- Joined
- 10 Jan 08
- Moves
- 19047
so after spending xmas on the worlds largest river island (majuli - which was bliss) i decided to leave jorhat (the 'city' you go to to reach the island) on the 27th to go to kazaringa (spelling is probaby wrong but it's a national park that has the most amount of one horned rhrinos in the world - they have two horned rhrinos?), as i left the place i was staying in i was told that it was a public holiday that day and that everything (including the bus station) was closed. thought i'd go down anyway to see and sure enough everything was closed but there was one bus going that day, so after a couple of hours waiting around i finally got onto a bus for the np.
when i got to the national park it was around 2pm nad headed to the 'tourist complex' to find somewhere to stay that night, after walking around for about an hour trying everywhere in the place to get a room (all fully booked - some for over a month) i went to get soemthing to eat (as you do when you've nowhere to spend the night) and headed in the direction of the exit of the tourist complex to try and get something outside of it (about 1km away -which the lonely planet had said all sucked), on the way i ran into a shop owner in the park who said he knew someone who might have a room. so i got a lift to outside the tourist complex by the hotel owner and sure enough he had a room that was a complete dive, and expensive for here... so i decided to see if anywhere esle had a room outside of the tourist complex and sure enough everywhere was full, ended up going back to the other place and paid 2-3 times more than i had been paying for a room that was a lesser standard than the others. it did have a bathroom attached with a flushing western toilet which was nice though so it couldn't been worse and for one night just to do an elephant ride in the park the next morning and leave arfter wasn't that bad.
so for the bookings for the next days elephant rides you had to go to some building at 7pm as booking was from 7-8pm, 7:30 the guy turns up and says a vip group has taken all the bookings for the morning rides and the only time possible to go was 3pm. i really didn't want to have to stay there another night but i came to do the elephant ride so i booked it for 3pm thinking i might be able to get a bus after (it was 5 hours from where i wanted to go so i didn't want to leave to late). at the booking office i met this (rich) guy from delhi who had hired a car and was going to the same place as me and offered to take me as well, i of course accepted.
so after a night of people snoring and talking in the other rooms around me, (which i can only assume were separeted by paper mashie) i got up early to do a jeep tour around a different part of the park than the elephant ride (obviously), which was great, a little foggy at the start but normally you don't get that close in a jeep to the rhrinos but driving along we passed a mother and her toddler just about to cross the road, the diver crapped himself and drove on but we did get to see them crossing after us which was awesome. so after that and lunch i set of to do the elephant ride (which at sunset at the end was better that the jeep - cheaper as well) and right after set off, it was about 5pm. roadworks later we arrived (the capital of assam, i can't spell it) at 10:30pm and i set off to find soemwhere to stay, walked around for 45 mins only to hear 'no room', 'no room' everywhere i went, so again got something to eat. it's 11:30pm at this point, i still have no where to stay and i have no idea where i am. still looking for a palce to stay i ran into a guy who spoke perfect english who confirmed what i had been thinking, all hotels close their bookings at 10pm so i was never going to get a place to spend the night so i headed for the train station, which by luck was only a 5 mins walk away to spend the night there. i think i slept 4-5 on the floor of the waiting room with the rest of the indians waiting for their train the next morning... it was if nothing else an experience. head on my big backpack with my arm wrapped around the little one, i surprised myself by how much i slept. so the next morning after walking around the train station for an hour or so getting breakfast and basically waiting until it wasn't too early to leave the place i left the station still not sure if i was going to look for a hotel or move on to shillong. after walking out of the train statation there was jeeps going to shillong (3 1/2 hours) so i thought f it and left. shillong is in one of the few christain states of india and aparently they had some festival recently, so it was pretty strange seeing the trees and lights (ok at night it was strange), i auctally really didn't like the place and i'm now back in the place i can't spell (with a room - woohoo). i did spash out on a room with cable tv and the best shower ever in shillong though so that was pretty sweet... at a cost of $1 more than the dive i stayed in at the national park.
Originally posted by trev33That's nice, are you going to move in our game slacker? 😛
so after spending xmas on the worlds largest river island (majuli - which was bliss) i decided to leave jorhat (the 'city' you go to to reach the island) on the 27th to go to kazaringa (spelling is probaby wrong but it's a national park that has the most amount of one horned rhrinos in the world - they have two horned rhrinos?), as i left the place i was stay ...[text shortened]... et... at a cost of $1 more than the dive i stayed in at the national park.
Originally posted by trev33Interesting!
so after spending xmas on the worlds largest river island (majuli - which was bliss) i decided to leave jorhat (the 'city' you go to to reach the island) on the 27th to go to kazaringa (spelling is probaby wrong but it's a national park that has the most amount of one horned rhrinos in the world - they have two horned rhrinos?), as i left the place i was stay ...[text shortened]... et... at a cost of $1 more than the dive i stayed in at the national park.
So detailed, I feel like I was there with you!
Just wondering, are you carrying around a lap top with WIFI? How are you posting?