Again, there was heavy military presence everywhere and one of my fellow passengers told me that the area wasn’t safe (which I have heard throughout my entire trip). Some groups obviously want independence for their province or aren’t happy with the current situation. As I have said before, for me there was no kind of trouble but you definitely get the feeling that something’s brewing in the area. People along the way with their goods in baskets seemed to be very peaceful, but still … when we stopped at some intersections to change passengers, we were carefully observed by the military.

After An Odyssey, I Arrived In Imphal.

The taxi only drove up to a larger village, where I had to change for the local bus again (déjà vu anyone?). I was pretty exhausted after all this changing & delays and during the last 50km this was topped with having to give up my second (paid) seat. The bus was really overcrowded and two small Indian ladies sat down next to me. They hesitated at first and were pretty shy but after a while they giggled and seemed to be excited to sit next to a foreigner. Towards Imphal the road improved and so did the driver; he started speeding as if there was no tomorrow. I can honestly say that I was relieved to arrive in Imphal in one piece.

After a few times asking around for a hotel, I booked myself into the “best place in town” – Classic Hotel. It had working air-con, clean beautiful rooms, a hot shower and even a fridge. There were still a few power blackouts but I didn’t care as long as I had a nice place to sleep.

Exploring Imphal.

Imphal has a very interesting market called “Imas” (mothers) markets. All 3.000 vendors were women, which is an interesting concept and as far as I’m concerned, these ladies seemed to be pretty good businesswomen. The hardware section on the other side was occupied by men. The market really seemed like a giant beehive, because there were so many people – who were all super friendly. I bought a couple of materials and a fishing net as a souvenir.

My impression of Imphal was actually really good but there was also a disturbing part: the day I left, a home-made bomb was set off in a market a bit outside of the city and ten people lost their lives. Events like this are not uncommon and I guess that explains the heavy military presence…

The road blockade of the National highway N39 (which btw was lifted – after 92 days – today) was also a sign, that some groups want reformations or changes in the province. The ones who suffer most of these incidents – as it’s always the case – is the common population. Prices were sky-rocketing: food, petrol and major provisions were running short. Ambulances (if needed) couldn’t get through… I guess I was really lucky in the end because I probably couldn’t have gotten out of Manipur easily. But since the blockade is lifted, I’ll return again soon for sure!

Read about the first part of my trip from Kohima to Imphal.

The road to Imphal…

Fresh maggots can be found at the market in Imphal.

Market life in Imphal.

Tuk tuks around the area of Lake Loktak – located south of Imphal.

Rice paddies fill the landscape of Manipur in India.

Women are the “rulers” of the markets in Imphal.

Street market in Imphal.

Finding Out How To Get To Imphal.

Kohima in Nagaland is laid out on a few hills and public transport departs from various corners of the city – depending on the direction, so it was quite an uphill walk to check out my options on how to get to Imphal. It was a real hustle and bustle around the taxi stand. English isn’t really spoken, and I had enough hassle so I decided to skip this try to check out the big market nearby. It rained cats and dogs and after a while a guy took pity on me and asked where I wanted to go. I then found out that there was no direct bus or taxi to Imphal. I would have to change cars at the regional border, but it still seemed doable in a day if I’d start early enough.

So next day I was at the station at 6am. Definitely too early … I was the only one and the shops and market around the station were just opening. The first taxi was already pre-booked (bad luck for me). The second taxi in line was still waiting for travellers to the border but was more than pleased with my offer on paying the entire middle row (so that I can take pictures on the left and right side).

Off I Go.

It took about one hour to fill up the car with passengers intending to go my direction. And of course everybody stared at me. After leaving Kohima the driver stopped at a road block to get the travel permit and to pay the road tax. The area is heavily controlled by the Indian Army (called the Assam Rifles). They protect the roads because there’s a lot of tension in the area and sometimes home-made bombs are set off or important local individuals are kidnapped for money. I don’t know exactly, but it didn’t seem like that they were going to kidnap foreigners. I still heard a few times (from the few people who speak English) that the area was not safe. What can I say? For me the trip was very safe.

Luckily the driver didn’t think he was Michael Schumacher, so I enjoyed the ride which took me along a winding tarmac road. Now or then the trip was interrupted by earlier landslides. We stopped a few times to let people in and out, always with a few military guards in sight. These guys were all very (!) good looking in their combat uniforms!

Faster than expected the border to Manipur came in sight. The road was in bad shape the last kilometres, with some barriers along the road. At one of these barriers we had to strop and I had my passport ready – of course it was me they were looking for. The officer spoke English, said sorry for the delay but it was procedure that he had to copy my passport. After about 3 km we pulled into the taxi station I was ready to get off at. Now I had to look for another transport to continue my jounrey.

First I needed a rest through. A quick scan of the area showed me a big restaurant sign and I thought that I’d check it out. The food offered excellent vegetarian variety and the owner even had rooms to rent. I would have stayed, but since I already heard about the road blockade, I wanted to continue. I walked along the main road until I reached the border post of Manipur. Everyone seemed to be on their lunch break, because nobody opened an eye when I went in and said “Hello, is anybody here?” One guy looked at me and waved me out as if he was saying “Just go ahead.” So I did and stepped on Manipurs soil.

