Blogs from Assam, India, Asia

On avait planifie d'aller dans le nord de l'Inde voir le monastère Tawang, lieu de naissance du 6e Dalai Lama. Malheureusement il se trouve dans l'état d'Arunachal Pradesh pour lequel on obtient très difficilement permis de visite (vu que c'est a la frontière avec la Chine). Alors on est allés plus tôt que prévu a l'île Majuli qui est probablement la plus grande île fluviale en sable, sur le Brahmaputra. Son attrait principal était ses monastères satras, monastères hindou de rite vaishnuvite, établis au XVII siècle. Des bâtiments très simples ou les bhakats (moines) peuvent être célibataires ou non. Ces monastères sont renommés pour leur contribution culturelle: la danse Sattryia est devenue une des danses classique indienne (dansée par des moines). Tous les arts sont pratiques et enseignes par les moines Nous avons eu la chance ... read more

Our first four days in India have consisted of a lot of travelling and marvelling at the sheer stink of the capital of the Assam region - Guwahati. Having done copious amounts of research into the conflict zone of the state of Assam, we made an executive decision that really we would be ok. The PM of India had travelled there so how bad could it be? Arriving at Delhi airport we went straight to the Spicejet (India's answer to easyjet) counter to book the first flight to Guwahati. The travel man immediately asked us about our route from there warning us to not go out when we arrived there due to Indiependence day and to have our wits about us due to tribal friction. This advice seemed to follow us wherever we went and was ... read more

Sceso per l'ultima volta dalle colline, rieccomi nuovamente in Assam, alla ricerca di un luogo dove poter riposare le mie stanche membra; e quale città meglio di Sivasagar per questo scopo? Un grande lago vi sorge proprio nel bel mezzo, dominato dalla mole imponente del più alto tempio di Shiva mai costruito in India, che si affaccia proprio a ridosso delle sue acque. Una impeccabile guest-house governativa offre acqua calda tutto il giorno ed anche la possibilità di oziare su comode poltrone di vimini giusto a due passi dalla riva: strano che qui sia solo, che nessun altro si spinga da questa parti, ma forse si è troppo lontani da tutto, in una città sperduta su una strada che porta al nulla; proprio quello che fa al caso mio.... Eppure non è sempre stato così: Sivasagar ... 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

After much deliberation with, well, with myself on endless bus and train rides throughout India these past few months, I have decided I just can't catch up with my email blasts (and as you know I am well behind) and will have to scrap everything I have done this past year and wait until further ado to write about my journey leading up to the present. I think what is best, is when I get a chance I will post the past blasts directly onto my blog site and if you are interested, you may log on to the site directly to receive them. I have done so much, seen so much and met so many memorable people (travelers and locals, alike), I am finding it really difficult for me to play catch up. I just ... read more

The journey from Pelling to Tezpur was adventurous to say the least... Got to Bagdogra through 3 sumos, Bagdogra to Guwahati on a flight, straight off to the Guwahati bus stand (which is outside the city), a 5 hour ride to Tezpur and finally late night a rickshaw ride from Tezpur bus stand to the hotel... had forgotten how rickshaw rides are :) The reason for doing Tezpur was to see the mighty Brahmaputra. We have all read tales about it, so had to see it for myself. But I had forgotten that this was late March, Tezpur was hot and the river had shrunk quite a bit. But the banks bore proof of how wide it goes during the rains and the impact it has on people's lives there. Tezpur has little else (couple of ... read more