17 days Unplanned Solo Trip itinerary to Northeast India #northeastitinerary

Day 1 (21st Sep 18): Board the train from NDLS at 00:00 am (midnight) in Poorvattar S Kranti EXP in Sleeper class for Rs 725.

Day 2 (22nd Sep 18): Reached NJP railway station around 04:30 am. Take shared jeep to gangtok (Rs 400). Reached gangtok around 9:45 am and checked in hotel “The pine wood” for Rs 72 (booked online). Take some rest and then went to explore Gangtok by foot. Visited Gonjang and Enchey Monastery, Bakthang Water fall, Hanuman Tok etc. Evening explore the MG Road.

Day3 (23rd Sep 18): Early morning roaming around near taxi stand and got the info about shared jeep to Nathula Pass. Booked for Rs 700 (day trip to Nathula pass and ILP). Take shared jeep around 10:00 am and visited nathula pass, Baba harbhajan temple, Tsomgo Lake, Sarathang Lake and kupup, . Return Back around 4:30 pm. Again went to taxi stand to get some info to north Sikkim but no shared as well as reserved taxi is available to North as road are closed due to massive land slides. (paid Rs 97 in the same hotel)

Day 4 (24th Sep 18): Take shared jeep to Ravangla from taxi stand (Rs 200). Reached 10:00 am and walked towards Buddha statue its 2 km from stand. Entry ticket Rs 50/head. Spent around 2 hours inside monastery and back to stand. Take shared taxi to Namchi (Rs 70). Tried to book cheap rooms in Namchi but the cheapest I find was Rs 700. And from Namchi buses and shared taxi are available towards Darjeeling or siliguri only in the morning. So place my bag in hotel around 4 pm and start walking to char dham. When I reached there its completely dark and after spending an hour I came back in the dark night. Wonderful Experience. I wanted to stay 1 or 2 more nights in Sikkim but weather was too bad so I decided to leave.

Day 5 (25th Sep 18): Take shared jeep early in the morning towards Siliguri and went to NJP station. Booked waiting Sleeper ticket (Rs 245) but when chart prepared it was upgraded to 3rd Ac. (good Luck). But at the same time train was late by 5 hours. So I waited, get the train and headed towards Guwahati.

Day 6 (26th Sep 18): Reached around 4 am and immediately take shared jeep to Shilong (Rs 400) and driver drop me to police bazaar bus stand. Bought ticket to cherrapunjee for Rs 350. At that time I didn’t realized I bought ticket for sightseen bus. I had made my different plan after reaching there I am going to visit here and there. But believe me it’s a good decision. In sightseen it covers Mawsmai caves,7sister fall, Nohkalikai fall, Eco park, ashram etc etc. I was thinking to deboard the bus at the last spot and would stay in cherapunjee but its raining heavily that time so I decided to go back to Shilong. Went to Youth hostel and book a bed for 1 night for Rs 155. (Don’t try online booking as they are not accepting online bookings, go directly and book). Visited local market Bara bazaar in the evening and gather information abot local bus and taxi.

Day 7 (27th Sep 18): Take local Bus to cherrapunji (Sohra) for Rs 50. It is preferable to ask for sohra instead of cheerapunjee as sohra is the local name for cheerapunjee. Some locals don’t even know where is cheerapunjee. I wasted much time in enquiring bus for cheerapunjee. When I figured it out its also know as sohra it takes me only 5 mins to get the info about the bus. Reached Sohra around 09:30 am and walked to lower cherrapunjee (2 km). checked couple of homestays and guest houses. Lowest price I got is Rs 500. So stayed in By the way Hostel. (its no more a hostel). Put my luggage and went towards Tyrna village (root bridges). Tried to get shared taxi but didn’t find so walked nearly 7 kms and then find one. Charged rs 50 and dropped me near Tyrna village then I walked aroung 2 kms and trek to root bridges start. On the way meet 4 guys from banglore and we started trek together. Around 2500 downward stairs to reach Single living root bridge and then another 1200-1500 stairs to reach double decker root bridge. There are couple of more placed to visit ahead of that and it was too late by the time and also I don’t have my luggage with me so decided to go back. Those guys give me lift to my stay and they left.

