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TAWANG :
We were riding from Tezpur in Assam for Tawang, the star attraction
for Arunachal Pradesh Tourism. 80 kms from Tezpur is where we
first saw the mountains in far distance signaling the start
of Arunachal Pradesh and soon the ride became more enchanting
with narrow roads through the forest of Nameri National Park.
At Balukpong, the authorities checked our Inner Line Permits.
We stayed at Balukpong to cut down on our extra luggage as we
were continuously told that the bike wouldn't climb with the
two of us and the luggage.
Next day with almost half the luggage we were riding on narrow
roads with steady incline. We made a brief stop at the Orchid
center At Tipi.
The ride till Bomdila is superb, nice forest, great landscape,
and huge waterfalls are a common sight. It is here that a road
sign " FIKAR NOT" keeps on coming. Fikar Not (peppy
way of saying "Don't worry") is the name of a regiment
serving the nation in this region.
 Bomdila
has two gompas (Monastery) lower and upper gompa. His Holiness
the 14th Dalai Lama was to visit here the next day, so all the
locals were busy cleaning the streets and decorating the entrance
to the gompa.
From Bomdila, the roads get bad and terrain rocky; landslides
are frequent, thanks to all the deforestation. Heavy rain forced
us to end the day's ride at Dirang. Next day we started the
ride expecting more landslides, but the overcast conditions
and a 24 Kms.climb from 900 meters to Se La pass at the height
of 4249 meters lowered the temperatures to unbearable levels.
We had to make a brief stop at an Army camp before the pass
for the Sun to come out, but the sunlight wasn't much of help,
nevertheless we continued riding singing songs to ourselves.
 It
was April 30th, peak summer time in India and the first sight
of snow before the pass made me think that the cold had me bonkers!
But indeed it was snow, thanks to last night's heavy downpour.
Se La pass at the height of 13,700 feet was fully covered with
snow, Se La Lake near the pass was frozen, I took respite knowing
that I wasn't the only one frozen to my wits.
At Se La, a memorial is erected in memory of the Border Roads
Organisation workers who loose their lives building and maintaining
roads on the dizzy heights and hostile terrain of North East.
And I was riding on the same road and in a couple of months
I was to ride with other 60kph'its for one month to the other
end of the Himalayas, Ladakh and the expedition was to honour
Border Roads Organisation also known as Mountain Tamers.
The time spent at the high altitude took its toll on us, headache,
a symptom of high altitude sickness. We descended fast to feel
better but forced ourselves to make a stop at Jaswant Memorial,
Jaswant Singh, Mahavir Chakra Awardee (Posthumous) showed valour
by fighting and holding the invading Chinese for 72 hours all
alone. The army also offered you a hot cup of tea, which was
a welcome relief.
Unlike other parts of Arunachal, locals at Tawang weren't curious
to see us, no smiles nor friendly waves from the kids, reason,
Tawang is a major tourist hub. Thousands of tourists come here
every year to visit Tawang Gompa, the largest monastery in India.
 Tawang
monastery overlooking the town is beautiful and colorful like
all gompas. Eight-meter high gold statue of Sakyamuni (Historical
Buddha) inside the gompa can be adored from two floors. A museum
besides the temple is also worth visiting.
But the best ride is to the P.T.Tso Lake, 20 kms from Tawang
towards the China Border, take this ride if you haven't had
enough of cold at Se La Pass. The climb is steep and at times
very steep but the lake is a sight, the lake was partially frozen
when we reached and was under heavy mist as it was snowing.
It is infact a chilled out place.
All said and done Tawang is beautiful, but it is exploited with
heavy tourist traffic and doesn't have the personal touch, which
is there in the rest of Arunachal. We preferred staying in villages
and guesthouses any day where we could interact with locals.
On a lighter side a road sign on a landslide affected road to
Tawang read:
In 2005 someone will land a MIG-27 here
AMEN TO THAT
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