It was an early start when we left Mokokchung in Albert’s taxi. Luckily his car did work that morning and the three of us arrived on time at the Sumo counter. We left Mokokchung as the clouds converged over the town. “These clouds look like heavy rain,” I stated, but was told it was too early for the monsoon.


We followed the road to Assam for some distance before turning north towards Changtongya . Here the landscape became hilly, the road narrow and windy. It started to cling to the sides of the hills and the views were spectacular. We past increasingly numerous Banana plantations and the terrain looked to be in good condition. Eventually we reached the clean and quiet town of Changtongya, where we stopped for breakfast.


On resuming the journey we took an even smaller track that descended down to the valley floor where we crossed the river and the border into the Phom district. All of a sudden it was not just the road that changed. It was now more dirt road than bitumen, but the farming also became more intensive. Here in Phom district the slash and burn agriculture was everywhere giving the hilly landscape an almost apocalyptic, grey alien feel. The brown and black scorched earth was testimony to this brutal agricultural practise and the only sign of green life on many hillsides where the tops of new banana plants pushing out of the dark grey soil . The inhabitants clung to the hillsides in bamboo huts roughly fashioned with other dried vegetation. This was all rather depressing.


To compound the sultry feel of the landscape the weather changed from the blue sky over Ao district into thick cloud and suddenly driving rain. The temperature also plummeted and with visibility restricted to just a few metres we rolled into Longleng, the capital of the Phom district and our destination.


As we drove through town the high street resembled some WW2 photos of European towns with mud everywhere, blacked wooden shacks, thick fog and streaming rain. We were dropped off at a sumo ticket counter where the member of staff was wrapped in a thick blanket and huddled in his tiny wooden shack. Langa and I left Sunita with the bags there and headed off to find the Omega Hotel which (was according to what I had read on the internet) was the only private hotel in town . Eventually we located it down in the lower part of town past the football field and opposite the State Bank. The concrete pavilion at the football stadium was packed with screaming teenage girls as two local boys teams clashed on the muddy pitch. The Omega Hotel was rather an unattractive building which had a glass mirrored extension built on top of a plain old hotel. This resembled a mirrored shoe box on top of a traditional wooden building. The noise of the generator was deafening, however the lady owner was somewhat friendly without speaking English and she arranged for Sunita and our bags to be collected. It was nice to get out of the torrential rain.


On closer inspection the accommodation was not great. Two single rooms were really just prefabs and one had a front door that did not close. There were only two singles so I took the cheapest double located over the communal room with a fire place so I was smoked out in the evening (the floor was porous). My bathroom was unpleasant and very smelly. The communal toilets downstairs which Langa and Sunita had to use were worse. For the price for this was quite frankly ridiculous, but due to the weather we stayed put.


Later that afternoon the rain cleared up and we walked around town to find some lunch. We stumbled on some samosas and tea in a hut run by Indians from the mainland, but it appeared that they were told to close the following day or face a 5000R fine for opening (told to close on Sunday by the Baptists). Consequently we started to buy some food for the following day.


The football pitch was kind of interesting. The watching girls had stopped screaming now the local boys were not playing and the following girls football match appeared more of a curiosity for these hormonal supporters sitting in the unattractive concrete pavilion. With Sunday closing fast approaching Langa and I went to the local craft shop and then tried unsuccessful to find some onward transportation. It was during this search that we met the President of the Student’s Union. He was most helpful promising plenty of help and instilling me with confidence that we could find a cost effective way of getting to Wakching in the Konyak district for the approaching Aoling Festival.


I think we were all anticipating a lie in on Sunday but church appeared to start well before 6.00am, with carols in a neighbouring house. I was up early as I had found two cockroaches in my bed that morning and surprisingly encountered both Langa and Sunita early. Breakfast was kind of … interesting and as the whole town was closed we started to wonder what to do. It was a ghost town - in fact all over Nagaland is like this on any given Sunday. However in the more remote places this can be an acute problem, especially when you have transport to organise. At least the sun was out and we enjoyed that, chatted on the roof top and ended up watching a video. The church opposite enjoyed a steady procession of church goers all day.


As the day came to an end, the three of us turned our attention again to the transport issue. Wakching’s Aoling Festival started on the 1st April giving us just two days to arrive. The Aoling festival is the largest and one of the most popular festivals in Nagaland outside the Hornbill Festival. It is the traditional Koyak Spring celebration and lasts for just two days. Naga festivals are traditionally centred around the agricultural seasons. This year it finished on the day before Good Friday thus becoming a week long holiday in the Konyak area. It was back during my visit in December when Ayong, my Konyak friend and old mate of Langa Chuba invited me for the Aoling Festival. He kindly mentioned that I could stay with him and his parents during the event and then for Easter, as there would be little chance of getting public transport during this time. Naturally Langa Chuba was coming as well and Ayong was kind enough to include Sunita at the last minute.  


As my plans to travel north were complicated by the tribal dispute in Tuensang, instead of approaching the town of Wakching from Tuensang (as planned) we had to re-route through Longleng. At least this afforded the possibility of visiting the Phom territory for the first time, which was sandwiched between the Konyak and Ao districts. Of course on paper this new route looked easy and I had encountered many reports of sumo’s travelling between Longleng and Mon (en route to Wakching) during March. With Wakching only 30-40 odd kilometres from Longleng as the crow flies I was not expecting any problems. However the more we asked about transport the more this appeared to be a huge problem.


Firstly Omega Travels (the same company as our hotel) said they would drive us for US $150. This was more than the amount of money as I paid for my return flight from Bangkok to Kolkata. The reasons they gave were the bad road condition, the price of petrol (now the cheapest for many years) and the charge was for a return journey. The road to Wakching via Mon was 70 Km. This just seemed obscene, however we knew one other person indirectly in Longleng and he also wanted the same charge, sighting a town union price list. It was now quite apparent that if we were to get to Watching for the opening ceremony of the Aoling, we needed some sort of luck. We had already established on the Saturday that all the official public transport was booked. This included the sumos travelling to Mon and to Tuli and the only two buses were full. Aoling is a Konyak wide festival and many Phoms were attending.


Langa and I enquired everywhere but to no avail. Omega Travel positively would not countenance dropping their prices, so our only alternatives were travelling back to Mokokchung and then taking the long route to Mon via Assam, with at least two nights accommodation and missing the first day of Aoling or asking the President of the Student’s union for help. Consequently we decided to go on that Sunday evening and ask for his help. The President was at home and invited us inside for a tea with his family. The house was basic and comfortable plus surprisingly surrounded outside by two top of the range 4x4s. Everything became quite hopeful as he bundled us into one 4x4 and we started to visit everyone in town who owned a spare car. However after the initial hope, it started to become clear that it was either Omega travels high price or the long trip with the uncertainty of arriving in time for the first day. I had been advised that the best and most interesting time of the festival was the first morning.


In the end I worked out it was going to cost not too much extra to get there with Omega than the other way plus the two nights accommodation. Also it seemed a huge waste of time and money if we missed the opening ceremony, so with a great deal of reluctance we booked with Omega travel. That night we packaged everything again. I was also somewhat concerned about the condition of the roads as they must be awful if everyone charged these exorbitant fees.