It started out as the last trip with friends, with sudden random plans to go out. Till Friday evening there was no confirmed plans to go out. Saturday morning we did take off. Where to, i had no idea even as we reached Guwahati.

The first task was getting a taxi. We were going to Bhalukpong. I really had not much idea about the place. We were guessing the taxi cost for return trip at perhaps 2000 bucks for 2 day. After much negotiating and bargains we settled at Rs.5000 for a Sumo to Bhalukpong return for 2 days approx. So roughly at 9am we set out for Bhalukpong. The road was pretty much good and some of the towns we crossed were Dalgaon, Mangladai, Dhekiajuli. The major city on the way is Tezpur. Well the road branches, 5 KM before Tezpur, and all Arunachal Pradesh (AP) bound people can turn there and avoid Tezpur if they want. Well Bhalukpong, as it turned out, is in Arunachal Pradesh too. Finally we reached ’Bhalukpong’ . Bhalukpong is roughly 230-250 KM from Guwahati ( Paltan bazaar ).

But as all of it was on the other side of AP border. Hence, a permit was required. We had not known or anticipated this and had no permits. After some information gathering, it was found that we could get a permit made in some time and with a little struggle. But rather we decided to go to a place called Nameri. We started back on the road we had come on, and roughly 20+ KM later we reached a turning for Nameri. The turning is actually called ’Hathi Gate’ due to the presence of Elephant structures there. We took a left and it was all into the wild from there.

It was a small village perhaps, or not even that. 15 minutes after the turn we reached NAMERI ECO CAMP. It was love at first sight for me. It was a beautiful place. The lush green grass, the trees, the fallen leaves, the tents, the tables, the chairs. Oh! It was all too beautiful. We had a sort of booking there, lol! We really did not know where we would reach. We had beds in the dorm which was quite cheap. Its Rs.100 per night per bed plus a one time Rs.50 for each person, which is donated to some NGO i guess. The tents are more expensive though.

The first thing on our minds, was food. There is a small restaurant type of place inside and no other option. Alas lunch was over and finally we were able to get Maggi, Tea and Pakoras. Food was good. The chairs were calling, and for some time we all lay in the chairs, which was an experience in itself. We set out for the river after a while. Its about a KM or so i think and we soon got to the river. There wasnt much flow in the waters and we just relaxed on the banks. Thakur, the early man, was able to setup a bon-fire and after the playing in the water, we warmed ourselves by the fire. All that was missing was something roasting on the fire. 🙂 Getting back was more interesting. It was quite dark and it was a sort of deserted, forest type area. And we were talking of Lions and Tigers. We all got back safe and sound and whole.

Some of us went to get stack for the night while me and others that were left sat in those wonderful chairs again and lay there, bakaring ( meaning FALTU talk) , till dinner time and the return of the others. ( Not the ones from LOST ). There are not many options in terms of food there and dinner was a buffet system too. It was on the expensive side perhaps @ Rs.180 pp. But the food was real good and worth it. Then again we lazed around the fire till late. The place is built keeping in mind bird-watchers and foreigners and thus is quite liberal with its smoking and drinking policies. The owner appeared to be a man of good humour too. We all slept comfortably, and none was in the mood to get out of the bed at 6 am . But the jungle was calling. It rained cats, dogs and even rats last night. I once woke up to the sound of such banging it was scary. It was only rain though.

At 6.30 we set out for the jungle. The forest was on the other side of the river, and so first we crossed the river by the boat. And then into the jungle. To one of my questions, our guard and guide responded, ” Agar kismat achi hui, toh sher bhi dikh sakta hai.” ( If you are lucky, you might just see a tiger !) Lucky, huh!! It was now the real into the wild and if we had binoculars we could have seen lot of birds, but we dint. There were lot of these fruits around lying on the ground, partly due to the rain and storm last night. Now, with Ashish Thakur’s input, i know its called Wild Avocado. We walked on and finally we came to a watch tower. We could turn back out from there. But some of us wanted to go on. There was a stream near the tower. And as the guard said, on the other side of stream was AP and if we continue further we could get into China. At this point, Mr.Thakur commented, “Without even a passport!!!”. No Mr.Thakur, there would tigers who would check your passport on the way and so do keep one.

We decided to go off track and into the jungle a bit, and to see some animals. We walked in and in. We saw marks of animals, but no animals. We did see and very closely infact, some insects. The Leech. It loves us. It even got in my shoes through the small holes for air, and those with sandals, well they were Leech’s feast. You would find one clinging to your foot every few steps. Soon, due to the leech effect we abandoned the inner pursuit and set out back again. After a while, we got to a clearing and there we began anti-leech campaign, clearing all things sticking to your feet. Near the forest guard camp, we saw 2 domesticated elephants. One was a baby and very small and cute. After the photo session with elephant, we got back to the boat after a rest at the forest guard camp. On reaching back, to our eco camp, again hunger was the major issue. The breakfast of Aloo-puri was amazing and tea is always good. We lay out in the sun, and in THOSE chairs again for some time. We could have done rafting perhaps, but well as i mentioned river flow was not too great. So after the bills, we set back. On the way we decided to go to Tezpur. Roughly 30KM from Nameri

There was a Shiv Temple, some fort etc, and a place called Agnigarh. We only went to the last, and it was mentioned , it was a sort of flower garden. After climbing what seemed so many stairs, we reached the top and well all of us felt, we and others over there were the ’fools’. There was not much anything. If its any consolation, there was a amazing view of Brahmaputra over there. The experience of this place, made us skeptical enough to ditch all other Tezpur plans and rather we decided to go back to guwahati from there. The way back, we stopped at some place in Tezpur, for all those who wanted to buy gifts. After the gift-shopping, we started back at 1.30PM . We got back to IIT at about 6PM, but not without few hiccups, which had more to do with driver’s bad luck than anything else. On the way, i had decided on one thing . I would have to come back to this place on bike. Definitely. And so at the gate of Hostel, this trip ended, but the journey still goes on…