Day 8 (28th Sep 18): Morning at 7:00 am take shared jeep to Shilong for Rs 70. It took me 2 hours to find jeep for Dawki. Reached Dawki around 2:30 pm (Rs 120). I was in bad luck river was muddy (not clear as what I looked in pics). So disappointed badly. Stay options are expensive. Minimum was Rs 1500 for a night. And also asked for bus or jeep to Silchar. There are no buses or jeep to Silchar from Dawki. So I returned back to Shilong (Rs 300) and immediately take shared jeep to Guwhati (Rs 200)and then take train to Dimapur Nagaland (Rs 180).

Day 9 (29th Sep 18): Reached Dimapur at 5 am. Take share cab but driver asked me do I have the permit. But I don’t have so he didn’t take me. So I booked hotel near NST stand(Nagaland state transport) for Rs 400. And went to DC office for permit. Within 3 hours got it. And then I came back and visited local market and Kachari ruins.

Day 10 (30th Sep 18): Take early morning bus to Kohima Rs 90 it took 4.5 hrs to reach there. (personal advice don’t take bus in Nagaland as your first choice as roads were in worse condition and bus will take a lot time.) When reached Kohima I get to know its Sunday so not able to find shared jeep. I asked to book the cab and they were charging Rs 800 to Naga Heritage village which is just 13 kms. So I start walking on the way towards Naga heritage village and after walking 3 kms I find a shared taxi which charged Rs 40 and drop me to Naga village. Spent some time there meet a local family they offered me beer and lunch with them and came out and tried to get lift. Finally got it the guy drop me to Viswema village which is starting point of Dzukou Valley trek. There I find group of 66 locals who are going to the trek so I joined them and started trek with them. By 6:30 we reached Dzukou Valley. (6:30 in northeast is like 8:30 in Delhi completely dark) It was fun trekking in dark with such a large group. Get the dormitory for Rs 50 and 50 bucks for each item u hire like pillow, mat, blanket etc.

Day 11 (1st Oct 18): Woke up early in the morning and explore the valley. Its beautiful. Dzukou valley is must visit in Nagaland. By 12:30 pm we started down trek and the group dropped me to Kohima. I stayed near NST stand in dormitory (Central Guest House) for Rs 300. I wanted to go to Mon but there are no direct transport available to Mon from Kohima (It was available in Naga Festival 1-10 dec). So I have to go back to Dimapur. Visited Kohima local market and War cemetery. Meet 2 Israeli bikers and have same conversation with them.

Day 12 (2nd Oct 18): Take bus to Dimapur for Rs 90 reached there by 12:00 pm. Take the bus ticket for Mon Rs 420 (Super delux Bus). Bus was at 4:00 pm so waited for 4 hours.

Day 13 (3rd Oct 18): At early in the morning 01:00 am bus was stopped by army (Assam rifles) and they started checking each and every bag of passengers. They found around 300 live bullets and whose bag was it no one claims. So they interviewed each passenger but didn’t find whose bag was that. They put the custody of bullets with them and allowed bus to pass around 3:00 am in the morning and bus reached Mon by 5:00 am. (Road conditions are worse) Found a home stay sunrise home stay for Rs 500. Put my luggage and take the shared cab to longwa Village (India Myanmar border) for Rs (170). Longwa Village cheif half house is in India and other half is in Myanmar. Interesting Place and spend some time there. Then back to taxi stand and get to now last jeep was gone. No other jeep was available for the day. Mon was 41 kms from there but I have no other options so start walking in hope I will get lift in between but I was wrong. Covered 19 kms by walk (take couple of short cuts by seeing google maps which saved around 6-7 kms so technically I walked 11-12 kms). After that get lift by traveler couple and they drop me to Mon. Again I take Bus to Dimapur same day for Rs 420 at 3 pm.

Day 14 (4th Oct 18): Came back to Dimapur for some personal business otherwise my plan was to visit Majuli in Assam.

Day 15 (5th Oct 18): Take Shatabdi Express at 09:30 am for Rs 745 and reached Guwahati. Booked hostel from hostelworld for Rs 500. Put my bags and take some info and went to visit local markets and Kamakhya Temple. Came back to hostel and meet couple of travelers some are coming back after visiting northeast some are going. Shared info and experience and went to sleep.

Day 16 (6th Oct 18): Take early morning train to Delhi for Rs 745 Sleeper Class.

Day 17 (7th Oct 18): Evening reached Delhi around 04:00 pm and believe me I was not happy at all when I reached Delhi.

My Total Trip Cost is around Rs 19,700.

Lot of Good and Bad experiences. Learned a lot of things. I have so much to share but I can’t share all my experience here as It will become too lengthy. Will share in my blog. But that’s all from this trip.

Keep Smiling, Keep Planning and keep Travelling

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