Saturday 9th November 19:55

Right now I'm in a car going from Bagdogra airport to Gangtok with Piyush, Dinku and the driver Vijay.

To continue from the previous post…….

Shortly after the last post (straight away) I woke Dinku up so I could get past and look out the window from the west (he didn't leave Poonams last night and them guys were up all night….he didn't sleep at all). I found some free space on the other side of the plane to look out.

The land was so flat from our side, no hills or mountains or anything, just a river and small small towns…looked kind of like flying over parts of Australia. So I look from this west side window and see exactly the same, flat endless fairly green farm land far below. Then I looked more to the right (which I guess was more north), and see this weird cloud looking thing amongst more clouds……colour blindness doesn't help but once my brain made sense of what I was looking at I could see most of these clouds were not clouds, it was in fact a massive snow-capped mountain line. This stuck out from what was very flat land all around, and although it was distant and reminded me of when I had seen Mount Fuji when landing in Japan a few years ago (also with Piyush), it was impressive and I'm really glad I saw it.

Monday 11th November 21:55

Right now I am sitting in a hotel room in Guwahati.

Will continue from before and see what I can remember….

Landed soon after and collected our stuff….finally in the north east. The north eastern states of India are like a different country to Delhi and what is considered mainland Indian. Here they don't associate themselves as being Indian, and there are a lot of people from neighbouring areas Bhutan, Nepal and Tibet. Nobody looks Indian here, with the Nepalese having a distinct looking face, and a lot of the Tibetans being monks (who have fled the Chinese taking over Tibet).

The people not only look different and disassociate themselves from mainland India, but these north east states actively want to be independent from India. There are insurgency groups that fight for this to happen.

After about 20 minutes of haggling for a driver to either take us to the nearest main city or all the way to Gangtok we were sorted. One car took us a place to get a photo taken, as I needed a permit to get into Gangtok, and another car would meet us and take us on to Gangtok (about 4 hours up in the mountains). Initially a car was following us with the intention of stealing our business.

There is a big military base around Bagdogra which was first noticeable landing at their domestic airport, where military helicopters, half hidden jets, and buildings painting in camouflage were all over the place.

One thing I noticed about Indian security and military that I've not seen in other developing countries is that their machine guns have transparent magazines, so you can see they are loaded. Here they also have better guns (Austrian I think) rather than the Indian machine guns we've seen everywhere else.

After driving past a lot of bases and through a forest which had signs up warning of elephants in the area, we finally started to hit the mountains. The road from here was rough and winding on the edge of the mountains all the way, with no barriers and a lot of trucks, 4x4's, and cars, which were driven just as fast as anywhere else and that if in doubt just speed up and over take the vehicle in front, on a bend or otherwise. There were loads of monkeys on the side of the road, kept there by the odd driver throwing out fruit for them.

A couple of hours went by and we stopped for a quick rest and something to eat/drink. Ended up having a beer that was brewed down the river from where we were, at a brewery owned by some famous Indian actor. A while later we arrive at the boundary between the states of Bangal and Sikkim, where here I needed to sort out the permit for me to enter Sikkim which only took about 15 minutes of formalities.

The two states are divided by a bridge and once over it was very different again, with a load of open shops selling alcohol but while smoking in Sikkim in banned and finable (not that anybody cared).

We got to Gangtok about 8 or 9pm (I think) and had phoned to book a place on the way, but first we wanted to checkout a place that Vijay (the driver) recommended to stay at which was in the town centre rather than a little bit further away. This place was pretty cool and had something unique about it (like carved wood cladded walls). They showed us 2 big rooms, one on the ground floor and one on the first, but you had to go through the ground floor room to get up to the first floor room so they said if we chose the first floor room they would lock off the bottom floor room so nobody else would be using it. Of course we knew that if we pick the first floor room then we basically get both, which we did. It's off season in Gangtok as most mainland Indians go there in the summer to get away from the heat, where as it was mildly cold now (Dinku was cold all the time), so the hotel was keen for us to take anything rather than the rooms go empty and lose the business.

We went out and had a wander and few drinks at a bar in the main road of Gangtok. This place has clean streets and no beggars which is a massive contrast to what we had been used to. It kind of reminded me of a small town in Switzerland or somewhere.

The next morning we got up about 5am and went to watch the sunrise and see Gangtok in the light for the first time (Vijay picked us up). The view was amazing, and we watch the sun gradually light up Kanchenjunga, the third highest mountain after Everest and K2. After seeing some other sights we went and had breakfast overlooking the Himalayan mountain range at a cheap side of the road place....couldnt stop looking at the mountains.

