The Bhutanchal Buccaneers

Day 9: April 18^th

Dirang – Sela Pass – Tawang

This day saw us waking up groggily to the cold morning light. I wasn’t too keen on waking up early, egging Kenny and Payeng Da to get fresh first instead. Boy, am I growing lazy! But we were also keen on coming to Sela Pass after the disappointment of Bomdila the previous day. We decided not to have breakfast in the resort after their dismal performance with dinner. So we got some tea instead and set up readying our bikes again. Payeng Da got nicked in the thumb while packing his stuff but fortunately Kenny had his first aid stuff and it wasn’t a deep cut.

My colleagues had also woken up and were watchingus getting our bikes ready. His young son was bewitched…well that’s a lofty term, but you decide. That’s a look of pure delight on his face! I hope he learns riding fast!

We soon were ready and lined up in a formation. My colleagues and their families wished us good luck and waved us off amidst the delightful symphony of 7 roaring engines, raring to have a go at the roads again. We were soon on the road and ripping on the alternate patches of good roads and potholed stretches.

We stopped yet again at a smooth patch of road, albeit strewn with those small gravel that I’m always wary of. And here Payeng Da had his third fall. No from the bike, but he just happened to twist his ankle and just fall on the road. Gyan was so happy! That he wasn’t the one falling off from either the bike or in person. It was evident from his hearty laugh that he was relieved.

We rode on after we made sure Payeng Da was able to ride properly. I stopped at some kids breaking stones by the side of the road. They couldn’t have been possibly more than 4-5 years old. I tried to work up a chat and made small talk, starting by asking their name, which I ashamedly forgot a few days back. I asked them whether they went to school to which I was answered that they did go to school and because their school was closed they had come for work. They also told us where we would find breakfast, some place run by the army. I dint have any chocolates or anything with me to give the kids and I didn’t want to insult them by offering them money, so I just gave each a handshake and waved them goodbye, but not before clicking a few snaps of the subjects that could teach us an awful lot on humility and modesty.

We came across some view points where we made due stops for snaps and sutta. I might add to it that there’s heavy presence of the Indian Army in this part of the country, possibly due to the proximity with China. Soon after we came across a unit run wet canteen that catered to outsiders and the hungry souls we were, we ordered biryanis and dosas for everyone, topped up with vadas. The armyman serving us kept referring to us as ‘Sir’, something that pricked us no end. I brought this up with Kenny and the next time the armyman called us ‘Sir’ , Kenny asked him not to because we didn’t deserve to be called ‘Sir’ by the someone like him. Truer words were never spoken.

Then came a group of Northies in 3 Jeeps and make a ruckus out of that place, ordering the small kitchen as if it were their own in their souped up Delhi home. Bastards. I really hate these people who have no respect for the people of the land. Another incident that made me flare up was when the people shouted at the kitchen staff for making the tea a wee bit sugary. Hey d***heads, you have diabetes , so YOU don’t take the tea, don’t go about shouting at the people who make tea at these inhospitable heights and provide some respite to the needy like us. We just kept on making ugly glares at them. One Buddha came up to us and on noticing our bikes his first line was “Race laga rahey ho?”. These morons have only one word in their dictionary when it comes to bikes – Race. I wonder why these people don’t have accidents in those roads, only the good men die.

After a fulfilling brunch, we set forth , wanting to keep maximum distance from the disgusting group and made haste. But the climb was steep after that and we had to be content with pulling the bikes on the third gear max. Soon afterwards, the roads and the clouds became one and it was a misty-cloudy ride. We couldn’t see anything below and we couldn’t see anything above. It was surreal. Payeng Da’s glee was apparent as he went haywire taking endless pics!!

The end of the climb saw us making headway into the giant red gate that simply read “Welcome to Tawang”. We had arrived at Sela Pass!! The sign told us the altitude is 13700 ft above MSL, which meant we were at an altitude higher than Rohtang Pass. There was also snow on the ground and the hills and it was a first for Payeng Da and here again he went on a glee-trip, making headway into the snow and making poses for the cameras! Our Dear John had in the meantime ridden ahead to some distance and was taking in some solitary respite from our endless nagging. He was or rather is the awesome lone ranger. Respect, Respect once again.

