10 days in the Northeastern States: Assam, nagaland and meghalaya

Ciao everyone !!

sorry i haven't been uploading lately. Kinda forgot my blog. Don't have a camera anymore so had to steal some pictures from Hadrien (thanks dude).

Anyway we went to the north-eastern states of India 2 weeks ago for 10 days. A really unforgettable trip. Beautiful nature. Must mention Dzukou Valley close to Kohima in Nagaland and all the area around Cherrapunji in the state of Megalaya. Some incredible places as you will see by the pictures.

Anyway the first day we arrived in Guwahati by airplane. We directly left for Kaziranga National park which is some 270 km east. In this park we saw many one horned Rhinos, there are around 1800 in the park. Also 5 Elephants (including a mom and it's baby: really really beautiful to see) and some small turtles. We went around by jeep, would have prefered to trek but was not “available” as Indians would say.

The afternoon after we directly left for Kohima in Nagaland. We saw a tribal village with many rice paddies on a hill close to theirs and it was a nice walk through them. All the people in the tribe let us take pictures of them. Was sad to see a telephone antenna on the top part of the village though, took some originality out of it.

The day after we went trekking in Dzukou valley (not sure of the spelling). It was the last day of the hunting season. We saw just one really cute bird that our guide/hunter killed by shooting it from 2 meters away. The landscapes talk for themselves. The path was not very good because we weren't in season, thus part of our trek was a 2 our uphill walk through 2 meter high bamboo where the path was hardly distinguishable.

The day after we left for Megalaya. Took us 15 hours of transportation including bus, train and shared taxi up to Shillong. We found a little place to stay during the night, was really cold and am happy to have had my sleeping bag (thanks mom!!).

The next day we went on a sightseeing tour around Shillong towards Cherrapunjee. On the way only touristic t. Really nothing even worth one letter on your screen.... Until we arrived at Cherrapunjee. Beautiful valleys, waterfalls (including Nohkalikai Falls (4^th highest in India) ) and more waterfalls and natural swimming pools... etc... !!!

The next day we went on a trek. We crossed a “real” tribal village this time after a 1 hour way down from the main road. We walked a little further across a suspension bridge above a river. We decided we had to stay there. Crystal water, rocks for jumping in the pools. The villagers built a few “living root bridges” which we crossed. The place the young baby roots, in such a way that with time a bridge will form. Just look at the pictures, no photoshop involved!!! Had a difficult physical way back up on top of the valley. When we arrived on top of Nokalikai falls we “climbed” down through, under and over slippery boulders to it's lower pool. Really deep but obviously wonderful water but really cold because it was getting cold again. Returned to our hotel and was completely dead, just had something to eat and went to bed!

We went to another national park close to Guwahati, where we saw many Rhinos, but this time we were on elephants back! We could get a lot closer because “nobody messes with an elephant” even rhinos (had the impression they have shields on top of their skin; Could probably shoot them with a shot gun and nothing would happen to them )

Back in IIT and no envy at all to study. So what am I supposed to do? Travel for 4 months back to Europe starts in 2 months WOOWWOWOW!!

Andaman islands

First week of vacation of december. Destination the unknown Andaman islands.
Beaches, fish, wildlife, good food, nice people... The pictures speak for themselves.
The first day we arrived by plane and went directly to Havelock island. An island with the most beautiful beach in the world (beach no 7 or "Radha Nagar" Beach), rated best beach in asia in 2004 by times ; no buildings only forest directly behind the beach, perfect water and pefect white sand. We also swam in a lagoon close to this beach (a tourist was apparantly eaten there by a salt water crocodile).
The next day we went to elephant beach to snorkel; really big fish!!!! The sad thing was that all the coral had died during the last summer due to abnormal high water temperatures....
Thus the only good coral was 20m down, which by snorkeling is quite difficult to get to...
We tried to reach another snorkel point by fisher boat. But the sea was sooo bad and there was sooo much water coming in that we decided to turn back and explore a magnificent beach on an uninhabited island.
The next day we decided to change islands and go to neil island. This island was even less touristy than havelock. The beaches were really interesting because there were trees growing in the water which was possible because of the tides. We ate a 2.5 kg fish (see picture) for 5 euros a restaurant...
Going to be travelling through the main indian cities tomorrow. Big Train trip ahead!

Munnar (tea country) to Kodaikanal Trek

Last weekend we we travelled to Munnar, town in the state Kerala in South India.
The main business is tea and everything turns around it.
When looking at the landscape the only thing one sees is tea tea tea plantations all over, it made the landscape really unreal and something never seen before.
Munnar town was not that special but we went on a tour around it to see the main tourism attractions.
There was for example a spice garden, where they had plants which closed their leaves when you touch them... We went to a tea museum where all the tea processing was explained and the different ways to make tea. There was also a propaganda movie explaining that the tea company was the best company in the world and that it's employees were the best treated ever!!!! :)
We saw a honeybee tree. There must have been a dozen colonies up in the tree and we were happy not to be too close to them.
There was an echo point where you got your echo back from the mountain 2 seconds later: impressive stuff!

