace

You have row boats too at Neermahal

The Tripura Sundari temple, Udaipur

It was already dark and we did not have any more time to visit the Sipahijala wildlife sanctuary that day. Instead, we put it on our schedule for the next day and spent our entire day lazing in the canteen there. The wildlife sanctuary is huge - the distance from the gate to the zoo, canteen, deer park and other attractions is about 5km! Needless to say, taking an auto till there was going to blow a big hole in our budget and so we walked the entire distance in the sun.

Dancing elephants in the sanctuary

The next day, it was time to say goodbye to Agartala. We thanked our host and started on our to Unakoti, which is famous for its rock cut sculptures. Getting there wasn’t easy – it meant we had to take a passenger train to Kumarghat, take a shared transport to Kailasher and then engage a taxi to Unakoti (which totally blew our budget for the day!). The sculptures were really beautiful – and to think that somebody would engrave them in such a difficult location – on the rocks in a valley – added to their mystique. Apparently the number of sculptures there is one less than one crore (10 million) and hence the name Unakoti (koti = crore).

The valleys at Unakoti

Two stage waterfall - if there is water. Unakoti

Since we had planned to get to Aizawl, Mizoram next we went on to Dharmanagar from Unakoti where we waited a couple of hours for the passenger train which would take us to Silchar. The train journey was a story in itself – no lights, 120km in 6hrs and other miscellaneous events. We had to spend the night at the waiting room in the railway station before getting started on our way to Aizawl.

Notes on Tripura –

• Unlike in Shillong, we couldn’t find a cheap Bengali food joint (until the last day) and had to manage with paranthas most of the time in Agartala.
• Although public transport is much cheaper in Agartala than in Shillong, we could not walk our way around the town much because of the extremely enervating weather.
• We used every possible transport available in Tripura – mini bus, auto rickshaw, cycle rickshaw, big auto rickshaw, jeep, sumo and even a train.
• Finally bought some Litchis.

Pictures from Tripura

Resplendent Ujjayanta palace - Agartala

Neermahal

All that stops you from crossing over to Bangladesh (border near Kamala Sagar lake)

Rock cut sculptures (Unakoti)

The lakes and the streets

We started the day a little late today - waking up until late in the night to write blog posts does that! Most travelers spend just one day at Shillong and then go to Cherrapunjee apparently. But since we’d already lost half a day, we thought we’ll take it slow and spend some more time here (that’s another way of saying we are yet to figure out our travel and acco plans for Cherrapunjee). So after we got something to eat (that didn’t fill us up) at a small snack shop, we started inquiring the directions (cheapest way) to get to Umiam lake (Bada pani). We wanted to visit the lake while it was still bright and didn’t want to worry about getting back in the evening. You do know how it works with getting directions in India - you get directions alright, but every person you ask will give you different ones - and sometimes exactly opposite of what another person just said. So, we spent about an hour looking for the right place to hop on a shared taxi which would take us to Bada pani. It was a good walk up and down the hilly streets of Bada Bazar (Iewduh market) and soaking up the local scene. Fruits, different kinds of meat, plastic toys, lottery tickets - you name it and you have it here. But don’t mistake Shillong for just these, you do have stores selling branded clothes, billboards with advertisements for cellular operators and so on - not very different from any other big Indian city. Oh yes, one thing sure is different here - a lot more taxis than autorickshaws. And, they do follow traffic rules!

Anyway, coming back to our journey to Bada pani - after running around and searching for the shared taxis, we had to relent and engage a taxi just for ourselves. Our driver Bareb, was informed and chatty too. Enjoyed his company and the drive to the lake (the views we missed yesterday as we had arrived after dark). You can see the NEHU (North-Eastern Hill University) campus too on the way. Its location is so scenic - on the slopes of a mountain, overlooking hills and a lake. I hope we will get a chance to go visit the campus, if not we will atleast try to tag it from Shillong peak which we plan to visit soon.

We went directly to the Lum Nehru park at the Umiam lake and frankly were very disappointed. Sure, it was very peaceful, green, etc - but it just missed something and I can’t put my finger on it. We just ate the food we’d got packed from Police bazar and went back to the main road so that we could catch another taxi back to the city. And then, we saw the board saying there was a resort and some boating facilities also available here. We headed back down another lane so that we could check these out. The resort (Orchid Lake resort) is managed by the Meghalaya tourist corporation and sits right next to the lake. We didn’t dine there (not within our budget for sure!) and headed back to the city.

We still had some time before it got dark and we started looking for Ward’s lake. Inder even found directions on youknowwhich maps on his phone and we walked a circuitous 3km to the lake. Here we were pleasantly surprised, this lake was absolutely gorgeous! A section of the lake was sectioned as a lotus pool and a small wooden bridge at the center. Boating is available too. Ward’s lake is much smaller than Umiam, but I felt that it had more character. We spent some time here on the lawns and then headed back to Police bazar. Some more pictures from the chowk and we were ready for dinner!

sightseeing