30th April - 7th May Jorhat and Sibsagar

At the end of my time in Kaziranga, i'd planned to visit Majuli, the largest river island in the world in the middle of the Brahmaputra. A midway point was the town of Jorhat, about a four-hour terribly uncomfortable bus ride from Kohora. Having got got there, I ended up feeling quite tired, maybe due to not sleeping too well the previous few days, so I took a few days to rest up and update some of the entries on my blog.

The highlight of the week was taking a trip to Sibsagar, a town roughly an hour away and home to the the Ahom kingdom which ruled this part of Assam for around 600 years. Originally they came from Yunan province in China, and there is a legacy of remarkable buildings there.

The Kareng Ghar was a multi-storeyed royal palace, with three storeys below ground and four storeys above ground.

Kareng Garh

Interior of Kareng Garh

A little distance away is located the Shivadol, which is thought to be the tallest Shiva temple in the whole of India, with a height of 104 feet. Built by the queen of the Ahom king, Ambika, in 1734, it is capped with a seven-foot high golden dome. The walls of the temple have lovely carvings of gods and goddesses.

Shivadol

Carving in the Shivadol temple

Adjacent to the Shivadol is the Vishnudol, also constructed by Queen Ambika at around the same time. They are both incredibly beautiful structures.

Vishnudol

Close up exterior of Vishnudol

Close up of Vishnu effigies

Nearby is the Devidol, a temple dedicated to Durga, the goddess of prayer. It has many beautiful images portrayed on the walls.

Later on I visited the Rang Ghar, a double-storeyed royal pavilion built in the mid 1750s by the Ahom king for watching birds and animal fights, as well as other cultural programmes. Its an intriguing structure, built to look like a ship, and adorned with images of flowers, animals and birds.

Rang Ghar

Later I visited the Talatal Ghar, one of the grandest examples of Ahom architecture. For about a century, it was the new capital of the Ahom empire. Originally built as an army base, it has two secret tunnels and threefloorsbelow ground level which can't be accessed. The builders used a peculiar kind of cement comprised of sticky rice, mollasses, eggs and other ingredients yet my guide said it had proved incredibly durable.

An interesting feature of the palace is the construction of entrances that involve smaller and smaller entrances as a means of making enemy attacks more difficult to carry out.

Later my guide and I visited the Joy Doul, or Vishnu Doul. It also has wonderful sculptures of gods and goddesses on its walls.

24th - 29th April Kaziranga National Park

I'd spent a few days resting up from the previous few days, as well as trying to maintain this blog.  I also tried to organise a plan as to how to get around Assam, as well as the more northerly state of Arunachal Pradesh that borders Bhutan and China.  A couple of fruitless days were spent trying to engage with Assam tourism offices, and it quickly became clear how little tourism infrastructure existed there, particularly in comparison to Rajasthan, which seems so better geared to engaging with overseas and domestic tourists. Hence I was passed from one person to another, without having the kind of conversations I wanted to have with regard to the places I wanted to get to, and what would be the best approach to do this.

A real stumbling block was finding a guide (or guides) who I might be able to go trekking with in Arunachal Pradesh. Even though this was a separate state, I hoped there might be some information available from Assam tourism, but to my surprise nothing was available.  As much by accident, and my memory is slightly sketchy as to how this came about, somebody put me in touch with an agent who it seems works outside of the state tourism apparatus who could facilitate access to a 30 day trekking pass. I met with the agent in a hotel, paid the fee and completed various forms, and a week or so later the crucial trekking pass arrived. Had I not met with Mr Nath, I wonder if I would have been able to obtain it given the limitations of time, and without it, trekking is strictly prohibited as it is a protected zone. Moreover he was able to put me in touch with a trekking guide in Eastern Arunachal Pradesh, who later accompanied me on a trek in Ziro, so that was most valuable.

Much of this trip has been done "on the hoof" in that i've started with a basic plan but been sidetracked to some extent by emerging interests or other circumstances, so nothing has been set in stone. Nonetheless I was keen to visit Kaziranga national park, one of Asia's great wildlife sanctuary and famous for being home to most of the world's one-horned rhinos, as well as many other species. Kaziranga covers over 400 square kilometres. I'd seen such wonderful species at Ranthambore in (Rajasthan) and Chitwan (in Western Nepal), and I was keen to see more of the same in Assam.

I caught the bus to the town of Kohora that is adjacent to the national park at around 7am, and soon after leaving Guwahati, a fairly unattractive city of grey dilapidated buildings common to many urban areas of India, we were soon plunged into the irridescent greenery of rural Assam. Passing along the main highway, the views were stupendous: meandering waterways, villages and lush trees.

