Blogs from Assam, India, Asia - page 3

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

I'm back! In case some of you haven't noticed, this writing has become like a therapy for me, so if you're not that interested in being part of my therapy, I'll understand if you want to un-subscribe, or just ignore those messages that arrive in your inbox, informing you I want some attention. I wonder sometimes if this is a blog about a trip, or the blog is the trip. Or am I the trip. Certainly can be trippy. Sometimes feel as though I am tripping!~ On the other hand, some of you may not get email at all if it wasn't for me, so hope you enjoy it, and stick with me. Digboi is an oil town, the oldest oilfield in the world at 108 years. Indian Oil decided to create a nature reserve out ... read more

Stilwell Road: A Trip to Amazing US Army Achievement Partha De Sarkar I closed my eyes sitting in Indian Airlines’ flight IC 701 to Dibrugarh from Calcutta. We were going to Stilwell Road that is within Indian side. I shut my eyes not to sleep but to take me back to Pangsau Pass on the Indo-Myanamar (Burma) border. I could hear US Army jeeps and trucks with trailer carrying field guns rolling by and descending into Burma. Time machine had taken me back 60 years into 1942-45 period. Japanese army was playing havoc in China and Burma. Royal Air Force and US Army Air Force were crossing “ the Hump” daily with supplies of guns and ammunitions, rations, medicines and whatever could assist the Chinese under Chiang Kai-shek to fight the yellow perils. But it was ... read more

Fear not...she's back.....Many of you have expressed concern for my travels, for me personally and nervousness cause they haven't heard anything in weeks....months. No, I you haven't missed a blast, I simply haven't written any. This is my first email blast since March!! I left the HODR deployment on the 17th of April, along with the other remaining seven volunteers who all went their separate ways. My friend from the project in Peru, Emma, and I took off for the eastern side of the country. After an adventurous overnight ferry ride across the water (sleeping on the floor with all the cockroaches crawling over my body), we spent the next couple of weeks taking in big city life in Chittagong (Bangladesh's third largest city), swimming in the crashing waves and warm water with other volunteer friends ... read more

From Shillong we moved rapidly southward to Silcha, in Assam again. Well, rapidly is a bit of mistatement! Firstly we found that we couldn't get any shared jeep transport, and were at a loss how to procede until a helpful local took us to a suburb of Shillong where a private bus company had an office. After hanging around for awhile, we were finally on our way in a big bus. It wasn't long before we encountered massive traffic jams, as hundreds of lorries head up and down this narrow road, carrying all manner of goods and fuels. At times the drivers were just alseep by the side of their truck, they'd been haulted there so long! In the later part of our downhill journey we were travelling through some reasonable jungle and some stunning ... read more