Bangalore to Imphal Drive (Part 2)
Bangalore to Imphal Drive (Part 2)
Day 5
Varanasi to Kishanganj (oops Rampurhat)
It was the best sleep of the journey so far. I woke up fresh and early. The ancient hotel called Hotel Natraj was our host last night. The only reason I vividly remember this hotel’s name is because the hotel is very old and bears a typical British era kind of architecture, which I like.
The breakfast was ok and then we headed off. It was going to be a mammoth task to reach Kishanganj in West Bengal. And it between us and Kishanganj was the whole state of Bihar. We were warned by our much-loved ones to be careful in Bihar. We were narrated stories after stories of incidents in Bihar. Some were hilarious while some were unbelievable.
I had to see to believe it. Alright then, let’s drive.
Now, getting onto the Asian Highway 1 was a big task. The unforgiving Varanasi traffic made us realize that Kishanganj is a distant dream. The further I drive the more distant Kishnaganj became. My initial idea was to reach Aurangabad and then to Gaya then to Begusarai and then to Purnea then to Kishanganj.
We reached Aurangabad and met an interesting boy running a small shop just outside the dhaaba where we stopped for a tea break. I cannot remember his name but I remember his mission in life was to become a software Engineer.
The Asian Highway 1 is a kickass road. It was all cement. Not the regular Bitumen Asphalt. Take a look. Bihar rocks!
After a while we crossed into Jharkhand. Dang Jharkhand! How? Why? We aren’t supposed to be on this road. I missed the turn. We are not on the way to Gaya but somewhere else. It was not somewhere else; it was the famous “Jhumri Talaiya”. A place I kept hearing on the radio when I was kid. I always thought the place is a fake but I was right there, standing on a road at Jhumri Talaiya wondering where to go now.
The big wide AH1 gave way to a narrow road which did not even resemble a highway. Alright, time to use the GPS on the phone. We cannot go back, we needed a new route.
The GPS showed the nearest road to Kishanganj which consisted of a mix of national and state highways. We were still a good 10 hours away from Kishanganj. We were genuinely lost and the sun was setting slowly. I selected Rampurhat as our next stop. It is in West Bengal and relatively felt safer than finding a place to stop in Jharkhand. Don’t know why but just felt that way.
I kept driving and then the rain gods decided to unleash some excess water. A small dingy road in the name of a highway, no signboards, no trucks, no one else on the road, just the two of us and I was driving to an unknown destination while hoping to reach there alive. To top it all Mr Kumar Sanu was belting out his numbers from the movie Aashique. Shit scared, we cared a hoot for what was playing on the stereo and we had no clue where we were. The GPS wasn’t accurate. It wasn’t showing anything. I felt like I was driving in a circle.
It was already 10:30PM when the rain slowed down and I could make out the night sky. At the distance I saw lights in the sky which told me that it is a city. Small or big, it does not matter; I will drive in that direction.
After some time, I took a right turn and came onto a bigger highway. There we saw, Rampurhat, 14 Kms. Both of us breaded a sigh of relief. We knew we will find a place to sleep, however that place may be. But before that, let’s eat.
We were looking at each other while we waited for the food. Sparky does not like flat breads but he ate 3 that night. He had no choice and no alcohol.
Now, we went out for hotel hunting at midnight. There were no rooms in the first hotel that we asked and then no one woke up at the next two. That was the time I told myself, fuck it, I need a room even if it is a 5 star hotel. I saw a board which advertised a hotel called Sonar Bangla. I did not reach that hotel but found another hotel before reaching there. It was called Sher-e-Punjab. Dang, Punjab in West Bengal. Whatever! I have to sleep.
The hotel guy did not give us any discount even though we told him that we were there only till 9 in the morning. He still charged us for a whole day. Freak.
Helpless and tired, we took the room and just crashed.
Crashed.
You know
Crashed.
Day 6
Rampurhat to Kishanganj
When you crash, you crash.
It was 10 AM when I opened my eyes. But no one came to through us out. Why would they, we paid for a day.
We were massively hungry; we decided to have a big breakfast.
“I was shit scared last night” I said.
“Me too” Sparky replied.
