Sightseeing partial fail

I woke around 0300, which was a couple of hours earlier than I would have expected. Fortunately, after a snack, I managed to sleep again till around 0730.  Maintaining that first wake-up time would have been good adjustment for Melbourne coming up, but not very good for my night flight departing Kolkata at 0105 on Thursday.

The included buffet breakfast with optional cooked-to-order items would have easily cost the price of the room if it were in New Zealand.  I took my time and enjoyed myself as for the first time in days, there was little I had to do.

I slowly readied myself for a little walk around Imphal’s Khwairamband Bazaar area.  The official bazaar housed in a couple of concrete buildings proved less colourful than the sheds and tents in the adjoining area.

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Next up was the Kangla Fort/Palace.  It turned out to be their normal day of closure.  So it was a sightseeing fail.  I could see the inner entrance through the large gates by the main road and moat.  The inner entrance was flanked by two large goose-like animals which I believe are actually dragons from my reading.

I thought I had done Imphal justice and headed back to the room to explore more of Imphal on the internet:

• I read up about its history and demographics, learning that it is less Christian than Nagaland at only around 40% Christian and 40% Hindu and the remaining made of others such as Muslims, Buddhists etc.  The demographics explains the attire worn in the market which were staffed mainly by women.  Unlike in Nagaland where most people were in western clothes, here they were mainly in saris, some with it draped over the head.
• From the internet, the fort, it appears is partly in ruins.  I saw pictures of restored columns standing and decided that it wouldn’t be a priority to go back tomorrow morning.  Some things in guidebooks are more “things to while your time” rather than “must sees”.
• I also looked up the insurgency in Manipur.  Unlike in Nagaland where there is a clear objective of wanting to have Naga independence, here it is more complicated.  There are those who want independence from India and there’s various inter-tribal conflict as well.

I occasionally spend some time in my hotel room to recover from the drain of travel.  Today would be such a day and I didn’t leave the hotel again, eating both lunch and dinner in-house.

Over dinner, I thought … this is quite a nice restaurant but I don’t recall seeing any beer on the menu.  Thinking about it more, I don’t think I saw any beer through Nagaland either.  I don’t drink alcohol much so its not something that I would have noticed anyway.  Looking it up later, I learned that there is a total alcohol ban in Nagaland (not always enforced strictly) and also in the Imphal area of Manipur.