Apology - posted wrong blog first

Guwahati was a little of the expected coupled with a bit of the unexpected . I arrived at night, went to the Riverside Guesthouse and checked in. I was met by the owner, Manus, who seemed over keen and somewhat controlling. I had four of his staff plus him showing me my room and I was quick to see that he would have better utilized their time if they cleaned the floor better. I hoped he would improve the next day.


Guwahati was bathed in sunshine the next morning and it was great to feel warm again after Darjeeling. Manus was quick to see me in the morning, imposing ridiculous internet wifi regulations (no Skype) and trying to get me to change my travel plans. I was not sure how long I could stomach this.


I got straight onto the phone to sort out my permit for Arunchal Pradesh. Unfortunately as it was a Sunday, I soon found out that I could do nothing until the following day. So I escaped the dreadful Manus and went for a riverside walk .


It was here I found the expected - piles of rotting rubbish lining what should have been a beautiful riverside walk and the banks of the Brahmaputra River, which was huge and wide. Actually the riverside was so squalid I thought I would jettison my idea of a boat trip and walk into town. I did a u-turn and walked past the high court and the cricket pitch. It was here that I experienced the unexpected - no hassle. No tradesmen, no taxi drivers, no “where are you from? Whats your name? Whats your income?”  Actually it appeared somewhat relaxed. Further into the town, it became more chaotic traffic wise and I retreated to the USA Restaurant for a pizza.


“Do you have any soft drinks?”  I asked, “No” was the reply. “What type of pizzas do you have?” I thought I would try a different tack. “Only Cheese, tomato and Masala” was the reply. Oh well when in Guwahati .... Actually it was not so bad.


On walking back to the guest house in the sunshine, I stumbled on a large political rally. Not what I wanted to be in after the bomb blasts in Bihar the week before, so I did another u-turn and took the long way back. It was on the way back I stubbled across the “French Patisserie”. After the USA Pizza place I was skeptical but actually this was great, with good coffee and vole-u-vents. Chicken masala vole-u-vents, but actually delicious.


The next day I avoided Manus who was continuing to terrorize his staff, and got a tuk tuk to drive me over to Arunchal Pradesh house. I asked for a permit and was pointed to an office door. Inside a well dressed gentleman, who refused to look at me, said “you will have to phone Mr Nat on this number to get a permit as we don't issue them to foreigner’s here!”  “Ah .. it was that type of scam,” I thought.


Mr Nat insisted on meeting me at the Riverside so we discuss a permit that evening. He eventually turned up about 120 mins late and reminded me of an Indian Arthur Daley. He promised them in 6 days, at $30 plus a $30 commission (obviously split with the man in the office, who I guessed was the Deputy Commissioner - as he was in his office). So I thought I would go for it, once we agreed on payment on production of the permit.


That evening I booked a room at Wild Grass in Kaziranga NP and decided to head north whilst I waited for this permit. Wild Grass helpfully sent me their regional officer, Dipak the next morning at 9.30am to ensure I got on the right bus. Manus was equally annoying when he arrived and I decided to move guesthouse when I returned.


Dipak ensured I got on a modern bus the likes I never encountered in India so far with three seats abreast and tons of leg room . I sat next to “Holy” a soldier from Assam, who was very nice, friendly and interesting and the four hour journey flew by.


Soon I was checking into Wild Grass in Kaziranga. Wild Grass was an old fashioned Safari Lodge with huge dining room complete with stuffed deer heads and pictures of hunting from 60 years ago. Large fans turned above one’s head, despite the night time temperature being cold and large windows opened onto manicured gardens. The accommodation was located in two large blocks and was comfortable with wooden floors and cane furniture.


Wild Grass was located in the Kohora Village where the main entrance to the national park was located an adjacent park HQ. I settled in and quickly bumped into Nick, a 19 year old traveller from Colorado who had also just arrived. He kindly let me join him on his prearranged safaris and elephant rides, so that our expense was halved.


That evening in the hotel gardens there was an energetic display of local dancing from a local musical troop which was good fun. It was certainly interesting to meet the other Indian guests all huddled around the camp fire. The next morning was a 4.30am morning call with a pot of tea brought into the bedroom. At 5.00am as the sun rose we left for the elephant assembly area and the dawn trek. I was told this was the best way to get up close to the one horned Rhino and despite my reservations about elephant welfare, I decided to go. Actually the elephants did appear well looked after, with a maximum of only two hours of tourist rides a day, plenty of food and no maltreatment scares - which the Elephant Valley Project in Cambodia had told me about. After the rides finished at 7.30am they were hobbled, left to graze and then brought food in the afternoon. the riding saddles were cushioned and the only worrying aspect was the huge pointed metal bars that the Mahouts had with them.


