East By North-East - Purple Cheetah's Latest Tryst!


Thread Starter #16
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Kohima Museum

We visited the Kohima museum on 8 Jan 2018 [Monday] as it was closed on Sundays. It took us to the world of Naga people with a good exhibits.

Nagaland /ˈnɑːɡəlænd/ is a state in Northeast India. It borders the state of Assam to the west, Arunachal Pradesh and part of Assam to the north, Burma to the east, and Manipur to the south. The state capital is Kohima, and the largest city is Dimapur. It has an area of 16,579 square kilometres (6,401 sq mi) with a population of 1,980,602 per the 2011 Census of India, making it one of the smallest states of India.[3]

The state is inhabited by 16 tribes — Angami, Ao, Chakhesang, Chang, Kachari, Khiamniungan, Konyak, Kuki, Lotha, Phom, Pochury, Rengma, Sangtam, Sumi, Yimchunger, and Zeme-Liangmai (Zeliang)[4] Each tribe is unique in character with its own distinct customs, language and dress.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagaland

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Thread Starter #20
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Naga Heritage Village Kisama

We visited the Naga Heritage Village Kisama on 8 Jan 2018, where the Hornbill Festival is held every year during 1 - 10 December.

The state of Nagaland is home to several tribes, which have their own distinct festivals. More than 60% of the population of Nagaland depends on agriculture and therefore most of their festivals revolve around agriculture. The Nagas consider their festivals sacred, so participation in these festivals is essential.

To encourage inter-tribal interaction and to promote cultural heritage of Nagaland, the Government of Nagaland organizes the Hornbill Festival every year in the first week of December. The first festival was held in 2000.

The festival is named after the Indian hornbill, the large and colourful forest bird which is displayed in the folklore of most of the state's tribes.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hornbill_Festival

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Thread Starter #21
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P Cheetah Visits Myanmar!

P Cheetah visited Myanmar on 9 Jan 2018 via Moreh.
Moreh is a town located on the India-Myanmar border in the Tengnoupal district of the Indian state of Manipur.[1][2] The town is mainly inhabited by Kuki tribes and a sizeable number of Tamil, Nepali, Meitei, Punjabi, Telugu, Bihari, Marwari and Muslim Pangals. Moreh plays a very important role in connection with the India-Myanmar relationship and is also a rapidly developing trade point in India on the border with Myanmar,[3] with the city of Tamu on the other side of the border.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moreh,_India

We reached Moreh before noon and straight away drove to the immigration office, located opposite Moreh police station. Obtaining entry pass to visit Myanmar was very easy and simple. I filled up an application form and submitted along with the Aadhaar card copies and ₹ 100. The officer wrote, signed and stamped the entry pass and gave it me within 5 minutes! Armed with the entry pass, we drove towards the border. At a border check post, they called a passing Tamil youth in his motorcycle and asked him to guide us upto India Myanmar Friendship Road constructed by our BRO. He told us in perfect English, "Please follow me, sir" and continued in his motorcycle. After reaching the border, he started explaining the 'keep right' rule in Myanmar, which I knew already. When he came to know that we were driving all the way from Chennai, he was taken aback! He volunteered to guide us in Myanmar too, but I thanked and told him that we could manage ourselves. A bridge separates India from Myanmar. Indian side of the bridge was painted with silver colour and Myanmar side, golden. So, I drove on the left side of the Indian side of the bridge and switched over to the right side on the Myanmar side of the bridge! After exiting the bridge, I reached Myanmar immigration office on the RHS of the road, where I presented the entry pass with ₹ 140. He wrote a vehicle pass, gave it and told me that I should return the vehicle pass to him before 5 pm Myanmar time, when the gates would get closed. Then, we started exploring Myanmar for the next couple of hours. [:)]

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Thread Starter #22
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In Myanmar

In our two earlier visits to the North-East in 2012 and 2015, we were subjected to 'attempted' extortion by gangs of teenage boys and girls in Assam, but we didn't budge. In this visit, we faced extortion only in Manipur. On our way to Moreh, we were stopped by a gang of teenage boys and girls and a boy asked me to 'donate' for their music project! Another fellow affixed a sticker on the windshield. I refused and asked them to remove that damn sticker, which they did without any murmur! I faced the same problem while returning and on the next day on our way to Shillong. [anger]

Recently, Tamils of Moreh celebrated Pongal on 14 Jan 2018. Source: Pongal celebrated in India-Myanmar border town of Moreh - The Hindu

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I met the same Tamil youth again at Moreh, who guided me to Lakshmi Hotel - owned by a family from Madurai - on the temple street, where we had dosai. Later, we drove to our hotel at Imphal. We dined at the hotel restaurant and called it a day.
 
Thread Starter #23
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Shillong

Purple Cheetah brought us safely from Imphal to Shillong via Silchar after a strenuous drive of 14.5 hours, passing through many traffic jams, bazaars, bad roads and what-not. On the next day, we visited living root bridge and India-Bangladesh border.

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Thread Starter #24
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Homeward Bound: Shillong>Bhubaneswar>Chennai

Dense fog with very poor visibility prevailed from midnight to early morning from Dalkhola to Burdwan in WB and Vijayawada to Nellore in AP on both the legs of the homeward drive. I drove with the front and rear fog lamps and lower beam of headlamps. The bad roads in WB made it worse. In AP, I followed an APSRTC Garuda Volvo bus leaving a clear gap of few hundred metres for a considerable distance. Every now and then, my wife used to wake up from sleep and warn me to park it by the road side as many truckers did. I used to repeat the same excuse that it was more dangerous to park on the shoulders in that almost nil visibility conditions than driving slowly and carefully with the front and rear fog lamps on. After hearing me, she used to go back to her sleep again!

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P Cheetah brought us home, sweet home safely and comfortably at 8:20 am on 16/01/2018 after getting its tankful after a trouble-free drive of 6,942 km in 16 days across 8 states. No puncture. No breakdown. No accident. No cop/RTO problem. [:)][clap]

Now, it is time to announce thebest awards in different categories.

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My sincere thanks to all, who expressed appreciation and liked this drive report.

NE drive report concluded.
 
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Wow! Ravi sir. Welcome back.
Your travelogues are breeze to read.
All the minor details have been meticulously updated.
How did the Michelin's serve you in this journey?
 

mayankdixit

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What you do is the stuff of dreams. I can only wish to go where you have already been .Most motivating thing about you is that you always remain young at heart[:D]. Hope to remain like that too(myself) when I have your level experience. Keep up your legends. You are raising the benchmark higher and higher!!And very few out there are lionheart enough to keep up(with you).
 
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Thread Starter #29
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What you do is the stuff of dreams.
Thanks a lot for the appreciation, compliments and nice words, mayankdixit. The lion's share of those credits must go to Purple Cheetah, which made my job very, very easy. Even in sub-zero conditions at Sarchu & Tanglang La in Ladakh and 3 deg C at Kohima, Imphal and Shillong and on the bad roads of WB, NL and MN, P Cheetah behaved perfectly well and took all the troubles in its stride. [:)][clap]
 

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