Prologue
Planning a family tour to the eastern part of Arunachal Pradesh is very challenging because of a couple of factors. Firstly, there is hardly any infrastructure for tourists. Private accommodations are very scarce. Wherever such accommodations are available, either they are not of good standard, or expensive. So, the best bet is to go for government circuit houses or inspection bungalows. And here lies the second bottleneck. Most of the phone numbers listed in the government websites for booking these accommodations, don’t exist any more, or it is very difficult to connect to them. The third problem is the limited time period for visiting this side. The best months are December to February, perhaps November also, and March if the rain god decides to spare the hapless tourists. But, given the schedule of examinations in school, March is the only time when we could plan for this tour. Although first week of March is not a very bad time, but we were not very fortunate this time.
Day 1 : March 4, 2018
The early morning Air India flight leaves Kolkata at 5-55 AM. Living upto its reputation, it took off a little late and the morning fog was given as an excuse. We were surprised to see some Himalayan peaks from the flight.
However, we were completely taken off guard as we landed at Mohanbari airport at Dibrugarh at 730 AM. The sky was overcast and it was raining a little bit. Little did we know at that time this rain would be our companion for the next couple of days.
As we reached the famed Dhola – Sadiya bridge over the Brahmaputra, the rain droplets grew bigger in size. After managing to get a few hurried shots, we drove fast towards Roing.
After completing the formalities at Shantipur gate, we entered Arunachal. After some time we stopped the car as we saw that some roadside women vendors were selling oranges. But, as this was not a shopping mall, no end-of-the-season discount was given. Rather, the high price forced us to flee fast.
After reaching Roing, our first task was to buy three umbrellas as they seemed to be the bare necessities. We took an early lunch, and started again after 12 noon. The hills start just after Roing.
The road condition was excellent and we thought that bad roads of Arunachal were stories from the History book. Our first stop was at Sally lake, but we could not virtually see anything because of thick fog.
Soon thereafter, the good road came to an end and we entered the realm of the clouds.
We reached Mayodia pass at an altitude of 2655 metre, but it was shrouded in dense fog.
The white patches were snowflakes – seen just after the pass
We took tea at the old Nepali hotel at 65 km. The bukhari inside the hotel was a pleasant relief, as it was raining moderately at that time.
Clouds everywhere
We reached Hunli a little after 3-30 pm and got a room at the circuit house. The cloud was playing hide and seek outside.
We took an early dinner. The electricity is provided there in the evening upto 9pm. We went to bed with trepidation as it was raining from time to time.
