Blogs from Guwahati, Assam, India, Asia

It's late at night and I'm having a bit of bump trying to put into words what was one of the most amazing experiences of my life till now. I will give it a try.. College had just ended and heart breaking goodbyes had already weighed down my heart deep enough to absorb any pleasant experience. The realisation that I was not gonna see some of my favorite people for quite sometime, had wiped out all the excitement and anticipation of the upcoming trip that the eight of us had planned after college. What was originally a 14 member party, seemed to lose flavor when people started backing out. So when me and another friend started for Kolkata on 23rd morning, saying goodbye to our beloved juniors, energy levels were plummeting like the stock prices of ... read more

Assam is amazing, edgy, scary, beautiful all at the same time. We saw a "Flying fox" bat outside the train station, while waiting for our share jeep to leave. Our driver almost got into a fist fight with other drivers, over parking space. The train station, which serves as nightime shelter for many of the city's homeless people, had been the scene of political bombings in the past. Guwahati is crowded & smelly. Holes in the sidewalk leading to the sewer below. Crossing the street takes nerves of steel. We just have one afternoon in Guwahati, & want to go to the Bhramaputra River. We tell autorickshaw driver to take us to the gnat where the ferry for peacock Island docks. He drops us off, instead, by a judicial building. We make our way thru a ... read more

"Cold wave", non si parla d'altro in questo momento attraverso tutta l'India del Nord; Amritsar ed il Punjab sono come sempre le zone piu' fredde della pianura, seguite a ruota da Delhi, in cui la temperatura minima e' gia' scesa pericolosamente verso i 3 gradi, e poi giu' per l'intera piana gangetica, dove di notte si arriva ai 4-5. Come se non bastasse, tipica del'inverno hindustano e' anche la formazione di una "fog belt", la temutissima cintura di nebbia che crea disagi di dimensioni apocalittiche, con treni a lunga percorrenza che accumulano puntualmente 10-15 ore di ritardo, ed in alcuni casi si sente addirittura parlare di interi convogli partiti e mai arrivati a destinazione, inghiottiti per sempre con tutto il loro carico da questa spessa, impietosa coltre bianca.... In questo momento il Mercante si trova in ... read more

So I started this blog a little late, but I feel like I made it just in time to start the real part of journey. So far I have already been in Guwahati for 2 weeks and then traveled to Thailand for 2 weeks, and am now back in Guwahati. I will be here for 3 weeks before I begin my trek across India. I have experienced so many different things since I've been here already. From being stared at by every single person I come into contact with for being white, to biting my tounge everytime our driver swerves out of the way of a giant cow laying in the middle of the road. While those things are less important, I do feel like things are changing with me that feel much more real. I'm ... read more

“The door of the historic Kamakhya temple will remain closed on Sunday morning for the Anbubachi Mela....” Excellent timing, again. But the rest of the Times of India report is encouraging: “The door will reopen on June 25. Over six lakh devotees from across the country and abroad are likely to converge during the four-day congregation atop Nilachal Hills.” So we proceed to the temple of lust, where a stone yoni is worshipped, hardly eight kilometres from Guwahati on the airport route. The Brahmaputra flows parallel to the highway, till the hills hide the river. Barricades and khakhis mark the beginning of the road uphill. Only public buses and vehicles with special permits are let onto the hills for security reasons. We will have to trek uphill if we get down from the suffocating bus. All ... read more