We frolicked at Sela Pass for some time, took enough snaps of ourselves and our bikes and finally moved on. The Sela Lake presented us yet another beautiful panorama to just sit back and soak it all it. No wonder John didn’t oblige us. You could sit and stare at those snow clad mountains and the placid lake waters for hours on end.

We kept making way, asking occasional passer bys about the whereabouts of the Jaswantgarh memorial, a place that we didn’t want to miss. I wal always told – “ its further ahead” and I was beginning to wonder when we would finally reach the place. But we did, and there were ample signposts that told one you had arrived. There was also a canteen run by army people and served some really delicious samosas and tea. The memorial was a museum in itself and it told us the story of the heroic feat of Rifle Man Jaswant Singh Rawat, Maha Vir Chakra, who took a bullet in his head but not before taking out a Chinese MMG nest all by himself. The battle of Nuranang was well depicted in the stone and granite plaques at the memorial. I put on my shades while reading it because it made my eyes wet with sincere respect and simple awe. Later on the other guys also said they had gotten sentimental after reading of the battle. God Bless their souls because we enjoy our rides there only for them.

At the army run café, Kenny started a chat with Captain Arjun who happened to be going to Tawang for office work. He appreciated our spirit for adventure and after some time, we bade each other good luck and moved on. As we neared Jung our stomachs had started growling and we spotted a roadside eating joint. We all parked aside it and only when I was done parking the bike did I realize that there was a wine shop right next to it. Honest- I didn’t stop for the wine shop! It just happened to be there! Rice with chicken were ordered and we weren’t expecting much from the small place. So all of us sheepishly made a bee line for the wine shop. And WOW! What a wine whop. It has an amazing array of beer to offer, even pints. Carlsberg, Tuborg and Fosters were off the shelves in a jiffy and we were content on sipping some naturally chilled beer while lunch was being prepared. One more thing – the shop was run by a lady. This place saw us lots of ladies taking charge while the men were inconspicuously absent from the roads.

Our bikes had also drawn attention of the kids around and they just kept flocking the bikes one by one. We also made some time with them and shared some good moments with those kids. By the time we were done with our beer lunch was also ready and we sat around for lunch. It looked simple. Rice, dal and chicken curry. Looks can be deceptive and we rightly found out when the food turned out to be out of this world. India never ceases to amaze. We find the best of food in the least expected places.

We were told of a waterfall that wasn’t far away and that went by the name of Jung Falls. Since we had some time on our hands, we decided not to pass it up and headed for the falls. Amidst some confusing forks, we did arrive at the falls. There was a mini hydel plant that was running at full steam…make that full water!! The falls were majestic and we found out that some shooting for the movie “Koyla” had taken at the falls too. There were officials at the hydel plant and they were waiting for some high ranking officials from New Delhi, but they allowed us to park our bikes nevertheless. No fuss, no issues, nothing.

We were told the water “wasn’t cold” and that we could easily take a dip in the waters. I wasn’t too sure. These people are tough guys and we are a pampered lot, but one line from Kenny –“When do we get to live this life anyway?” - made me go for my speedo trunks and head for the falls down below. The steps were steep and the falls looked far away, but we made it after a while. Doley, Payeng Da , Kenny and I had decided to take a bath under the fall, while the rest of the Buccaneers decided to sit back and enjoy from a distance. It was 1530 hours and the sun had disappeared among clouds and by the looks of it , it was going to rain in a while.

We put on out swimming trunks and headed for the falls. It was absolutely freezing cold and the spray of the water was tight and forceful. So much so that it suffocated one if kept facing the spray non stop. We were fully wet in no time by the spray of the waterfall. It was as if a thousand fuel injectors were turned on and the blast was on us. It was impossible to go to the main cascade as the fall of the water was so hard and wide that it’d leave no breathing space and would simply sweep all of us off in the fast current. The droplets of water were coming down hard on our backs and we felt a thousand hard pin pricks, so we scurried off to a less “scathing” place. Fortunately there was a smaller water fall next to the main one, a small run-off from the main Jung Falls, but it provided us more than enough to deal with. We played the fools for quite a while, all the while taking swigs from the Blender’s Pride bottle straight. Had it not been for the alcohol warming our bodies we’d have been pretty good cases of hypothermia! I and Kenny stared up the fall and made the worst mistake of our lives. We looked up and shouted “Bring it on. Oh yeah! Is that all you've got?”!! God must have felt a funny bone tickle somewhere cause we were about to find out he has much more water in reserve for us!

