Riding in the North East

From BikeNomads

I have a few pointers especially in the north east belt :

1)Kolkatta-Gangtok It is 608 kms and the major chunk of the road is in a pathetic condition,so it could slow you down

2)Gangtok-Dispur 590 kms,here the road after you cross Alipuraduar is miserable ,though it is part of the Golden Quadrilateral project

3)Itanagar-Kohima-It is a climb all the way from Dimapur,the road is narrow from Dimapur to Kohima and Truck traffic is very heavy,since it is the only usable road to Imphal,since the other road from Silchar is militant infested,so the amount of traffic would be a decider,plus driving after 4 is dangerous and you could encounter both militants and frequent army and police checkposts,who literally are worse than the customs and they wouldnt even mind checking inside your Fuel tank whether you are hiding drugs or money.plus do not forget to have your ILP for Nagaland,otherwise at the border in Dimapur there are chances of getting harrssed by the Cops and the paramilitary

4)Kohima-Imphal-though the distance is short,it is one of the most dangerous,the road condition is bad though it is a NH,after you cross the border in senapati the stretch upto Imphal is very very sick for a traveller,though adventrous if you dont care for your life,it is completely infested my Kuki and KLM militants,even the army goes in a convoy on that route,near senapati I was beaten & kicked black and blue by one of those extremist groups using rifle butts and their fake army boots:-),since they could not lay hands on my money which was lying safely in my front wheel between the tire and the tube(after the initial experience of getting robbed at gun point in manipur).So pls be very careful on this route,try to stick to a group of vehicles than ride alone,but it is fun and an expereince of a lifetime if you have such an incident in life

5)Imphal to Aizwal-Hmmm I call this route as a god forbidden place,Though a NH,my village roads in coorg is much better,the route passes through barak valley ,since the river passes by River Barak,the whole valley is beautiful with amazing bamboo groves,but you will not find a single cop or a soldier on the route,even they are scared to move on this route,even if they travel they will not travel in a convoy less than 20-30 vehicles with all of them loaded with ammunution and cocked guns.This route is notorious since the whole stretch from Nungba to Silchar is manned by Kuki miltants and there are diverse factions among them depending on the village you pass by.andthey will be inquistive and suspicous on every person moving on that route,they will check all your baggage,and if something is interesting they will keep it for themselves,I have lost my radio,my watch,my sunglasses ,my camera plus all my money to these vicious hands,the best thing is you could converse with them in english plus they look like villians straight out of an Hollywood thriller,dressed in jeans and cheap raybans and smoking cheap Burmese cigrattes all smuggled across the border and definetely the chinese made Rifles and Revolvers,pointing at my head,and I was doing the reverse route from Silchar to Imphal in 2003,the only joy you get on this road is you are all alone to yourself,there is hardly a automobile,there is bus(loaded inside and outside) which you could see moving from Silchar to imphal which is the only connecting mode to the population on that valley,I overheard that the driver of the bus would have a early morning swig before starting since he is not sure whether he will return back or not,since he could land up on the river bed with the overloaded bus or some crazy militant may pump him with bullets if he has a problem paying the daily tax to all these groups that man efficiently this route,In fact this is going to be one hell of a ride but it is fun :-) to share a swig or share a smoke with those gun toting mortals,but one thing that really pisses them off is a camera,so probably you need to find a new hiding place in your bike to store. In total I got robbed and relieved off my precious stuff,plus pls watch out for the road,there could also be a hidden mine strewn across.The route from Silchar to Aizawal is a climb all the way and it is crowded with truck traffic,since this is only connecting road out of Mizoram.plus night riding is not advisable since this route has Bru militants watching plus it depends on them whether they want to get cranky or not,though day ride is safe.

5)Aizwal-Agartala you will be retracing the route to Silchar and moving west to Bhadrapur which is virtually on the bangaldesh border,for check nak ghat where the border for tripura begins,all vehicles go in a army convoy,nobody is allowed todrive by themselves,there are 3 convoys starting at 7 am,9 am and 11 am,if you miss these convoys you are stuck in border gate,and same timings are followed the other way,if you are a break away from the convoy or your bike conks off,the army helps you put the bike in one of those trucks than helping in repairing it,since if you are stuck anywhere between the border and the next 60 kms(which is a climb) towards Agartala,there is no gurantee that you will be alive to tell the world your venture,since that route of 60 kms is completely a teak forest belt lying close to the bangladesh border,and infested with gun toting militants who comprise of some idealist revoultionaries and immigrant bangldeshis,they will loot till your underwear and left to die ,when I was there , a truck got stuck and I could not believe those bastards did not even leave anything of the truck other than the chassis,they sawed the body and carried away part by part,the tyres,axles everything was missing,the driver and his assistant was dead nearby lying in pool of blood and they did even spare their clothes, it was gory to see that they had written in blood of the poor driver that Tripura wants freedom in Bengali,,,I went into an introspection whether I am in india or not and thinking whether I am in a saner sense to ride in hell,when you are passing by you may be able to see many such skeletons of vehicles scattered here and there on the valley floor.Even the recent Railway line project to connect Agartala with Silchar has run into trouble,since those miltants have bombed the constructions couple of times,so pls be careful

6) Agartala-Shillong,This is another patch with notriety,once you enter Meghalaya from Assam towards Jowai,there is wild bunch of people to rip you off,when I was passing by,4 buses were looted in broad daylight in the jaintia hills,and after 4 in the afternoon everyone seems to be having a carnival with alcohol and breaking bottles on the road,even some women are notorious over there,if you stop somewhere for tea in some of the ghetto shops mostly run by women you could observe some of them who has a other source of income during nights catering alcohol and their bodies to truckkers who ship coal towards west bengal and bihar ,plus solo traveller has high chances of getting mugged,I missed such an incident by a whisker,and that was during day.I renamed the highway from shillong to Bhadrapur as "AIDS Drive" so pls be careful on that route,Shillong is another maddening hill station with very sectarian locals in some parts,they hate the outsiders,so evenings and nights are something always a question mark if you are on the street,I have stayed there for couple of times during my sojourns to north east,the experience is not very exciting,with some locals making racial comments on your skin colour and non mongloid looks but the city(town) is amazingly beautiful.if you are fan of Bob Dylan you are a special guest to any bar or club,since Bob Dylan is god to most of them and they get you drunk until you sing "Everyone must get stoned" :-)

7)Shillong-Patna-Man this could be a maddening ride of monotony if you are doing it in one day,it is just plains and plains and more plains with sorry state of roads and it is 1050 kms to patna,so I would like to know how your bike and butt is going to cope up with such a long ride in one day,even if you ride at 80(but truthfully 60 due to the road condition) it will take 13 straight hours.anyway I would suggest you stop somewhere inbetween

North east is a great place to ride,Arunchal and mizoram are the only safest states to ride,all other states are militant infested,so ride safe there,But nobody in this part of india knows what is happening over there,due to sheer ignorance of the media ,who rake the moolah by writing on Page 3 Characters(crooks) of the cities, plus it is advisable to have your permits before hand if you want to enter Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram and the easiest place to get them is Kolkata ,you can try in Guwhati but babudom rules there.

The other places are fine,you can ride for longer distances and tiring hours since the road connectivity is good and most of it are plains.

But I would advice that 28 days is too short to cover 28 capitals,probably 40-45 would be idle keeping a cushion for rest and maintenance of the bike.since it is not enough you are fit to ride,the bike should also be your better half to support

All the best,keep me posted if you want any more info,thought of meeting you in bangalore but it looks you would have left bangalore even before you had reached.

Ride Safe Happy Motorcycling

Peace Kutts