Later we went on a cable car they have there, which when we finished were told the Indian president was in Gangtok and going to the cable car so they were going to close the road any minute. We stuck around for a bit, Piyush and Dinku certainly were bothered about seeing the Indian president but didn't mind hanging around for me, and we went to eat at a small local place. Here I was stared out the whole time by the locals, probably because I'm still getting used to eating indian food with my hand so look a bit special at it.

There is a Tibetan monastery which we went to in the afternoon which was very interesting and genuine (not really touristy), out a short way in to the mountains.

We also washed our clothes after going to a market and buying soap powered (hand washed everything!), and then went for a wander around the small centre that is pedestrianized and was remarkably busy even later what was Sunday evening.

A while later we thought we'd go in some place as it was getting a bit cold, and eventually said next bar/restaurant we pass we'll go in which turned out to be a really cool rock and roll style place with posters of bands and t-shirts all over the walls. We ordered food and drink which they had a pretty big menu for, even attempting some western foods (which we didn't try). That night turned out a bit longer than planned.

Next day (today) Vijay picked us up at 5:30 to take us back through the mountains and to the train station in the main city towards Bagdogra in New Jalpaiguri. I was knackered but sleeping in the car was not really possible as it was so bumpy. After a few unplanned hold ups I didn't think we would make the train, but for once luck was on our side.

Vijay knew a guy that could sort out the train tickets and also make sure we got past the waiting list and have our spaces confirmed, which did pull through and we got the train a little while later. This train station and area was bad, with a lot of beggar hassle and us giving some serious attention to make sure nothing of ours got stolen. Some guy offered to clean Piyush's ears here….which he wasn't up for at all.

I'd been told this was the best train in India, which was clearly better than the previous one but, well you know. The train compartments have two sides facing each other with 3 bunks either side and then 2 bunks the other side of the walk way.

After Piyush and Dinku gave a guy some grief for laying on one of our beds (even using the sheets and pillow) without having a ticket, we sorted ourselves out. Dinku used the bed this guy was on around the corner and Piyush and I had bottom and second level bunk the other side of the walk way. A while later after leaving the station the guy who had top bunk above us said I could use his one. The 2nd bunk is folded up and the bottom bunk is sat on by the others so the top bunk is the only one you can lay on without making everyone move.

----- Going to sleep now (about 23:30), will try and continue tomorrow morn before we leave.

Tuesday 12th November 9:15

Woke up in the hotel room in Guwahati, so will continue from above.

Train was for 6 hours and I slept for at least half, as the last couple of days I've had a sore throat and blocked nose so not feeling great. Piyush and Dinku were chatting to all the other people around (5 or 6) and people that came and went. One girl had another 12 hours before her stop after Guwahati. Piyush also shared his chilis around which he bought in Gangtok, which one guy suffered badly from (I'm staying away from these chilis at the moment).

Got to Guwahati at around 18:00 after crossing the longest river in India, which is also extremely wide.

Guwahati is not a nice place, with loads of poor/homeless people sleeping all over the floor (also many people with missing/deformed limbs or other issues) in and around the station. It doesn't feel safe here and there has been a spate of unrest in the last few weeks.

We checked out a hotel and then decided on another which were both within walking distance.

As soon as we got back up to our room a friend of Dinku's turned up Naseef.

Naseef owns a hotel (further away) and is a contract photographer and camera man. Dinku went off to meet this girl he has been going on about for ages, so Piyush and I chatted to Naseef.

It was soon clear to us that Naseef has been just about everywhere on his motorbike, and this was the guy we needed to talk to about getting to Tawang.

The distance to Tawang has slowly been going up from talking to different people, from 9 to 12 to now about 17 hours' drive (the road has been deteriorating). He told us the helicopter has stopped running because too many crashes and people dying, including a local official and a guitarist friend of Naseef. Apparently the turbulence across this terrain is very difficult to fly in, so best we didn't take it even if it was an option.

So our plan started to look like this:

- Get a driver of a doctor that Piyush knows for 1000Rs a day (best price ever).

- Otherwise get another driver they have found but isn't available to 11am (looks like we'll do this).

- Otherwise get a car and drive ourselves.

- Leave Guwahati and head to Tezpur and then to Dirang where we will likely break the journey and stay the night nearby.

- Stay either at a sheep breeding bedsit next to Dirang in Shangti valley, or stay at Nameri Eco camp where we may be able to go white water rafting and go fishing for mahseer in the river which would be great. Naseef said they are both great places.

- Next day continue across Sela pass and on to Tawang.

- Stay in Tawag probably 2 nights.

- On the way back stop and stay at the sheep breeding bedsit or Nameri (likely the opposite of what we do on the way out).

- Get back to Guwahati and get a flight to Imphal.

Not sure any of this will work out as at least half our plans so far change for whatever reason, but we'll give it a shot and see where we end up….what's the worst that can happen? Haha.