Bomdila - Feb 29

Bomdila - Feb 29

Fri, Feb 29

- Wow, a leap year! Got up about 6AM and had a shower using the bucket of water and small plastic jug that is always found in buckets in this part of the world. It is not warm but, but not too cold. I have developed a technique where I start with my hair, first bending forward so that as I pour a small amount of water on my head, the excess runs onto the floor rather than onto the rest of my body. During the rinse phase, I gradually straighten up so that increasing amounts of water run over my body, thus gradually acclimatizing to the cold water.

- The permit is till not right so we need to amuse ourselves until 10:30, when a new permit is to be faxed through. Our plan is to head to the Namersi game park located 15km south of the Arunachal border. When we get to the south edge of Bhalukpong, we see that a police roadblock is in place. It turns out that the natives have a scheduled a “band” (demonstration or strike) in the immediately surrounding area, and the military is concerned that locals might create a disturbance, so we wait for our military escort to arrive.

- At one point, the escort stops and an officer emerges and walks over to a local, proceeds to pat him down and then takes away his slingshot. Bhupen tells me that locals like to shoot in through open vehicle windows. The rural people look pretty peaceful to me, must be some insurgents that are creating a disturbance.

- After viewing some birds at Namersi, we return to the Arunachal border and while waiting for them to process my permit, a wife and her mother start beating the wife’s husband. We’re not talking casual slaps. We are talking full force blows to the head and face with a bamboo club. Check out the photo. It took about five minutes before the border patrol wandered over and did something. Even then, it was not "cease and desist", it was more, “Please continue your quarrel down that side street so the tourists cannot see you.”

- The drive to Bomdila is exciting. I’ve become so used to driving on narrow roads that cling to the sides of mountains that I failed to remark on this on my first pass writing. Let me say that building this road is a real feat of engineering and hard work. The hard work comes mostly from female work crews, some with babies clinging to their backs. The engineering, well, I’m not sure where that comes from but they have done an amazing job. The terrain is so rugged that steep switch backs are needed to get down the mountain sides, cross over rivers and then switchback up the other side. We stop at the small village of Sesse and I get my first taste of a meal cooked over a wood fire, which is the norm for Arunachal.

- Eventually we get to Bomdila, and I spend the night at the Monastery Guest House. Either there is a power outage or I’m the only guest, as the entire place is dark. I’m the only guest and the manager turns on a few lights as we make my way to my room. The room really is romantic, with a couple of velvet lined chairs set at a table and a candle already burning on the table. As the manager turns to leave, she mentions that it has been colder than expected and their pipes have burst. Another romantic place with no running water. The bucket brigade get me set up with a bucket of warm water and I have a “shower”. I’m getting good at this routine!
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