I had spent so long in Arunachal Pradesh that I now needed to rush to Nagaland for the Hornbill Festival and the accommodation I had booked in Kisama. Nagaland was well over 200 km away and would involve at least two trips and an overnight stay somewhere en route. After some deliberation I thought I would return to the Magnolia in Tezpur where at least the internet worked intermittently, the mattresses were the best I had so far encountered in the north east and the staff were friendly. I also realised that if I broke my journey in Tezpur I could get the night bus (something I originally vowed to avoid in India) and spend 18 hours in the Magnolia. I also knew I was coming down with another cold in the last few days in Bomdilla, so this seemed a good idea as Tezpur would be 20C and Nagaland would be back down to Bomdilla temperatures. Hopefully I could get rid of the cold with a rest and sleep at the Magnolia. This all seemed such a good safe plan.


In Bomdilla I booked another shared taxi to Tezpur and managed to get seat no 2 one of the best seats, so all seemed like plain sailing for the 6/7 hour trip to sunny Tezpur . We had to leave at 5.00 am so it was up at 4.30am again with the feral dogs fighting outside the hotel. The shared taxi duly arrived and the driver took one look at me and said “you are too big for seat 2, you must swap with someone behind.”  I was amazed having had no problems in seat 2 before (the previous three trips), but one of the other passengers nodded and some others seemed to agree and so I was placed in a far worse seat. This meant that for six hours I had to sit with one buttock on the seat and the other on the window winder of the passenger door. The road of course was far from smooth and I still have bruises now two weeks later. It was also seriously uncomfortable for everyone else, except the man who was promoted.


At the final part of the journey as we arrived in Tezpur it became apparent that this man who had my seat knew both the driver and the woman in seat no 1, most likely his wife and I had been conned . This left me with a bad taste in the mouth and I was furious when we arrived in the sumo station. The woman I had ended up sitting next too was ill with a serious cold as well, so I knew it was only a matter of time before I fell ill. I hoped this would be after I arrived in Kisama in Nagaland. I also hopped a good night’s sleep at the Magnolia would sort everything out.


Still angry about the sumo, it was nice to be welcomed back into the Magnolia hotel by the manager. I asked for a quiet room, but he assured me that this was unnecessary as I was the only guest. He also told me that the following day their was a general strike in Tezpur, so everywhere would be quiet. This seemed great and after I had bought my night bus ticket for the following day, I had some lunch and returned to the hotel to try and use their internet, which (of course) did not work.


The manager got the technicians in and after a few hours it worked, but I was so tired I thought I decided that I would work in peace on the internet tomorrow and go to bed . My cold was getting quite fierce now and I had a nasty headache developing.


It was at 10.30pm that I was awoken with a jolt by a pneumatic drill starting on the wall above my head in the neighbouring room. It was earsplitting. At first I though it was a nightmare but soon I was on the phone to reception and eventually it was stopped after some thirty minutes. I was luckily to catch reception before they went home for the night as the hotel was unmanned at night when I stayed there before.


The next morning it started again at 7.30am. I was furious again as I now had a splitting headache and a severe head cold. No one in the hotel could be found so I went for a walk in the sunshine, away from the drilling. At least the temperature was nice.


On my return the manager arrived and assured me it would be stopped which eventually it did. I told him that I was ill and just wanted to rest in peace and use the internet until my agreed check out at 8.00pm that evening.


However come 11.00am and the drilling started again. I was not sure what they were doing but it was not just a few repairs, it sounded like demolition . Again I went downstairs and again the manager assured me it would stop. Twenty minutes later it did, but only for a while. By now I was getting very angry.


This time the manager said “the repairs are essential”. But when I said he should have told me when I checked in and I would have gone else were he had no answer. He then offered to move me to a different room, but this was a small hotel where all the rooms back onto the one with the “essential repairs” so I felt this suggestion was ridiculous. I knew the only alternative was either sitting in the lobby where the noise was less severe or in the bus station on a bench for nine hours. I decided to give it one last chance.


The manager was by this time somewhat hassled by my complaints and anger, and promised me it would finish at 2.00pm if I would accept the noise for the 90 mins before. We agreed. However at 3.00pm it started again - I was fuming. I packed and left for the seven hours on a bench at the bus station. The staff all seemed bemused at my anger.


At least it was warm until the sun went down at 5.00pm. The bus station was not crowded due to the general strike, and I sat with some other travelers twitching our thumbs. I wondered when I would have another chance to use the internet. Everything in Tezpur was shut due to the strike, except the ticket office and a few Chai sellers, so it was quite boring just watching the rats and the other passengers. My headache was still awful and my nose running and legs aching. Plus my back and buttocks also ached from that awful sumo journey. “Surely it could not get any worse” I thought.


The bus arrived at 9.30 pm and looked like it had driven all the way from Kabul. It was packed inside with people in my seat, no seat numbers and people in the aisle on stools. My reservation took a while to sort out and when it was, it became apparent that all the seats were broken so they fell into the lap of the person behind. Consequently leg room was non existent and I had the head of a 60 year old woman in my lap. Worst of all the windows were broken in the back. My heart sank.


The bus was driven by a mad man and at the back every bump and sudden brake was amplified. The woman in front was often thrown in the air higher than me only to land painfully for both of us in my lap. I was getting angry, tired and ill. After a hour we stopped for dinner and there whilst everyone ate I at least got 40 mins sleep in the empty bus. Back off again we approached Kaziranga, where the state government had erected a whole series of nasty sleeping policeman to enforce the national park’s 20 km speed limit. The bus driver ignored these road humps and just put his foot down. I nearly hit the roof and woman landed on me with such force I was winded. The people sitting on the floor on stools were thrown everywhere, but amazingly no one complained. With these humps lining the 45 kms of national park this was akin to torture.


Needless to say I got no sleep and the temperature plummeted the nearer we got to Dimapur. My hands were frozen and it was really unpleasant. We arrived at 3.30am, when Dimapur was quite, dark, cold and very dusty. Luckily two Assamese brothers found out I was bound for the Hornbill and found me a seat in a shared taxi with them. By this time I was in a daze, so I was very grateful for their help and we arrived in Kohima as day broke. One hour later I was in my homestay with the host Nino, who immediately realised I was ill.


I had some breakfast and went to bed. Initially I planned to visit the festival on that first day but I ended up in bed for the whole day with an horrendous cough, temperature and a sore throat. Nino gave me medicine and this knocked me out, which was lucky as they had a homestead party that night for thirty guests and I slept through it all.


So I made it to Nagaland and the Hornbill finally after a true horror journey lasting 50 hours, covering just 160 kms.