Ni Dieu Ni Maitre
The Going Itself is the Way
Category: Uncategorized
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Should have doctored this photo, which clearly showed the rainbow on my phone… here it looks like a barely visible double rainbow. Nearly everyone is a petrochemical junkie here, most all the backpackers have scooters. Anyway, Pai is suiting my needs quite well. Sleeping a lot every night, bicyclong 10 to 12 km on my…
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Much like the ‘Smoke Season’ which obscures the very real transformation of the Northern Thai Air Quality from excellent to unhealthy for two months of agricultural burning, the euphemistic ‘Green Season’ attempts to disguise the rainy season as something you might actually enjoy… And, in fact, it just rains sporadically and quite unpredictably, occasionally becoming…
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Rainy season so far means a little rain at one or two random times every day, and almost always threatening skies. This is an off-season for tourists, and I go nowhere without a rain jacket, but we’re looking at 90% no rain. Stayed ’til after 9PM last night and the truth was, things got even…
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On the hill is the White Temple, featuring 750 steps… it’s on the list. Well, upon arrival after the twisty road, I was so weak that I had to sit on a bench for over an hour just to be able to take a taxi to my hotel, 2km out of town. Got to rebuild…
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Arrived at 6AM after 3 flights, searches, baggage lines… and why is my Gate always the one on the far other side of the enormous airport? Does this happen to everyone? Miles of walking. In Guwahati, they would not let me board until I produced proof of a ticket out of Thailand, which they claimed…
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The bus to Guwahati left at 2:30 in the afternoon and arrived there at 4:30 AM.We stopped on non-scenic Dimapur for 45 minutes of choking on pollution and milling around the muddy bus stand. It was a pretty comfortable old bus, with legroom and I actually dozed off for a half hour several times. Got…
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One problem with this adventure intro the North Eastern States is the new 30 day visa policy. Not very much time to relax and see Assam, Meghalaya, or Nagaland not to mention Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram, Arunchal Pradesh, and Sikkim (a former country in the Himalayas, now a state) or Bhutan (still a country) or the…
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Like Shillong, Kohima is built in the hills, but runs mainly along several ridges. the main street is one of the very few flat spots in the town. The main tourist draw here is the Hornbill Festival, held in October. Otherwise there seems to be little of touristic interest. I know, Shillong was in many…
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Chanrei’s uncle, a clergyman, arranged this trip by van, specifically getting me the front seat for comfortable leg room. I had thought that since Nagaland is directly east of Meghalaya this would be a fairly short trip. But no, there is no direct road east, and the journey involved going north to Assam state, turning…
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I took up hiking after a nearly 50 year layoff when I had devoted my energies to bicycling and cycle touring. Restarting at age 75 was a most pleasant experience, with the surprisingly added benefit of strengthening my lower back muscles and solving a decades long chronic back problem. And so, the one remaining task…
Ni Dieu Ni Maitre 