Travelling Nagaland Part 2: Impressions Of Dimapur.

Ulli — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 08:48:05 +0000

We finally arrived in Dimapur. The main commercial hub of Nagaland welcomed us with a big argument between the tuk-tuk drivers who were going to carry us from the train station to wherever. They didn’t know what we wanted, but chattering with and about tourists is a must I guess. We were tired of discussions and asked loud and clearly: “Who speaks English?” This silenced them a bit and an old bicycle Rickshaw driver got our attention. His English was better than average and he cycled his soul out to the main road where all of the better hotels were situated. He knew what we were looking for but the first hotel only had windowless rooms left, so that was no good. The next one called “Sarawati”, looked quiet impressive. We were positively surprised about the good standard that awaited us. We seemed to be the only guest, though…

Settling In.

I always have the feeling that if we can afford the most expensive hotel in a place, we’re really far away from home (though it was not really expensive, maybe 30 € a night – but I know, that’s a lot in India). We simply wanted to treat ourselves since we saved on our 3^rd class train ride; the trip from Siliguri to Dimapur cost us something like 5 € per person on the overnight train, so we could spoil ourselves a bit.

So the hotel even had internet connection in the lobby, interrupted a few times by a power blackout, but still… Inquiring when the last western tourist passed through, the receptionist said: “Maybe a year ago.” and probably wondered what the hell we were going to do here.

Exploring Dimapur – Jesus Is The Solution.

When going out for our first check of the city, we immediately spotted the first church. Later on we came to know that the people of Nagaland are mainly Christians. In the evening, there was a gathering close to the hotel of people who were campaigning for the Christian religion. The announcer (he looked like a young western theology student) proclaimed things like: “Do you have financial problems? – Jesus is the solution!” He didn’t seem too happy to spot a white traveller (who btw is able to look through his sneaky recruitment). We just thought to ourselves if there was really anyone in the crowd who believed that there would be a bank transfer from heaven at the end of the month… We shook our head and walked on.

Dimapur is a dusty, noisy, vibrant and very busy city. Lots of shops, especially religious shops in which you can buy Christian symbols – statues of Mother Mary and so on. Lots of internet cafes, many of them full with online gamers, can be found here as well. We passed a lot of curious shops as well, like many second hand clothes stalls, where they sell clothes from Europe and the US. We read “Abercombie & Fitch”, ” H&M” and so on… Maybe someone ships these giveaway-clothes to India. Anyway, I found use of a wonderful long sleeve “Yves Saint Laurent” shirt which was going to protect me from the sun (the temperature was about 38° Celsius). For only 3 €, I now own a designer shirt, not too bad.

There were not a lot of restaurants in Dimapur but we found one in a side street which was full with diners – that was the right one for us. It was a gritty hotel as well, which we found out when asking for the toilet. The toilet was on the rooftop with no door and a great view over Dimapur, also something I’ve never done before. Anyway, back to the food. We’re both not vegetarians, but India and vegetarian food go hand in hand. I can’t remember what we got, but it was delicious! The thing with all these travel related diseases can be tricky, but this time we managed not to get sick even for a single day. I think it was partly because we only drank tea (made by ourselves with our water kettle and plain bottled water) and no meat for 6 weeks. It was “veggies only” throughout our trip.

Food Tip.

I have to say, food is necessary but not on our priority list. We’re always on the lookout for a restaurant or food stall that has a high turnover. Our experience shows us, that the main thing to avoid trouble (diarrhoea, etc.) is to eat in places with a high turnover because then you can be pretty sure that the food is fresh.

We decide to continue to Kohima the next day. And this is where Part 2 of our story ends…

Travelling Nagaland Part 1: Getting There.

Ulli — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 08:25:35 +0000

Since only January 1^st 2011, independent travelling around Nagaland without a special permit was possible. Of course we had to take the chance to get a glimpse of this beautiful (but not very well known) corner of our planet. Nagaland is one of seven sister states in Northeast India, with Dimapur as the biggest airport- & rail head point.

From Kolkata To Nagaland.

Travelling beyond Kolkata into the North, through the “needle eye” of India – the distance between Bangladesh to the right and Nepal to the left is less than 20km – can be a challenge to itself. As I wrote about train travel through India in an earlier post, the numbers of 1^st & 2^nd class seats are limited. Many trains are just ordinary local connections and therefore don’t have compartments with privacy. But this way you also travel with the local community (which is a good thing is in any case). There is a strict non-smoking policy on all the trains and animals are also not allowed as well.

After a long night in a 3^rd class non-AC sleeper, where our fellow travellers talked and chatted far beyond midnight, where the overhead fans fiddle constantly with an immense noise and bright neon bulbs light up the wagon, topped with the sweet smell of obvious huge cannabis fields out there in the darkened area (yes, believe me, the smell of cannabis filled the train a long way after passing Siliguri), and with passing trains that gave us the feeling that the train would jump out of the tracks due to the suction, we arrived in Guwahati – tired, but healthy. We only had a few hours layover here before we were off to catch the next train to Dimapur – the starting point for any Nagaland adventure.

A Short Stop In Guwahati.

Walking out of the station just for a quick look was immediately interrupted by a policemen “Come with me for registration!” he said. “What?” we replied. “You have to register with the police” was all he said. So we followed the tired policeman to his office, where more tired policemen hung around; one took our passports and started writing into a huge old book. We waited and looked around. We could see lots of dusty files & documents lying around and we couldn’t help ourselves and asked if anybody would ever even look at them. The policeman shook his head and said “Probably not but it’s British bureaucracy.”

After the registration process we finally got out of the station in Guwahati for a stroll. We immediately notice the heavy military presence. Lots of army trucks, armoured vehicles and soldiers were around and we saw a huge building opposite the station – thinking it was a hotel for a breakfast treat – which was an Army barrack. After wandering around for a few hours, the train to Dimapur was ready to board.

Travel Tip (Women Only, Sorry).

A really good thing at (larger) Indian train stations are the ladies waiting rooms. You have to pay a few Rupees but they have seats, electricity, toilets and sometimes even showers. It took a while for us to find out that such places exist in every bigger station. They’re a real treat between a long journey.

The train ride from Guwahati to Dimapur would take a few hours. The landscape was pleasant with rice paddies and the occasional ox-car meandering the fields. Our fellow train passengers were tired Indians who snored their way to Dimapur – only interrupted by the few food vendors and the conductor who checked the tickets…

Travel Photography Blog by Nisa Maier and Ulli Maier. » Dimapur