re: Greetings from North East India - Through Arunachal and Assam

Mesmerizing 'Gourab Das Photography' once again. Few pics are so reminiscent. I do not know, how much polishing has been done here but for others, you will actually come across such greenish scenery as shown above.

More to come?!! I guess, Xbhp mag covered merely, what,, like, 50%

re: Greetings from North East India - Through Arunachal and Assam

For past few days, following this thread closely. Added NE to the list of so many places to be visited before laying to rest. Stunning photos MG. Kudos to both DK & MG. Hope change in marital status doesn't limit touring of DK much.

re: Greetings from North East India - Through Arunachal and Assam

If all goes well paaji--bhais ki aankh I am riding to himachal tomorrow plus 1

re: Greetings from North East India - Through Arunachal and Assam

Yes more to come and I will say xBhp magazine had around 30% of pictures

Before this ride I was planning for Arunachal from a very long time and was glad that finally I did a part of it. Had a wonderful time in NE and will be there sooner than later.

Thank you

----consecutive posts auto-merged-----

Day 13 - More pictures from Kaziranga

A dreamy sunrise in Kaziranga




And we are out on a elephant safari




Another sighting of King Rhino in the morning


A pair of Rhino


A mother and her child




More pictures from around the Kaziranga













And finally the Eco Hut where we stayed in Kaziranga

re: Greetings from North East India - Through Arunachal and Assam

Good to see that every set has DK bhau's pojher (correct me if I am wrong, a term learnt from pune Xbhpians from different forums) pics. Even if I meet DK someday, I dunno if I'll get to see him with the mustache as he already claimed that it was for that particular ride

BTW MG, you are free to post your pic also or maybe DK can help with that . Both of you are famous in the fraternity; what's the harm?!!

re: Greetings from North East India - Through Arunachal and Assam

Nice photos, I bet you had a wonderful journey in North East. NE India is great for touring but has terrorist problems. You should avoid going to few places in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh cause there have been instance of terrorists kidnapping tourists. Next time anybody visits NE India particularly Assam, give me a call , I could help you out. I live close to the world's largest inhibited river island Majuli so if you need any help going there, I'd be more than happy to help you out.

re: Greetings from North East India - Through Arunachal and Assam

I am from Assam, never heard of Terrorists Kidnapping Tourists. It's the army that the insurgent groups have issues with.

Arunachal Pradesh doesn't have any terrorist issues.. its a peaceful state.

re: Greetings from North East India - Through Arunachal and Assam

Good one there

re: Greetings from North East India - Through Arunachal and Assam

Maybe you haven't heard of it. You may want to open up those old newspapers, provided you haven't sold them to paperwalah already. The places here have developed but the people have yet to modernize themselves, just to give you a quick idea, 11 held for human sacrifice in Assam village - The Times of India Arunachal Pradesh looks peaceful from outside but there are violence too. Few days ago, there was a shootout between Naga people and Assamese in Mariani, a medium sized town. Some North-Eastern people seem to be hostile towards mainland Indians, especially to those from Delhi and Bihar. Just stay away from tribal areas like BTAD (Boroland Territorial Area Districts) and you should be safe. My intention is not to intimidate anyone, just trying to make the fellow bikers aware of the situation here. Sorry if this was OT, I'll not drag this discussion anymore.

re: Greetings from North East India - Through Arunachal and Assam

Day 13 continued and Day 14 - Ride back to Siliguri

This was the last destination where we were together and now Nitin will move towards Shillong while I will proceed towards Kolkata via Siliguri. We bid goodbye to each other and moved on at our own pace. After the exit of Tezpur NH37 turns into a four lane highway with hardly any vehicle movement. There are certain sections which are not yet complete but once the whole stretch is complete this will be one of the dream stretches for SBK riders. My plan for the day was to reach Bongaigaon or stay at Nalbari but again some problem arised in my vehicle and luckily Nitin was also around at that time as we were riding in the same direction. Since it was a small issue the local mechanic did the job for me but we both decided that it’s not safe for me to proceed further in the night. Nitin always says that my vehicle has a mind of its own and it alerts me just before a major issue whenever there is a city or some mechanic shop around and had never ditched me, so when the vehicle had signaled I shouldn’t proceed. I bought his logic and we stopped at Sonarpur.

Sonarpur is just 30km before Guwahati and to our surprise had lots and lots of dhabas all around the highway which is almost absent almost everywhere else in Assam. Later we came to know that the dhaba culture in India has started from Sonarpur, and hence the presence of so many dhabas around.

Next morning with a long day ahead and Malda as my target which is roughly 700kms I made a move quite early so as to cover as many kms as I can and with a decent idea about the pathetic West Bengal roads the more daylight I will have the better it will be. Ride till Bongaigaon was uneventful other than the fact that I realized that I took a very good decision by stopping at Sonarpur as there were no hotels in between and I could stop only at Bongaigaon which would have roughly taken 6 hours at night. From Bongaigaon I was supposed to take the route via Alipurduar. But instead I took a wrong route via Dhubri. I was expecting that once I cross the state I will be riding in the foothills but was surprised to see all plain roads, the only saving grace were the innumerable river that were coming along the way. It was only when I saw a board saying Cooch Bihar 85kms I realized that I’m on a wrong route. I got surprised because Cooch Bihar was not supposed to come on my route, opened the map only to realize that last 200kms I was riding on a longer route which runs almost alongside the Bangladesh border. Picture got clear that why didn’t get any hills and why there are so many rivers around. There was no point going back on the other route so decided t take this route which will go via Cooch behar, Jalpaiguri to Siliguri. But all these meant I lost a lot of time but still I was hopeful that if I get good roads then there is a possibility to reach Malda by 11 or 12 in the night.

