Monday 18th November

Got up an hour ago and it's now 9:30 and I'm in Imphal in Manipur the most eastern state of India next to Burma.

My notes really aren't doing this trip justice and it doesn't feel like I'm even touching on the majority of things that have been going on. Last time I wrote feels like a month ago, but I will see what I can remember while typing this.

So, to continue from the last blog….

After seeing more around Tawang including the 1960's war memorial we were heading back down the road to Dirang which was about 6-7 hour drive, arriving about 20:30. All along the roads there are women chipping away at bowling ball size rocks to make matchbox size rocks for part of the road construction. Strangely I never saw men doing this hard laborious manual labour, in harsh sun which the women covered all but their eyes from.

We stayed at a pretty cool place in Dirang ran by girls….here Dinku didn't even attempt to argue out the price and we just paid the 1800Rs.

Piyush and I went out to find a place to by a couple of beers to take back but the entire village was closed….until we found tiny drinking place where we ended up sitting with a local guy (nickname was jonny the driver) and asking him about the way of life growing up and living there. This area (Dirang) is still very remote with people living more self-sufficient simpler lives. We asked Jonny the driver about any potential fishing areas nearby and he told us he had just come back, but their fishing is with generator and electrocuting the water/fish. He showed us some of the trout he got.

Our plan was to go to Nameri Eco camp and fish, but it turns out fishing there has been banned for the last 3 years. So instead our plan became to go to Kaziranga National Park which took us about 10 years or hours to get to (I forget).

When we got there we went straight to the booking office which luckily was still open at 19:30, but not so lucky was that we could only get 1 seat on the elephant safari….which Piyush was kind enough to immediately give to me. We also planned for a jeep safari which all 3 of us could go on. At the booking counter we also met the owner of Drongo lodge which was just outside the gate (1000Rs), with a locals cellar type bar below (couple of plastic chairs and tables).

Next morning we were out at 5:30 to go to where the elephant safari was. There were 12 elephants with mostly 3 people able to ride each, and these were not small elephants (bigger than the ones in Jaipur). Going out on these into the long grass of the national park was great and it wasn't long before we came across a baby, mother and father rhino…..only the mother seeming concerned about being surrounded by elephants. At around this time I heard a call from the distance behind "heeeyy….Graham!"…to which I thought didn't make sense as nobody knew my name there, but looking back I could see Piyush also on an elephant….."Dude, I managed to get a seat!!". I'm so glad he managed to end up coming on the elephant safari too as it was really cool, and we saw more animals including water buffalo, hog deer and sambhar deer. There were also 2 baby elephants running around beneath us which were cute.

Once we got off the elephants the mahouts' took off the riding gear and the elephants just wandered off, done for the day.

After breakfast we took a walk around a tea estate (there were loads around here) and headed for Guwahati.

Arriving at Guwahati around 13:00 we had lunch and said goodbye to Mukhtar and he drove back to Tezpur.

We stayed at Dinku's friends Naseef's hotel, the guy we met previously in Guwahati before we had left for Tawang. His hotel (Sun City) was sweet and only 1400Rs, with him getting us the best room which had balconies.

After we checked in and dumped our stuff another friend of Dinku's (Baba) picked us up and drove us to where he has this great little place he has built up a hill. Baba is a really chilled guy who works 6 months of the year as a diver on oil rigs. His house would be a backpackers paradise as it's away from the city (not too far) and seems at one with nature. For example when we arrived and he opened the door he immediately realised that monkeys had got in again as there were onions scattered around the place.

For the next few hours we had couple of beers, chatted, and had a jam…me on guitar and Baba on bongo drum.

In the evening we decided to go to a bar which Naseef has recommended when we first met him, Café Hendrix. So we met him there and there was a great band playing, covering a lot of blues and rock songs. Also met some new people here and had a great time.

Next day (Sunday 18th) we got an SMS saying the flight was delayed (we had booked earlier) and ended up getting a tuktuk (all three of us and our bags….it was packed) around 12:45 and eventually landed in Imphal at 16:15.

When going through arrivals of the small Imphal airport there is a foreigners log book which they fill out with all the details of any non-indian arriving. Overlooking the guy taking my details I could see in this log book the last foreigner came in on October 30th, and before that it was since August.

Manipur is also a dry state so harder (not impossible) to buy alcohol, but we did manage to smuggle in a few bottles of rum and whiskey.

Coming out of the airport there were at least 20 machine gun mounted jeeps and all the troops carrying AK47's, turns out some big army guy was arriving.

Dinku went off with his brother and I met Piyush's father who took us back to their house (where his mum and dad live). This place I can only compare to some kind of mafia style villa house, it looks really cool and has three big levels (I'm at the open top right now typing).

I've got my own room here (Michael, Piyush's brothers room) and it's sweet as.

So last we all chatted, and Rajesh came over who is Romesh's older brother (who we stayed with on our return to Delhi). We also had a little of the local moonshine called sekmai muchin, which is similar to methylated spirits.

Last night I slept on a really good bed and had the greatest sleep in what feels like months.

Today we got up and Piyush started his '92 Yamaha RD350, which we went out on a short ride on up a hill overlooking Imphal and the valley around.

Now it's 12:30 and we're going to have a traditional Manipuri dish, then go out to the main bazaar for a walk. Weather is just right here.