Here’s part 2 of my trip from Kohima to Imphal.

The view of Kohima in Nagaland.

A local bus driver in Kohima, Nagaland.

Women carrying home their goods along the way to Manipur

The military is present all around Nagaland.

Rice terraces can be found all around Nagaland.

The heavy military presence continued throughout the entire way to Kohima. Every few hundred meters the road was flanked by really good looking Indian soldiers (sometimes on strategic little hills sitting behind walls made of sandbags). Everything seemed so serene; the road winded along upwards to Kohima but obviously there are tensions in the area. A movement for an independent Nagaland is silently active and occasionally some home-made bombs explode or some influential people are killed… For me as a traveller there didn’t seem to be any danger around, though the presence of the army told me differently.

Information tip:

• A good source for Nagaland information is the Nagaland Post.

We passed a bad accident along the way; a truck didn’t make it around a curve and said hello to a step divine (we assume he drove too fast). The area smelled badly of petrol, so we only took a quick look and then drove off before the thing was going to explode. Also it’s pineapple season in summer and along the road were lots of pineapple vendors and we’ve never tasted better pineapples than here. The fields of pineapples looked really beautiful planted along step hills. Some other food stalls sold fresh herbs & fruits like basil, oregano, tiny bananas and passion fruits. It’s a good in-between snack for this long drive.

It’s a 5-hour-drive up to Kohima and the temperature was getting a bit cooler. We were welcomed me with a heavy shower and another police checkpoint – “Passport number, visa number, where you come from, where you go to?” same old bla bla bla.

Anyway, our hotel was a bit Spartan but well situated near the main road and the WWII cemetery. It was the Battle of Kohima where British and Indian soldiers fought alongside to stop the Japanese invasion in 1944. The war cemetery is the final resting ground for 1.400 brave soldiers who lost their young lives there. Today it’s a place where loving couples walk around or students sit in the sun and study. A quiet place in an otherwise bustling little city…

Kohima is a town perched on a few hills. It’s a bit stretched out and you can walk for hours. It’s an important trading point for all the small farmers who live in the area and as far as we noticed, everybody is really friendly. Our black headscarfs helped a lot though because we were not immediately picked out as foreigners.

Market Life.

The market was a heaven for strange food and lots of grubs, frogs, different insects and freshwater fish were on display. Of course, as I started to walk around I was curiously looked at by many people plus every policeman directing the traffic, so I bought a black scarf to wrap my blond hair into to be a little less recognizable as a foreigner.

Travelling Around Kohima.

There are various bus and taxi stations, depending on the direction you wish to travel. We decided to continue to Imphal, the capital of Manipur. We decide on a shared taxi this time, to keep the costs down. It was a bit of a discussion with which car we should travel. We didn’t find out why, but we assume some taxi drivers knew, that with a foreigner in the car there will be delays along the way due to the checkpoints. One taxi driver was finally convinced when we told him that we’d buy three seats so we could take pictures on the right and left side when driving. The trip to Imphal passed through an impressive area, but this adventure will have to wait for another post.

More Nagaland Stories.

Travelling Nagaland: Part 1 – Getting There.

Travelling Nagaland: Part 2 – Impressions Of Dimapur.

Travelling Nagaland: Part 3 – Kohima & Surroundings.

The town of Kohima is located on the top of a high ridge and the town serpentines along the top of the mountain ranges as is typical of most Naga settlements.

Nagaland also known as the Switzerland of Asia is a breath-taking beautiful place. The people are very friendly and warm hearted. And Kohima is definitely a place well worth visiting!

In 1944 during World War II the Battle of Kohima along with the simultaneous Battle of Imphal was the turning point in the Burma Campaign. For the first time in South-East Asia the Japanese lost the initiative to the Allies which they then retained until the end of the war. Kohima has a large cemetery for the Allied war dead maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. The cemetery lies on the slopes of Garrison Hill, in what was once the Deputy Commissioner’s tennis court which was the scene of intense fighting, the Battle of the Tennis Court.

These market women in Kohima really seemed to enjoy themselves.

The market in Kohima was a real colourful experience.

The market in Kohima offers all sort of interesting things to look at.

Frogs are just one of the strange things found at the markets in Kohima.

The strangest thing in Kohima was the piping. Lots of water pipes border the streets, sometimes with outlandish connections; the same applies for electric wiring but that’s more common all over Asia.

Bus transportation from Kohima to anywhere in India.

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…

More Nagaland Stories.

Travelling Nagaland: Part 1 – Getting There.

Travelling Nagaland: Part 2 – Impressions Of Dimapur.

Travelling Nagaland: Part 3″ – Kohima & Surroundings.

Northeast frontier Railway welcomes you to Dimapur.

The Rickshaw driver in Dimapur knew what we were looking for.

Definitely an interesting shop sign – but it made us laugh really hard while strolling the streets of Dimapur.

A market woman in the streets of Dimapur.

Fresh vegetables can be found at any market in Nagaland.

Dead frogs awaiting the next customer at the market in Dimapur.

Typical looking trucks in east & north-eastern India.