“And what was that music playing?” I said
“What? That was Ashique” Sparky laughed.
It was time for us to leave.
It was still raining when we started. We had to make to Kishanganj today. GPS showed that we could reach in 5 hours. I thought we could probably make it till Siliguri or New Jalpaiguri. Let’s see.
The back breaking road continued. And in the middle of all this, we forgot to click pictures since yesterday. Our focus was so much on crossing Jharkhand that we forgot to enjoy the view and the place.
Anyway, let’s see if we can start clicking again. While driving I realized that we will be crossing the Farakka Barage in a while. I remember this barrage when I was a kid. I saw this road plus railway bridge and I was awestruck by its sheer size and length. Now, several years later, I was about to drive my car and cross it on my own.
Oh no, not so soon.
Jam
Traffic jam
We were stuck in this jam for about 3 hours before we could cross the Barrage.
We got on to the barrage hoping to take some pictures of the mighty Ganges but there were policemen stationed almost every 100 meters and they checked every passing vehicle for people taking pictures of the barrage. Well, this must an important barrage.
It wasn’t open traffic after crossing the barrage. We spent another 2 hours trying to cross the city of Malda. We started at noon from Rampurhat and by the time we were at Malda, it was 6PM. We had lost a lot of time. We missed lunch since we were stuck in the jam till 6. We decided to have a light snack before we headed out for the night till Kishanganj or Siliguri.
The road was much better after Malda. We made a mad dash for Kishanganj. It was about 8:30 PM when we came onto a 4 lane highway which we later on found out that it was NH27.
We arrived at Kishanganj at about 10 PM. We stopped at a dhaaba which had lodging too. We ate our heart out and checked into the room.
A single room with a toilet, that was all.
“Why is that train sound coming towards us?” I thought for a while. May be the station is near. It became nearer and nearer every time it hooted. And then the whole room shook and the train went zooming pass at its fastest possible speed. Oh yeah, It is going to be a great night.
Day 7
Kishanganj to Guwahati (Ooops again Bongaigaon)
I must have slept like a log; I did not hear anything last night. I was not woken up by anything. I woke up with a huge apprehension of what was going to happen today. We were at the gates of North East India. And knowing the place too well, it was an uneasy feeling heading into Assam.
The scenery became much greener as we kept driving towards Assam. We crossed into Assam by Mid day. I clicked many pictures on my DSLR but I don’t have anyone of them now. I transferred all the files from the camera SD card to my laptop and then to my external hard drive. And then both of them crashed. 8 years of photographs and many other documents, all gone. Just like that. Putuk. Can’t be recovered anymore. I just might have to send it to a forensic lab to get it recovered.
Thanks to Google photo back up, some of the pictures were backed up from the phone that I was using at that time. Even that phone is gone as soon as I reached Imphal. Anyway, those itself is another story.
Our lunch was at a dhaaba just before Alipurdwar. It was a heavy lunch and I kind of feeling a little drowsy as the day was coming to an end. I handed over the car to Sparky after driving alone all the way till here. He was ecstatic and he was thinking that I would never ask. He started driving and I took out my shoes and started to relax.
After a while, we came across the first police check post in this whole journey. We were never stopped by any police till now. The police showed a red light. Sparky did slow down but did not stop. He was about to accelerate when one policeman jumped in front of us. I said stop.
The policeman checked our documents. Asked us few questions and asked us to make and entry. I asked how much is the entry fee for and why is that? 5000 rupees and Assam police tax it seems. We negotiated and we agreed on 1500. They were blatant and were shameless in asking money.
I took over the driving from there on. Sparky drove for about 30 kilometers or so. Then the next stop, then the next stop and then the next. All in all we were stopped for 4 times before we could reach Bongaigaon. Each time we had to pay to proceed further. Then I decided to spend the night in Bongaigaon.
We were still made to pay even though we had all the documents clear. I don’t know what to say to that. Anyway, it is better to be alive than to be shot dead.
We found a hotel and crashed for the night.
And as it would have it, everything ends early in the North East. We barely managed to get dinner. And then a friend of mine tells me on Whatsapp that the place where we were is a militant infested area.
Good night.