Surround by thick impenetrable morning mist we climbed aboard and headed out into the famous grasslands of Kaziranga. Visibility was down to 10 meters at most, but within seconds we spotted a group of deer and then out of the mist a huge male one horn Rhino. Its vast bulk looked like so sort of battleship in thick mist and sure enough he was oblivious to the seven elephants with tourists coming at him. Despite the mist we closed to within 8 meters and got a good look at his amour, horn and strange facial expressions as he dined on the thick elephant grass. We soon moved on seeing more Rhinos, deer and buffalo as the mist started to lift. The elephant grass was so tall that it came up to my legs on the back of this elephant called “Mitt Romney”.


It was over too quickly and despite the thick mist that was only subsiding after we had finished it was a great experience, which Nick and I decided to repeat the following day at the second ride time.


After a quick breakfast, we were in the jeep for the morning and afternoon trips. Both yielded more Rhino spottings, though not as close as the elephant ride. We did see one large male in a waterhole adjacent to the road, wallowing like a great submarine, one mother and child in the elephant grass, a family of otters, a large herd of wild elephants plus buffalo and deer. The birds were also great, with fish and serpent eagles, hawks, ospreys and kites. Pelicans (the Lesser Spotted Pelican, the same as I had seen in Colombo), herons, kingfishers and Woolly Necked Storks amongst others.


It was a great experience and utterly exhausting and an early night was followed by another crack of dawn wake up with tea and we headed back to the elephant point a little later this time without the thick sunrise mist. This time when we spotted a Rhino in the elephant grass we had no visibility issues. This one had been in a fight over night and had plenty of scares and wounds to prove it. He was incredibly impressive nevertheless and moved like a tank through the long grass. We stumbled on a young female a little later on in the long elephant grass, “perhaps the object of the fight” our guide Gokul suggested. She was much smaller with a tiny horn and seemed quite unnerved by our presence.


I was pleased we had gone again as the elephant ride was much better at the later time and afterwards we left straight away for the eastern part of Kaziranga, to go trekking on foot in the jungle. This was a forty minute drive south, past fields where we could see rhinos and wild elephants from the highway. At one point we encountered a mother and baby elephant crossing the highway. No buses or lorries slowed down and continued roaring past separating the two and causing obvious stress to the calf. The speed limit of 20 kms was ignored and the regular signs warning of crossing elephants were also ignored. This was a shame to witness.


We reached the Eastern end of the park a little late, but were greeted by the howls of the Gibbons from the tree tops. This is the only ape in India, but although we heard their wild calls, we unfortunately missed them as we had to wait for our armed guard. I thought Gokul was joking when he said we had to have an armed escort - but he was not. Tigers, Wild Elephants, Rhino, Buffalo and Poachers were all problems and we set off in single file with two armed guards in front and one at the back.


Despite missing the Gibbons we were treated to a Giant Squirrel jumping from tree to tree and a group of Cap Headed Langurs, with their unusual brilliant orange colours also jumping through the trees. But the highlight of this trek was stumbling on a large group of 60 or so (Gokul estimated) wild elephants in the thickest part of the jungle as we climbed a small hill. The guards immediately immediately raised their rifles and asked us all to retreat and made lots of noise after we spotted them through the dense jungle trees. After ten minutes we carried on slowly, spying them through gaps in the undergrowth and keeping a wide, safe distance. It was exhilarating following the guards who at times were pointing their rifles directly at the animals.


I was still excited by this encounter when we arrived back at Wild Grass, for what was a brief lunch before setting off for one last safari to the central part of the park on a jeep. This turned out to be the least interesting of all the excursions. We did spot several animals and a few birds, but we had seen them all before. We did return to one area where there was an observation tower overlooking a large lake. There, as the sun went down, a large male rhino ventured out into the water for a cooling dip, offering me the opportunity of snapping a silhouette photo. Just as I was positioning myself, a large raucous group of Bengali men arrived in another jeep, immediately jumped out and surrounded me asking for a group photograph. I pointed out the photogenic Rhino scene but they were not to be dissuaded from snapping me and started making plenty of noise. Whilst I don't mind the repeated requests for photos (especially as I take photos of Indians) this was really too much, but to keep the peace and the rhino hopefully in place I went along with their request. Luckily both photos were accomplished.


The following day Nick gave me a lift in his private vehicle back to Guwahati, which was kind and this time I went straight to the Barauh Bhavan. I had met Raj Barauh during my time at the Riverside and he had insisted on showing me his heritage hotel just a few blocks away from Manus’ Guesthouse. It was much more impressive, an art deco building full of antiques and character and all mode cons. I really liked Raj, who had met Nehru when at university (and had large photos to prove it) and was from a well to do Assamese family. His father was a well known professor during the Gandhi and Nehru eras.


He immediately settled me into his guesthouse, gave me lots of good leads for future travel and introduced me to all the other guests including a visiting Professor from Pennsylvania, the Chief Curator from the British Museum in London (here to research Assam for a special exhibition in Sept 2015), a Korean Businessman and a retired Indian Navy General. An interesting dinner was enjoyed by all presided over by Raj who has a larger than life personality and a singular obsession with Frank Sinatra. Finally I felt at home in Guwahati.