"3 Banjaare" on astonishing expedition into Seven Sisters's Land from Bangalore - 13
Day 15
Last night was the warmest night in their entire trip as Mr. and Mrs. Tarzan were getting adapted to surviving in near 0 degrees temperature with help of heaters, that it almost felt like their own world they belong to where a journey to reach out to tap water was challengeable to taking a dip at glacier . This night they recalled their forgotten friends AC and fan and had a sleep similar to the one they have at their home which they started recollecting then.
The previous evening was spent well by Mrs. Tarzan researching on attractions around and longing to visit the bird sanctuary which seemed to be bit off season as the migratory birds would be spotted till around February, so it would be disappointing if not capturing the winged buddies. So she planned to visit Ranaghat bridge and the basin of Siang river walking upto the hanging bridge.
Surprisingly, both Mr. and Mrs. Tarzan got up afresh in the morning without any dragging and started off by 7.00 when the hotel staff was still asleep and it took few minutes to get access to the dear Cheetah. The town was still sleeping and wore empty roads letting them to have a good look around and view their habitat in morning sunshine.
This road goes towards Aalo which was good till a junction which splits towards Ranaghat bridge. This was impressive piece of land which had a small garden carved as leaf as seen from height. After crossing this area they were sure that the road was going to be bumpy a ride since the road construction was in full swing with multiple diversions and within few kilometers all the living beings disappeared too. The road was rough which would curl up from one hillock to the other, which seemed as if it was not supposed to be inhabited with beings like Cheetah and its Tarzans. Soon they ran into deep forests overlooking from nearby mountain with the Siang river as their companion which would keep up their spirits in order to have a warm meet.
Mrs. Tarzan was trying to locate the hanging bridge but google was ignorant of such structure near them, hence after initial half an hour of easy going roam around, she was perturbed about locating it. Every couple of minutes she would try to measure the distance of river basin and its depth while they were moving along it and insisted to continue to Pangin.
In few more minutes they reached a small village which had couple of small houses located incredibly far from each other. It gave strange nasty feeling to Mr. and Mrs. Tarzan with no one around and the atmosphere was heavily spooky to let Mrs. Tarzan step down to have a good look down at the valley, as if they entered a voodo practicing village. Mr. Tarzan attempted to find and talk to someone residing in vicinity but returned empty handed without any clue. Suddenly they spotted a nearby one-roomed house where a gaudy man was staring at them with beady eyes making Mr. Tarzan to start and take a U-turn right away. There was one narrow trail at some distance which was leading closer to the river as per the map, that they decided to move down further towards the river basin to calm their curiosity for the river. They were trailing in the dense forest which had graveled single laned road. It felt like being in the movie wrong turn.
Yet Mr. and Mrs. Tarzan had high spirit as they were descending near the river. However, at one crooked turn it appeared that the road was even narrower for Cheetah to crawl and it was not at all convincing to leave her there and take a walk down. They both telepathed, “No way! Let’s go back”.
And with thirsty souls they had to track back.
They had been on several human-deprived trails but none of them were spooky as this; where they had to think of cons which they are not habitual of. In an hour they were on the highway where construction was going on and seeing the labors they took deep sigh. Mrs. Tarzan had turned on her favorite numbers again and constantly overlooked the river by her side. At one spot she made to pull over to capture the deep blue water among vibrant green forest at least from a distance to satisfy her thirst.
They had reached the diversion which leads towards Ranaghat Bridge in few minutes. The river basin accommodated adventure camps which urged Mrs. Tarzan to climb down to reach water, but again, they would have to locate safe place for Cheetah to rest which would mean again another hunt for which they both were not ready. Afterall, pasighat doesn’t mean only this much of adventure; they will be going to taste it along with Mechuka and Roing-Anini circuit to be continued on journey part 2.
The bridge was barely 700 meters long which connects Pasighat to eastern most part of Arunachal Pradesh and offers majestic view of the river which is surrounded by lush green mountains on one side and vast basin till horizon at the other side. Under the sun, its sparkling clear water was shining blue amid the green mountains on one side whereas on the other side it faded into misty grey.
The level of water was low revealing the pale gravels with bluish tinge of water and a pink flowered tree by its side added to the marvelous beauty of the river. Mr. and Mrs. Tarzan wished to sink their torsos in the blue water under the pink tree but the thought itself made them lazy which is infectious for the journey ahead. So, they admired the beauty for few more minutes and then set back to the hotel.
Reaching hotel and having king size breakfast charged them for next adventure which, as jotted down by Mrs. Tarzan, was an architectural heritage. They started off from Pasighat around 11 toward Assam. The city markets were flooded by then with flesh which seemed to have all varieties suggesting the food habit of the place.
They reached Assam border in no time while discussing over the next destination. From here Malinithan was around 70 km situated on the way to Aalong(another route). Aalo is also a beautiful habitat enroute to village of Mechuka, which they kept exempted for their next visit to Arunachal Pradesh after rains which blooms its flora to fuller extent. Afterall, their another family from Tawang had already tempted them to come around in September to view blooming orchids.
The road towards Aalo was considerably good. Google navigation was working but still Mrs. Tarzan always prefer local sign boards for the places of interest. On approaching near the google map suggested location, they spotted a huge board telling about Malini than and its short history but the road to reach out was not clear. After taking a roundabout in confusion and reversing after inquiring with locals, it was evident that there was a narrow lane behind the building against that same board. It was rickety road that got lost after some time, which again called for checking with locals following which they eventually reached a wide ground after enjoying a muddy road with lot of craters. However, they did lost the way at a certain turn as the directions were not clear and reached at the top of the hillock where a signboard mentioned that to be an establishment rather an archaeological site.
