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Date of the journey:- January 2020
Distance travelled:- 328 miles
Having had a wonderful time in Nongriat, on our return we stayed another night in Cherrapunji, again at La Kupar Inn. We wanted to start making our way over to Myanmar. Deciding that the next destination to visit would be Imphal.
With this North-Eastern part of India not being on the tourist trail, travel options were a little more limited. Furthermore, some States require visitors to have permits to enter. The journey to Imphal would mean leaving the State of Meghalaya, crossing the State of Assam, and entering the State of Manipur.
The State of Assam didn’t require us to have a permit. However, the State of Manipur had introduced such permits as of January 1st this year (2020). Our research showed that we could get the permit at the state border.
One travel option available for us was to go back to Guwahati, where we knew we could get a direct bus to Imphal. As we didn’t want to go back on ourselves, we chose against this option. The only other option was to push across country, eastwards towards Imphal, and break the journey at Silchar. Which is exactly what we did.
From our accommodation at La Kupar Inn in Cherrapunji, we walked to the shared jeep stand in Lower Cherrapunji, where we took a shared jeep back to Shillong. This cost 100 Rupees per person for the 2-hour journey.
The jeep dropped us at the Cherrapunji shared jeep stand in Shillong. Making our way back up the hill to Anjalee jeep stand, we could get our next shared jeep to Khliehriat. A 3-hour journey for 170 Rupees per person. At Khliehriat, it was across the road and straight into the next shared jeep to Kalain. A 4-hour journey, for 250 Rupees per person. This last shared jeep journey was particularly picturesque.
On arrival at Kalain, we were rather stuck. We needed to get to the city of Silchar, as there was no accommodation in Kalain. Fortunately for us, our jeep driver didn’t just dump us. He found us a shared minibus that would take us the hour journey to Silchar. This cost 100 Rupees per person.
There was a lack of accommodation in Silchar, owing to there being a number of weddings in the city that day. Decent hotels were all fully booked this resulted in us staying in a hotel we would rather not have. The Hotel Barak Continental. Not our first choice, but all we could find was a semi-acceptable standard.
Only staying overnight, we wanted to push on to the city of Imphal in the state of Manipur as soon as possible the following day. With this North Eastern part of India not being visited by many tourists, information about how we could do this journey was difficult to find. Having just laid into the hotel about the room, they weren’t forthcoming with advice.
The following morning we set off in the general direction of the local bus station, knowing that we were in for a long day. Asking a few people along the way, we headed in the right direction. As we passed a travel counter, we enquired as to the transport available to Imphal.
Our options were a private taxi at silly money or there were pre-bookable shared jeeps. The following morning at 0600 hrs for 700 Rupees per person. Not wanting to spend another night in Silchar or paying a fortune for a private taxi, we took a few minutes to discuss our options.
As we did so, a young local man said he could help as he was going to Jiribam, the town on the state border between Assam and Manipur, and on our route.
Unsure how we would be able to move on from Jiribam once there. But we wanted to get going. The man’s English wasn’t the best, but we got the gist of what was happening. We all jumped in a tuk tuk and went to the shared jeep stand on Imphal-Silchar Road, National Highway 37. Both the local bus and the Shared jeeps go from here, taking about 2 hours to get to the State border at Jiribam. The jeep costing 60 Rupees per person and the bus 50 Rupees per person.
On arrival at the stand, we were swamped by drivers, each one wanting our custome. A little stressed with the situation, we stepped back and took 5 minutes to think about what to do. Another empty jeep arrived and we went for it. Within seconds our bags were on top with our insistence that they are tied down. The jeeps conductor, after some 4 times of us asking, tied our bags down, and off we went.
The roads were good, the sun was out and the stress from earlier had gone. Then someone on the roadside wanted to get in. The driver braked heavily, we heard a thud and watched Tania’s backpack roll off the bonnet of the jeep into the road. The conductor, who was sitting on the roof with the luggage, jumped to collect it. Tania opened the door and got out, no damage, so back on the roof, it went.
As Tania shut the door, there was a strange sort of squeal from the front of the jeep. The passenger sitting in the front was holding the door pillar and Tania had squashed his fingers in the door!
