Free ride to Mokokchung

Free ride and sightseeing detour

Today I go to Mokokchung with Sheily, Tejas and friends.  They had kindly offered me a ride in the Toyota Fortuner 4WD.  They had planned on departing at 0730 and for the first time managed to get the oldies and young boy ready by that time.  Our departure was only held up by settling for their rooms.  So we finally set off at 0745.

Our sightseeing detour is to the village of Shangnyu, a detour of about 2h plus sightseeing time.  The main sight there was a large shrine in a locked building, carved out of one piece of wood.  The wood was brought here by hand by women and carved by one person.  It had depictions of snakes, rainbows, people and men with erect penises 🙂    Behind was the chief’s bed made from the same tree.

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Accident

Back on the main route, we exited Nagaland and reached Sonari back in Assam, for lunch at 1400.  I tried to pay for the group in consideration of their kindness but they wouldn’t let me.  As we left, we saw an old man walking on the road.  A motorcycle was coming towards him (and us).  The next thing I knew, the bike clipped the rear bumper of our vehicle.

We stopped.  The crashed bike was on the ground behind us.  I saw some blood on the ground.  Then a couple of men led the bleeding old man away on foot.  I was locked in the car and couldn’t get out as the alarm sounded when I tried.  From inside, I could hear loud discussions or arguments.  A crowd had gathered around us.

The cops had been called and we waited for them to come.  I noticed it might have been a Muslim area with mosque and some women having their sari pulled over their heads.  Things like this can get blown-up easily sometimes.

A cop rode with us to the station where Tejas was inside for about an hour.  From outside, I heard some slapping.  Fortunately, it was the motorcyclist and pillion that was being slapped.  We were finally cleared to go around 1630 after being held up for about 1h30.

Continuing on

We were losing light quickly.  For the sake of the two drivers, we made a tea/snack stop soon after leaving Sonari.  Sheily spent time on the phone pursuing a resolution for my Kohima accommodation crisis.  Her normal warmth and kindness took a back seat while she put on her forceful personality with the call centre reps.  Her style reminded me of the best IT project managers, and sure enough that’s what she was!

She now works for an NGO applying her skills in elephant enumeration and conservation.  I asked what the greatest threats were to elephants in India.  They are poaching and human-elephant conflict (in the context of elephants encroaching into agricultural areas).

Sheily also searched on other websites and rang a few other hotels in Kohima.  One gave the number of a Mr Gugu who had access to homestays.  We contacted him and he was possibly my best hope for now.  All Indian sites have sold out in Kohima.  Booking.com had only tents at double the normal hotel prices and very pricey options (to be fair they are triple rooms).

Back in Nagaland

Once we crossed back into Nagaland, the roads were windy and potholed.  I felt sick but fortunately not to the extent of throwing up.  I also felt sleepy and nodded off a little and perhaps that helped with the nausea.

We finally reached Mokokchung and the Whispering Winds hotel where I had booked, around 2245.  That’s fifteen hours after setting off in the morning.  I had dinner pre-ordered .  It was barely warm.  I ate half of it to stave off hunger in bed; I couldn’t face the rest after the windy ride.

Despite the queasiness and tiredness, I managed to do my washing and hang them up in the bathroom.  I had the only room left in the hotel; it was way below their normal standards in the basement and full of mould spots.  It didn’t want to add moisture to the room!