Trailing back as per locals they finally reached the site which read as Malinithan.
There were few shops of puja items which suggested that the temples by the ruin site were still being into worship.
It was a scorching hot day which surprised them. The ruins site is situated at a height, to be reached by a flight of stairs; but you are not allowed with footwears which are to be kept right at the security check at the base of stairs.
At the end of those tall cemented stairs, which were caressed by tall trees imparting cool shade to save from wrath of sun, there stood huge statues wearing red holy threads being worshiped. Mr. and Mrs. Tarzan have seen huge statues in various parts of the country but these were peculiar in their appearance resembling a bit to the ones at jagannath puri and had only faces.
There were also few carving of deities and goddess retrieved from excavation.
Beyond it was a ruined basement of temple which had beautiful carvings and pillars. This place dates back to 10th and 14th century associating with Lord krishna. Alongside as you walk, there is a newly constructed temple under a huge tree which hosts lot of pigeons pecking on the grains.
There is another temple if you climb to top of the hill, approachable by good no. of stairs which was more challenging due to harsh sun and white hot stairs, followed by pebbles and stones all over the ground which hurt Mrs. Tarzan a lot that she couldn’t enjoy much of the view.
On reaching the top, the temple offered picturesque view of Assam along with cool breeze. It was then revealed that this temple is also approachable by road on which they had lost earlier around an hour ago !
Tired and dehydrated, they tracked back to Cheetah gulping cold water and set off further towards North Lakhimpur to travel to other side of mighty Brahmaputra in order to catch ferry ride to Majuli.
However, in couple of hours Mrs. Tarzan noticed a signboard reading Majuli which startled them both. They thought, perhaps there might be ferry point, to confirm which Mrs. Tarzan zoomed google map only to locate the river very far away. This was interesting !!
Mr. Tarzan asked his navigator, “So? Which way?”
Mrs. Tarzan, a bit confused, replied , “Not sure, but can we try and see where does this direction lead to ?”
Nodding with jibe, ”As you say madam”, Mr. Tarzan followed the direction.
Majuli being the biggest river island in india is approachable by Ferry from Jorhat over Brahmaputra river. It is also cultural home to unique traditions which are still alive in this soil and its Vaishnava Satras including the world famous Mask making satra.
It seemed to be a reasonable road traversing villages and its markets. The road construction was going on and offered few very good patches, of course along with diversions. However, after sometime both the construction and the road disappeared and then emerged a dusty trail with potholes. They both were dreading for this moment eventually as per their experience but still the road was motorable and they did not want to backtrack given that 20 or so kms were remaining to Majuli. With frequent wooden bridges on road, they had entered into not-so-reachable kind of villages and had crawled over at least 4-5 such bridges trusting each time on its durability.
The place was very beautiful indeed, being inhabited with greenery everywhere. There were swaying farms along roads, paddy fields sparkling under the sunshine, yellow flowered yields in farms, several ponds for fish farming each having boats by their sides, cattle relaxing every now and then watching their visitors.
And most of all, remarkable homes each with its own pond .
The sun had become dimmer and they were still few kms away from Majuli, but the journey by road had indeed showcased the villages and their lifestyles to a great extent.
It started drizzling which was a boon in such greenery while wandering around the enormous fields by the sleek road besides the unique bamboo houses standing on the first floor (ground floor being bamboo pillars).
By the time they reached Majuli it had already started getting dark, still Mrs. Tarzan wanted to visit couple of Satras. Following the map she guided towards most prominent Satra in Map, Garmur Satra. Bright gateway mentioned the passage to the Satra which seemed like a very big ashram. There was a huge open area with lot of plants and trees around the main worship area. Beside this huge temple there are couple of more temple spaces, museum etc which they could not explore more owing to the evening slipping away.
Though they enjoyed the deities and several amazing sculptures while listening to the beats of pooja and bhajans being performed in middle of the drizzle.
Now was the time to hunt for the stay which they were not expecting earlier but since it's late and raining, there was no other option. The hunt lead them to first get full at sole filling station and then move on in the direction of nearby Satras. It was raining in deep dark, and only headlights were illuminating apart from a few distant twinkles till they reached one small junction having couple of huts nearby a Satra. The way to Satra seemed to go further inside the forest making Mr. Tarzan drop the idea, but he preferred sipping hot tea before continuing the hunt.
They were told to stay by Kamalabari Satra, so they headed in that direction following the local’s guidance, but the place was literally dark and seemed deprived of human beings. Moreover, a guy approached them like a haunted being; poor fellow couldn’t reveal his true intention as Mr. and Mrs. Tarzan sped away.
On tracking back Mr. Tarzan made a stop at a small shop for tea.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Tarzan was watching the rains in dark until something glow in front of her at a distance. Then there were more twinkles at regular intervals around the first occurrence.
“Ohh, is it firebugs ?”, She jumped happily, as she didn’t remember if she had seen them since she left school or has any last memory of it.
Rains, with dancing firebugs on the music inside the car !!
Mr. Tarzan, when saw her looking in the dark, was puzzled. When she showed him those twinkles, he laughed and fell in love with her again. Well, he keeps falling in love with her but never lets her know ;)
The hunt was still on and based on the piece of information he got, one nearby place should have some accommodation. Luckily, soon they got one decent room, basic but a bit luxury for such a place.
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