We had purchased 3 of the 4 seats in the middle row of the jeep to avoid being cramped for the whole journey. Unexpectedly the already unpopular conductor decided to get in as well making it 4. Tania firmly told him to get out he did so, as the vehicle was moving. Clinging onto the side until a seat became available for him to use. We have a feeling it was a regular occurrence. Arrival in the State border town of Jiribam was without any further incidents.
Manipur
Registration was required before we could enter the State of Manipur. A process that took about 30 minutes to complete. Just complete a form in the State Police office on the border.
Our Manipur state permits sorted, it was time to find transport to Imphal. Again, we were told that there was nothing until 0600 hrs the next day. Unless we wanted to go in a minibus with chickens. As it was already 1500 hrs we just wanted to go, so we agreed. Off we went to get supplies for the 8+ hour journey. The minibus was leaving at 1600 hrs and cost 600 Rupees per person.
Well, they weren’t joking when they said we would be travelling with chickens.
🤣🤣 🤣🤣
To be exact 20 boxes of tweeting chicks.
🐤🐤🐤🐤
Placed on the back 2 rows of seats. On the roof rack, it was heaving laden with bananas.
🍌🍌🍌🍌
Highway to hell
The roads
Possibly the worst that we had travelled on. Twisting and turning, unmade sections and axle breaking potholes, but, we were on our way.
The glow
Not long into the journey, we could see flames in the distance. A huge section of the mountainside was alight, locals running with buckets of water, which would have had no effect on the raging inferno. As the glow of the fire became more distant, it was time for a break at one of the many roadside eateries.
The fall
The road we were on seemed to mainly be used by commercial traffic. With regular truck stops along the route. We parked up in the dark and started to walk to the cafe. As we passed one of the trucks the door flung open and a man fell out, just clipping Tania’s leg as he hit the ground, hard. His friend tried to grab him, but it was too late. It became apparent to us that he was blind drunk and completely out for the count.
That incident over and a cup of chai later, we moved on. The road got quieter as it got later. We went through a number of armed police checkpoints. All of whom had inquisitive policemen as to what 2 English people were doing with the tweeting chicks.
Eyes wide shut
The roads took us over a few rickety bridges with wooden planked decks. Only one vehicle at a time could pass and to be honest, we were glad it was dark so we couldn’t see the true state of the bridges.
By this time the roads had deteriorated into dust tracks. As we caught up with lorries travelling in the same direction as us, the dust kicked up made it impossible to see. We were following one such lorry when there was an almighty bang, which sounded like some sort of explosion. The driver stopped, we couldn’t see anything because of the dust. As we sat there and the dust began to clear, we saw the outline of a lorry, a tyre on which had just exploded.
Onwards we went. As the road seemed to get slightly better, the driver slowed right down, he and the assistant were conversing and acting rather strangely. The vehicle was brought to a halt, it was time for a break, the driver had been falling asleep at the wheel.
So, there we were, on the side of a mountain, about midnight, pitch black in with a van load of tweeting chicks and a roof full of bananas, tired and just wanting to get to Imphal.
Neither of us could get comfortable or sleep, so we just had to listen to the driver and assistant snoring along with the chicks tweeting. After about an hour or so, we got underway again along the dark, bumpy, rough road. By this time we were both feeling sick and had headaches from the constant bashing our bodies were taking on this journey.
Another checkpoint, slightly different from the others, money was changing hands. These people didn’t have uniforms and when one got on the minibus, he was blind drunk. The worrying thing wasn’t that he was drunk, but that he had an AK47 assault rifle slung over his shoulder. Luckily he was intrigued by us being foreign and kept assuring us we were safe, much to the amusement of his colleagues. A few handshakes and smiles later and we were off again.
Then it started to rain, lightly at first, getting very heavy and persisting for the remainder of our journey to Imphal. By good fortune, on this occasion, our backpacks were in the vehicle and not on the roof.
Arriving at Imphal at 0430 hrs, tired and feeling rough, we still had to find a hotel in the pouring rain. Can you believe it, hotels in Imphal don’t have 24 hour reception, so we’re all closed until 0600 hrs, an hour and a half wait.
We managed to find a tuk tuk, who turned a local out at the prospect of us being a better fare, but by this time, we just didn’t care, we both just needed a bed. The tuk tuk took us to the area with some reasonable hotels and we set up camp outside the Sangai Continental (The Boutique Hotel) until it opened at 0600 hrs. By 0610 hrs we were both curled up in single beds, fast asleep.