We came back from the waterfall, dried ourselves and scurried back to our bikes for it was starting to rain. We were hardly getting our bikes ready when the hydel official asked us to hurry because the honchos from New Delhi were about to arrive and we’d have little space to move around. We did our best but the convoy had arrived by that time. The cool demeanor of the hydel official was amazing. He just asked us to make our way out slowly. Had it been some other place we’d have gotten a hell of a beating!

We hadn’t made it too far when the rain started becoming consistent. So all of us stopped to put on the rain suits. Payeng Da didn’t have one so he put on a makeshift one from a huge plastic bag that had been fashioned into a rain suit. I wasn’t too keen on wearing the lowers and asked Kenny if it was needed. When he and the others nodded their heads in the affirmative, I decided to go with the crowd. Thank God that I did for it started to rain cats and dogs a few miles away. The rain wasn’t showing any signs of slowing down, infact it grew to a torrential downpour. It was pitch dark in no time and we still some distance to cover before we came to Tawang.

I will never forget that ride. I was particularly more apprehensive because of my tyres. Already I was having a hard time trying not to skid the tyres too much, but there’s only so much you can do. At some points I will admit I did try to have some fun by spinning the tyres as they do in the movies!! But I decided it was no time and place to try out these antics, or I’d be a goner. The rain drops were harsh, almost like small hammers coming down hard on us and at one point of time it did rain hailstones. Gyan had problems negotiating the dark and stormy road due to his bike’s fixed fairing and also because his specs were fogging up. So I and Payeng Da took the lead through what seemed like a river literally. Our headlights were providing little help because anything beyond the reach of the beam was absolute pitch darkness. We were crawling at 5-6 kmph and we didn’t dare do more than that because even a single mistake would be unforgiving. People might ask us why we didn’t stop and avoid all the risks. The answer is plain and simple – we are tough guys!! Naah, actually there wasn’t much of scope of making a stopover as there were no hotels nor any bus sheds on the road, and it meant we just had to keep going. I remembered the Doors’ ‘ Riders on the Storm’ and at some point I actually hummed to myself to keep myself from drifting off. Some young people we found at a shop near the road did advise us to stop for the night as the road would grow progressively worse farther on. But having to stop meant losing precious time and we didn’t want that. Plus the rain wasn’t showing any signs of abetting. So we just carried on through the downpour, through the slush, through the darkness, through road that had become literally death road. I was privy to a spectacular sight that only a few people can be called lucky enough to witness – I saw lightning striking below us. This might be possible on a flight, as was the case with our icon John, but when you are on terra firma, it takes on a whole different meaning to it. When I come to mention lightning, it may be worthwhile to mention that the lightning was one of the major light sources and many a time it was only those that showed where the road was snaking!! One point our headlights picked up a milestone that said Tawang was 9km away. The initial elation that I had was soon forgotten when I had a look at my speedo – 5 kmph. That meant another hour of torturous climb at least.

I had a hard time managing to keep my balance with my super slick tyres in that raging slush and having a sprinter meant I couldn’t do the climb in the first gear as the tyre tended to spin at the slightest twist of the accelerator. So Gyan and I made up the climb in a cautious second gear. Finally we could make out the city lights and after what seemed like an eternity of riding through the tumultuous storm, we had finally set foot at Tawang!! Out relief knew no bounds as we headed to our pre-booked hotel. The first hotel of the same name didn’t offer us parking space so the hotel boy who happened to be Assamese as well took us to their second establishment that provided us parking space. We were soaking and dripping wet by the time we got off our bikes and the moment we were shown our rooms we took off our wet clothes and dumped them right outside our hotel rooms. Fortunately, our rooms had heaters and we wasted no time in getting our wet clothes to dry in front of the heater.

We were all tired and beat from the exhausting ride for the last 3 hours and we decided to hit the beds soon without further ado. We ordered whatever the hotel staff could conjure up for us hungry travelers. It was still raining outside and some of us still had the spirit to take on some spirits! But I was done for the day and after a brisk dinner, I decided to hit the bed. Sleep didn’t take much time to catch up with me. I had Dutta’s iPod to lull me to sleep even faster. I was hooked on to some numbers on John’s iPod , namely Airbag by Radiohead and Don’t Panic by Coldplay.