Then finally on saturday we started the trek, the main reason we came to Munnar for.
The first day we walked 22 km and the second 33 km. We were really lucky with the weather and the sights were just amazing. No animals but the paths were good and we didn't see anybody on our way.

To get to Kodaikanal we had to take a bus for 45 km from our end point of our trek. It was the fullest bus i have ever seen in India. It was sooo full that when the driver went up a hill the bus was soooo heavy that the bus driver had to switch to first gear. It took us 3 hours to cover the distance.
Then from Kodaikanal a private bus to Chennai for another 12 hours....
Arrived dead tired and destroyed legs and sick in chennai having two exams this week and two next week: Going to be a lot of fun.

Nellore and Bangalore

My first semester is coming to an end. Finally!!
The real vacations can begin and can't wait till i present my parents part of India!

A few weeks ago we visited a state called Andra Pradesh which is just north of Chennai.
This state is the state with the least tourism in India.
We went to a town called Nellore, we saw that there was a beach close to this town so we decided to go there without any expectations at all.
The beach was amazing, nobody there and beautiful weather. The only problem was that there was no restaurant so we had to survive on our 8 bananas for the next 4 hours but we managed to survive.
The day after we left for Bangalore. Real modern town. A lot of international businesses have their offices there. The traffic was actually regulated and the air was a bit cooler than the one in chennai. We saw some museums and temples but nothing really special.

Sri Lanka

This country was named the pearl of the indian ocean. And when arriving we could immediately see why. White beaches like never seen before. Untouched jungles and waterfalls one could never imagine. I stayed in Sri Lanka for 4 days. This country is rich in everything one could want. Beach resorts, empty beaches, national parks as big as any, mountains, trekking possibilities and many historical monuments.
The first day we arrived at the airport at 3 am. We directly went to an old Dutch colony named Galle. This city is protected by the Unesco and one can immagine why. Its richness in architecture and historic significance is really big. This town is in the south of sri lanka and thus on the trade route from europe to asia or from asia to africa. Many ships sunk in this region trying to attack this city and that's the reason for all the artifacts found underwater.
After visiting this town we went to two different beaches: Utanawana and Weligama beach. In Utanawana I personnaly had one of the best fish ever. We had a big fresh crab which I had never eaten and a whole tuna fish which was also really delicious.
Weligama beach was also nice but we couldn't stay there much.
The evening we travelled to Deniyaya. A town close to a rain forest. I had never been to a rain forest and i think it is quite amazing. We saw trees with roots growing from the side of the trunk. We saw 2 magnificent waterfalls like in a fairytale. There were also many lizards and spiders...
The day after we set out to climb Adam's Peak. A mountain 2100 meters high. On top of this mountain there is the most beautiful view of sri lanka. We started climbing these steps at 5 am and arrived at 10 am. But on top there was only fog and we didn't see anything. We couldn't even see adam's foot because the key to the door in the temple was not available. We stayed up there for a few hours and were offered tea and a bed from the guards of the temple.
And finally the last day we went around seeing the most important monuments of Sri lanka by taxi. The only one town really worth visiting to me is Kandy. There was a wonderful Buddhist temple.

Kerala

2 weekends ago we went to Kerala. Kerala is the south eastern region in India. It is supposed to be one of the most wonderful and best preserved regions in India. The beaches are amazing and it is simply green everywhere. There was a palm-tree every 2 meters.
We went on a backwater trip, which is a boat trip through natural and some artificial canals in the wild of this state. It was quite pretty but after a while it got really boring. We stayed on the boat for the night and had some good fish but the water was a bit dirty and in the end it wasn't really worth the price.
We also visited Varkala and Kovalam beach which were nice but overdeveloped. There were some really big eagles in the sky. The people don't really hunt them there, so there are many of them.
We went to the Neyyar Dam national Park. There was a huge dam and I climbed up a mountain with beautiful view of the landscape all around.
The last day we went to a beach close to Kochi called Cherai beach. There were many indians which came there and it was a good opportunity to blend in with the crowd, although this is nearly never possible.
The trip back to the airport was one of the most stressful ever. It was 40 km by bus which took us something like 3 hours. So in the end we had to take a taxi to be able to get to the airport 40 minutes before takeoff...

Ooty and Mudumalai National Park

3-4 weeks ago we went to an old english hillstation named ooty. Supposed to be one of the most beautiful hill stations in our state. The only impressive thing was that it was incredibly cold up there. A senstation i haven't had in india since i arrived. During the nights at the hillstation we even had to wear sweaters...
During this long weekend we also went to a national park nearby this hillstation. Its name is Mudumalai national park. We saw many animals including Python, elephant, black bears, samba dear (not sure about the spelling), waterbuffalo and ofcoarse many Kingfisher.
To come back to Chennai we took a very pretty old english train back. It took 4 hours to cover 20 km but it was still worth the views.