Day 1 - 21st Dec 2007

Ive been mulling the 'how' of the Arunachal travelogue. This trip was a mini personal milestone. I learnt to practice a trait which has been alluding me for quite a while

- - to be alone without dwelling on solitudes' permanence or its punishment…to travel 'light' - -

Simply put the loneliness of the first few days of the 3 week road life laid the ground work for its final capture. Without getting in any deeper and boring my fellow bikers, here is the story of 60 kph Arunachal riders as I saw it then..

Day one dawn of Anniv ride found me in deep sleep at a time when the rest of the Bangalore gang was en-route to the airport. I was lulled into complacency the night before when Biju replied "yah we are already on our way to the airport" to an SMS I forwarded to him from Air Deccan - " Passengers to Guawahati flight should reach the airport 2 hours prior to departure" . So when Biju called at 4 AM from the taxi, I was still in bed. A fast forward through the morning routine had me waiting to enter the airport at 4.30 AM only to find that the Bangalore population had beaten me to it! Half the population was flying out and the other half seeing them take off! Long queues of vehicles, haphazardly parked cars or taxis with disembarking passengers, grr ...I should have reached earlier but did not thanks to Biju ignoring my sms as a prank! I realized then that a reputation of a prankster is worse than that of a pornstar ;-) I can never be the latter since my vital stats rule it out and also because I don't want to give competition to my dear friend Biju..

Biju, meanwhile was calling incessantly, my emphatic "please I swear Im here" did not seem to convince him. I had to be in sight of the Bangalore gang by 4:50 or I would be made to shoulder the blame for every bizarre thing that happened while we were on the road... including French Prez antics with Bruni...That's too much of a torture for 25 days so I ditched the effort of getting off respectably close to a trolley AT the airport and decided to walk TO the terminal with all my luggage. Sack, saddle bags in military design and my helmet piled onto my frame, I looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando. By the way I was gasping by the time I sighted a trolley it's evident that I was anything but…Arnold had become good ole Shivajinagar inside me. This luggage would be a topic of discussion till Kolkata.

Bangalore gang was sighted soon thereafter. Satish reached AFTER me (please note the emphasis on After). Alin and Srini had come to see us off and we were finished soon enough with the airline formalities and a payout for 10kgs excess luggage...in the air on time. At Kolkata airport we decided to do some cost saving. While offloading some of check in luggage to our cabin baggage , I mused to Sanju "this time the excess luggage could be more than what it weighed in Bangalore". Sure enough! Kolkata weighing machines showed 19kgs excess! .We were not about to pay that especially after the effort of shifting off some into cabin baggage so argument followed but we still had to pay for 10kgs…and yeah I was to be blamed for the excess baggage or so they said!

We got the first whiff of North East in the airport which proved to be a breezy past time The region's young women dressed like Western hippies were wafting around and this pastime accompanied us into the plane to Guwahati too! The landing and exiting out of the airport was quick and soon we were packed into two pre-paid taxis heading towards Palthon Bazaar, about 45 minutes drive to a hotel called Suncity, named after the more famous sister in South Africa. No amount of fancy narration can take away the sheer crassness of the place – the full extent of which hit me when we finished the ride and came back to stay before our return flight but more on that later ..For now not even Biju's delighted yelp at sighting a Mallu food joint Kerala Bhawan could take away the visual pollution overdose. Located as it was very close to the railway station and the bus stand, it was noise and madness. We got the real taste of it on the subsequent day though today being a Sunday it was quieter. To ensure we got some sleep at least we sought and got accommodation at the farside and got a 4 bedded room with a portable TV, a view to commit suicide for and a 100meter sprint to the bathroom i.e in case in a hurry. Gaurabh was missing and our sleuths found out that he had eloped with a "foreigner woman" .

Who was this wild card entry???

Just then Gaurabh made his entry and tagging behind him was the surprise in the shape of a French package… Kareine … a biker who had rode to and back from Cheerapunji with Gaurabh. Meanwhile Assamese brother Biren who had left his family to chill at their maternal home while he combined a pleasure motorcycle holiday announced that all bikes had arrived and were accounted for. In fact Sanju, Biju and Satish's which had come through a private parcel had already been picked up by Biren's cousins! Effficient! We broke up into two groups –One fanning out towards Biren's cousin network across Guwahati and we headed to the station.

Very little casuality to report . Vinod's bike which Gaurabh picked up had a bent handle (it resembled a café racer) and Nikki's bike which Kariene picked up had a broken speedometer glass. My scratch free Titli was happy to see me and roared to life after couple of kicks, Biren meanwhile had a panic look and sweat on his brow as his did not respond to kicks.. "Bishu Mera bike start nahin ho raha hain re… Pahle tho aisa nahin hua".. Bishu (Bihu is name of a festival) brings good tidings to the Assamese and so me too brought good tidings to him "Relax , , its just sulking after a long layoff , push it into action" (as if I knew anything! About bike mechanics) No show except for more sweat coming out of all parts of Biren..Hmm ..Bishu got down to help and found the petrol cock was off. Time to hand over to the experts …one kick from Gaurav and the bike was vrooming and Biren's smile came back and his sweat dissapeared. By the time I reached hotel via a petrol bunk, the feeling of the exciting days of the ride ahead had already started to sink in.

Biju had already established his Mallu connection with the Kerala Bhavan owner Sunil. Appam was recommended by Biju and the recommendation was honored with due respect. I made my Chetta (brother in mallu) connection which was not strong as the Mallu connection but would do.

Brahmaputra boat cruise was next on the agenda and the bikes headed in that direction after a brief stop over at a wine shop. The teetotaler in me told not to be sober and I picked up a bottle of port wine myself. After bargaining with the ferry guys, we settled down for an hour ferry ride for 250 bucks. Atop the ferry wooden platform afloat on the Brahmaputra, the ferry had along with us anchored in the middle of the river after a short cruise. Sobba who was enroute from Delhi riding along with Ian from Australia called Gaurabh to update his status. Wine, booze and plus a little bit of chit chat and it was already time to go back to Sun city but not before dinner.

Food at Sakhshi hotel was not interesting as was the incident which could have been one rocker event provided Kariene had played ball but she chickened out. Here is what happened, an elderly man drunk and looking for cheap thrills sitting behind Kariene started elbowing her suggestively . Kariene , the epitome of French sophisticate politely asked him to refrain to no avail. Gaurav who was sitting next to Kariene pitched in for her when the guy did it again. This time the message was taken seriously and he tried to pacify the big Gaurabh who looked imposing. Gaurabh wanted Kariene to take action now and punch the guy where it hurt most. Kareine ruled it out outright much to our disappointment deprived as we were of an entertaining day end action. But not ones to hold a woman's choice against her, we bid each other good night knowing for sure that the action awaited us the next morning would far outdo any punching session …