Day 8
Bogaigaon to Guwahati
The North East experience had already started yesterday. We woke up early, almost naturally. We had a good breakfast at a dhaba and headed towards Guwahati. I was expecting to reach Guwahati at least by noon.
I was in touch with an old school friend who lives in Guwahati. I was hoping to meet him and catch up.
Forget the cameras, just enjoy the drive. It was raining, what could I shoot? The rain did not stop till the time we arrived at the famous Saraighat Bridge over the mighty Brahmaputra River.
It was a pleasant sight to see another bridge being constructed just next to the old one. A much needed development.
Guwahati, has leapfrogged every other city of the North East. It is the hub of all business activities of the North East. The last time I was in Guwahati was in the year 1999. The city landscape has changed.
We drove up to a hotel near the Manipuri Basti in Guwahati. Hotel Shiroy. And to sparky’s shocker, there was no alcohol available on that day. Apparently, no alcohol is available on the last day of the month and the first day of the month. It was the 1st of Aug 2015 when we reached Guwahati. The first day of the month, so, no alcohol. Sparky went bonkers
We checked in and settled down. Had lunch and rested for a while.
It was evening and sparky wasn’t ready to come along with me.
Amarjit, My dear friend since school, came to pick me up from the hotel.
It was a lovely evening well spent in the company of a friend and his family.
Tomorrow was going to be the last leg of the journey.
Day 9
Guwahati to Imphal
I wanted to start early from Guwahati. I had bought 3 Red Bulls on the way back to the hotel last night. Sparky wasn’t asleep when I reached, he was still drinking and was still awake when I woke up at 2:30 AM.
I woke him up, checked out and then started towards Imphal.
The road was empty till Nagaon. It was 5:30 AM when we arrived there. I continued to drive till we decided to stop for breakfast at around 6:30 AM.
At breakfast, my heart started to beat a little faster. I was more scared of Nagaland than Assam. The Nagaland stories that I heard were more horrifying than others. And I was about to drive in to the state. Anyway, let’s see.
We continued our journey amongst the winding roads leading to Dimapur. We reached Dimapur at about 8 AM and then started the climb towards Kohima. The roads seemed a little less congested, there were fewer vehicles on the road and most shops were closed. We began to wonder.
And then it dawned to us, it was a Sunday.
I accelerated towards Kohima, bending and twisting on the unforgiving Asian Highway number 1. It is more of a narrow alley than a highway. Trying to find a decent patch of road amongst the potholes, we finally managed to reach Kohima at about 11 AM.
The city wore a deserted look because of the day being a Sunday. And even the police do not seem to work on a Sunday in Nagaland. They saw my car, a Karnataka registered car but no one stopped me, may be they will stop me at the Manipur Nagaland border. Let’s see
This is the time I wish I had those pictures still intact with me. How on earth did I lose all those pictures? One hard disk crashed, that seems relatively ok since there was a back up on another drive, but then again, that back itself crashes. On top of that phone also dies. What can I call it?
Anyway, the drive from Kohima till Imphal was going to be all downhill. It was going to be faster and I needed to be little more alert. So, down goes another Red Bulls and I got some more wings.
Mao, the border town between Manipur and Nagaland was completely deserted. Police did not bother to stop us. All shops were closed, almost all actually.
As I drove down the hill towards Imphal, memories of this highway started to ring a bell, the times when I was a student and I used to travel on this highway on a bus. I was stuck during a landslide once; my earliest memory of this highway was when I travelled with my father to Guwahati. All these were going on in the brain when I finally saw the Imphal valley in front of me. I took a shot and I had thought it was beautiful and had also thought of how to post process that image, but that did not happen.
It was 1:30 when we decided to stop at Sekmai and have lunch. It was good to taste Manipuri food after a long time. We were about 20 kilometers outside Imphal.
And as I reached Chigmeirong, hardly 2 kilometers from my house, I screamed my lungs out. I had made it. Dang, I made it. 4000 kms, 9 days and a lifetime of memories later I was home.
My mother was ready to welcome us.
There it is, my Bangalore to Imphal drive, something that I wondered if I would be able to do it. Well, I did it. Didn’t i?
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