I stayed in an eco-resort, which essentially comprised a set of chalets made almost entirely of bamboo, with a mosquito net draped over the bed. I'd managed to get the accommodation and the guide through an online resource, and neither were easy to obtain, partly as unbeknownst to me, the national park was due to close from May 1st.

There are four zones in Kaziranga, and with the guide, Pranjal, I managed to visit all of them. I arrived in Kohora on 27th at around 1pm in the afternoon to be met by Pranjal, and there was just enough time to grab some lunch and go to the Western zone of Kaziranga, which is probably the most popular. It's a stunning environment, but appeared quite different to Ranthambore (in Rajasthan) as the foliage seemed much less dense and more distant from the jeep, so that I felt I was in much less of a "jungle" space.

As at Ranthambore, there seemed to be an excess of safari jeeps during the day, and the noise of the vehicles perhaps makes some of the wildlife more wary, and consequently less easy to view.  Fortunately we stayed quite late (afternoon safari-goers are expected to leave by 5pm), and it was sometime after this that we started to make our way to the exit, after spending quite a while at a viewing point, so it seemed like we were perhaps the last to depart. On the way out, however, we saw a gorgeous herd of elephants and water buffaloes, a well as some of the famed rhinos. Maybe having fewer vehicles about made them more willing to move away from where they had been? It seemed that way to me. Wild elephants are such a community-minded bunch; I could watch them for hours.

Water buffaloes

We also saw some wonderful birds, my favourite being the Indian roller. Pity they were too far away to get a decent photograph, but when they take off with their bluish wings, they looked majestic. As the evening drew to a close, the fading light provided a dreamy essence to the landscapes.

The next day we visited two further zones of Kaziranga: Eastern zone in the morning, and Western zone in the afternoon. I hadn't realised until we'd set off in the morning that as the Eastern zone is less visited, certainly at this time of year, it is considered to be more dangerous by the park authorities as there are few other safari jeeps to ward off aggressive animals. Hence we needed to travel with an armed guard, rifle at the ready.

This was one of those occasions when a good camera with a powerful zoom lens would have been very handy as there was so much birdlife to admire. Pranjal had kindly brought along a pair of binoculars that were useful, but it would have been nice to photograph some of the species. The highlight was watching a kingfisher in action. I'd not seen one actually fish before, but watching one hovering above a waterway over a period of time and then swoop suddenly on its prey was a wonderful sight. It seems a most appropriate name for a bird that must have astonishing eyesight.

During the afternoon, there was more bird life to admire. The variety of trees was amazing, and there is something very special about being in those kinds of environments, where you feel the natural world in such an immediate way. It's so different to how you generally experience the world. At one point there were people on the river using traditional methods of fishing on the outskirts of the national park, and I would love to have examined this more closely.

The following day we visited the Burapahar range, which again has restricted access. The highlight here was coming across a river where on either side there were two herds of elephants which were pretty adjacent to our vehicle. That was a real treat. There were some stunning twilight views as we left the national park, really lovely.

19th - 23rd April Flight from Yangon to Chiang Mai and train to Bangkok

Although India and Myanmar share a fairly lengthy border, and I think enjoy decent international relations, for some reason there is no international border point of entry from one country to the other. As I planned to visit Thailand later on, and the option of a long train journey from Chiang Mai to Bangkok was available, I opted to fly from Yangon to Chiang Mai, and then catch the 10 hour train ride to Bangkok. From there, the plan was to get to Bangkok airport, fly to Kolkata and then get a connecting flight to Guwahati, which is the capital of Assam.

This was an expensive option, but it seemed the most useful, especially given that I wanted to visit Thailand, and the return flight facilitated that opportunity. I'd always been fascinated by North East India, that strange collection of small states that seems geographically so removed from mainstream India with its usual tourist haunts, and the opportunity to visit more nature reserves and to return to the mountains in the border areas of Bhutan had a definite appeal.

So I caught a flight from Mandalay to Yangon, and on the same day caught a flight to Chiang Mai, arriving in the evening and staying in a place very close to the railway station. The next morning I caught the Chiang Mai train at around 7.30am, and it was a really good experience with marvellous views, particularly at the Chiang Mai end of the journey. At times the train passed through national park areas, and the rivers were wonderful. The railway infrastructure and vehicles were so much more modern than facilities available in Myanmar, with uniformed staff at stations and comfortable seating, all very different.

It was relatively straightforward getting from Bangkok station, which wasn't as vast as i'd imagined it would be, to the airport. From there I caught the flights to Kolkata and then onto Guwahati. It had been a long journey, and I was glad to get some sleep at the hotel, even though it was disturbed by construction work on an upper floor.