But all those hopes went out of the window as soon I crossed the Assam border and entered WB near Cooch Bihar and I was greeted with a crater sized pothole in the middle of the road without any notice. The road from here on were nothing but a pain because you cannot speed anywhere because of the unknown crater sized pothole which can be life threatening. Also WB is one of the most densely populated states so even if you get a good stretch of 4-5kms, on a two lane highway you can’t speed lest someone comes in front of you. With 30kms to Siliguri the road turned from bad to worse with very heavy truck traffic and a lot of dust which made riding at night very very difficult. Somehow I reached Siliguri by 7.30. Malda was another 210 kms, I but didn’t have the courage to do it after the last 100km torcher.

Excellent road network everywhere in Assam









Stopping by the Brahmaputra just after Guwahati




A place to have my lunch just before Bongaigaon


Its harvest time


There are some 50 odd railway bridges of different size and shape from Bongaigaon to Dhubri, these are just two of them




Spotted Bhutan registered vehicle near Manas National Park


A lot of NRL(Numaligarh Refinery Limited) petrol pumps in Assam


You know you are in West Bengal when road turns from good to bad to worse. The below stretch is one of the better stretch

re: Greetings from North East India - Through Arunachal and Assam

One trip log which I am very glued to. Beautiful narration & pictures.

re: Greetings from North East India - Through Arunachal and Assam

Nostalgia kickin' in!!!
There are actually a lot of dhabas in sonapur area highway. @MG, any specific reason for not including Shillong in your itinerary?!! If you have not visited that place earlier, it was a great miss , I was actually hoping to see Shillong through your lenses . @darkknight, please do post pictures of your Shillong journey, your meet with the Xbhpians & your stay there.

re: Greetings from North East India - Through Arunachal and Assam

Yes I know infact the dhaba culture I think started around the Sonarpur area but sadly couldn't explored it much

Originally my itinerary was completely different and Shillong was included in that but had to rush to Kolkata for some important work. DK did visit Shillong and quite a few places, hopefully he will add whenever he will get some time

re: Greetings from North East India - Through Arunachal and Assam

Ok, @MG - dada, how about a pojher pic now??!! Since you have headed back to Kolkata in your thread, I have a feeling that you'll not be postin' here again so you can very well post a pic of yours with/without your bike to let the mass know how the famous Gourab Das from Gourab Das Photography looks like (ekta khub bhalo foto diben)

Thanx for the wonderful time!! I hope, DK will be able to update on things shortly.


PS - Please do not stop if you've more pics to post. I was just being impatient

re: Greetings from North East India - Through Arunachal and Assam

Day 15 & 16 Stay in Siliguri and ride back to Kolkata

Siliguri to Kolkata is touted as one of the toughest highways to ride not because of hills or anything. Its completely plains but the highway is always in such bad condition that trucks with broken axle can also be found. Earlier people used to take 2days to complete this stretch but with no days in my hand I had to do this in one day at any cost.

Start again was pretty early at 5a.m. The first 120kms to Dalkhola was a four laned highway and took less than 2hours. Didn’t want to stop too often to click pictures as wanted to have maximum amount of riding hours in my hand. Enquired about the alternate route through Purnia but no one could give me a correct reply as to how the road condition will be in that stretch. Since it was a detour of more than 150kms so finally decided against it and stick on the usual NH34 for Kolkata how it will be.

As soon as you leave Dalkhola NH34 starts showing its true colours. Well I for don’t mind offroad or bad roads that much. But here the risks are three fold, first you will have potholes of every size and shape, secondly even though it’s a two lane highway but it has more traffic than a four laned one comprising mostly trucks and buses and thirdly the trucks and buses runs like maniacs even in such bad stretch. Maybe these guys lost all their patience seeing the same condition of road for years now. And not to forget the dust and the black smoke emitted by all the trucks and buses which are atleast a generation old. Slowly I kept on passing one town after another, the Farakka barrage with a lenghtspan of 1.5kms over river Ganga after Malda took close to 45mins to cross because of the heavy traffic. The stretch between Behrampur and Krishnagar is the worst and one really needs a lot of patience because its very easy to loose your cool when you ride in such condition. Moreover the complete stretch of Malda to Kolkata has hardly anything to offer except the Rajbaris in Behrampur and Krishnagar. But if someone wants to ride down for his ride to North-East then this is the only option.

After 17hours of pure torture I could reach my destination for the day, Hotel Highway International just on the outskirts of Kolkata on NH-6. This was by far the toughest riding day in my whole riding career and I’m not sure whether I would like to repeat it again or not?
Journey to north-east finishes here, although I spent a couple a days in and around Kolkata but that was more on the personal front. My first ride to North-East had left me wanting for more and I will be back very soon with another ride to that part of India!

Nice bridge on river Teesta on way to Kalimpong


Major construction going on the banks of Teesta


Trying to find a trail to go near the river


Yes the river is now quite near




This much I could go after this the road finished, Teesta is green in colour


New day and ride through the btea gardens just after Siliguri


Part of the 4 lane highway till Dalkhola


A small stopover


Eastern Railway somewhere near Dalkhola


A very interesting bridge somewhere near Malda and this picture received some very interesting comments in FB


A 50's truck and I was happy that could capture it, was doing a decent 50-60 on highway




Hotel Highway International where I stayed in Kolkata. This in on NH6 and is a very nice hotel with excellent food


Pictures from Kolkata
Around the Ganges or Hugli river near Dakhineswar temple






Surprised or shocked


Sunset in Haldia beside the Haldi river




Near the Haldia port


The 106(12*8+2*4+2) wheeler mammoth truck spotted in NH6 on way to Kolkata.
Never seen such huge truck till date. Heavy traffic and zoom lens made it quite difficult for me.Missed a wide angle badly