April 17th - 18th Trek in Hsipaw and Gokteik Viaduct

Hsipaw (pronounced "Thibaw") is a delightful, tranquil little place, still in Shan state and adjacent to a range of hills and villages populated by Palaung peoples, and hence is a popular place to undertake some trekking into the countryside. It was raining very heavily the day before i'd arrived, and this continued into the next day, when I'd hoped to join an organised trek. The trekking agency adjacent to where I was staying generally ran a 3 day, 2 night trek, but the heavy rain meant it had to be limited to a 2 day, 1 night trek, which was a bit of a shame, but I was pleased that I was able to get on a trek of any kind. There were five of us in total.

So we set off with our guide, Auso, a really informative guy who knew so much about the history of the place. We started off at the Muslim cemetary and began the five hour trek to the Palaung village of Pan Kam. From here at the edge of Hsipaw you could admire the wondrous scenery, and Auso was quick to point out the wild root ginger and, a little later, the cultivated okra. Mimosa is considered valuable by local village people for assisting with overcoming sleeplessness.

Wild ginger

Cultivated okra

Stunning vegetation

Mimosa

The landscapes were quite wonderful, alternating between lush greenery and the recently-baked red soil. At various points we walked through various Palaung villages, and at one of them we stopped for a cup of tea and some snacks. The tea plantations were quite abundant on the brow of a hill.

Landscape

Tea plantation

Eventually after a gradual ascent we reached Pan Kam village and were warmly greeted by the family with whom we would be staying. The house was built on stilts, with the lounge consisting of a large room with the central point given over to an open fireplace, which also serves as a stove. We were served a delicious lunch of stewed pumpkin, a french bean and cucumber salad, and another potato dish.

In Burmese, Shan, Palaung and English

Stewed pumpkin dish

French bean and cucumber salad

Male head of the household by the open hearth

Village kids playing football in the mud

Female head of the household

Auso told us that families would construct homes on stilts next to their own when a marriage had taken place, and recalled from his youth that there might be a dozen or more houses in a row as part of an extended family. It was a tradition, therefore, to start collecting wood for one's children, mindful of the quantities of wood required to build such a large structure, well in advance of them reaching marriageable age. The community would join the family in helping to construct the home. Quite a contrast to having a 25 year or more mortgage debt!

Stored firewood for building a future house

Rear view of the house

The rear side of the house led onto a small garden area, and beyond this lay a space for growing vegetables.

Growing aubergines in the garden

Mango tree

Damson tree

Female head of the household tilling the land 

The next morning I would really liked to have continued the trek, but i'd arranged to curtail it in order to catch the train to Pyoo Oo Lwin, which passes over the famous Gokteik Viaduct. Built in 1901, the viaduct is a real must-see in this part of Myanmar. However, it meant leaving Pan Kam village very early, by way of a pre-arranged motorcycle ride, back to Hsipaw. Although it was not raining, the huge amount of rain that had fallen before meant the pathway had become a real quagmire, so much so that at times the motorcycle became completely stuck and both driver and I had to walk. Nonetheless in the drier light, the landscapes were mesmerising, and I felt more than a tinge of sadness that i'd curtailed the trek.

Hsipaw landscape

Hsipaw landscape

It was another race against time to return to the hotel, grab a shower, pick up most of the stuff i'd left in storage, and then scramble for the train. Thankfully I just made it by the skin of my teeth, thanks to a most obliging autorickshaw driver carrying most of my stuff across the train lines and onto the train. It was a very close run thing, and I really needed to catch that train in order to get to Pyoo Oo Lwin, and then hopefully catch a shared taxi back to Mandalay.

This was another fabulous train journey in Myanmar. Gazing out onto gorgeous rugged landscapes alternating from luscious, verdant green dripping with life to more austere, barren but no less beautiful vistas. These journeys with their ever-changing many-textured views with colours sometimes muted, at other times more vivid, were such a highlight of my travels in Myanmar, quite unforgettable.

The viaduct itself - the highest bridge in Myanmar - did not disappoint, as gradually the train slowed and then rose above a steep escarpment onto the Shan plateau, before suddenly lurching steeply upward above the Dokhtawady river. The views across the landscape were terrific.

Arriving in Pyoo Oo Lwin, it turned out that the shared taxis had long since departed, contrary to what I'd been told earlier, which meant having to get a shared lift to Mandalay on one of the vehicles that gathered about one of the main roundabouts out of Pyin Oo Lwin on the road to Mandalay. The vehicle was like a pick-up truck,and as I clambered on and more and more people got on, it became incredibly cramped, such that my limbs and posture had to be periodically rearranged. What a relief to arrive back in Mandalay.