After border crossing at Tamu-Moreh border crossing, I spent one night in Moreh, which is in my opinion very normal border town. Busy, not too clean having a bit shady vibes, but still somehow, I liked it. Originally, I planned to enter India slowly and give myself a day off to get used the new culture, but I woke up early in the morning, so I packed my bicycle, had morning chai on the street and hit the A1 national road. Little I knew that there was some killer hills waiting for me.
The hills started straight from Moreh and fast I figured out that my lower gears did not function. For a moment I continued and thought that maybe I don't need the lowest ones, if the climbings are short and inclinations not that bad. After 15 minutes, I gave up and decided to learn how to fix the gears myself. I had just jumped off from my bike and first kids arrived to watch what the white woman is trying to do. After one hour, I managed to get the gears to work and I waved good byes to the crowed of 30 people. I got my first flashback of India; from now on I will not be alone anymore, there will be always somebody watching.
The inclination of the killer hills between Moreh and Imphal killed my already tired legs. I tried to think these hills are just foothills of Himalaya, and got some extra energy, which always lasted for 100 meters. Even if the climbing was tough for me, it was worth for every drop of sweat. I run out of water after 37km of climbing and stopped in a small village to refill my bottles. The locals pointed out an army camp just above the village on the hilltop, so I cycled there to ask for water. I think I looked quite pink and exhausted, since the person in charge of the camp asked me if I wanted to have lunch with him. It's not hard to quess what was my answer; of course I am always ready to eat. I ended up staying at the army camp overnight. I got my own house, which was furnitured for me by 7 men. Which color of curtains do you want?
Since I didn't know anything about the north east India or state of Manipur before I entered there, i learned a lot about the problems in the area from the army commander ( and later from every villager who I stopped talking to). In general Manipur is having heavy military presence, which can be seen in continuous checkpoints, army camps (naturally the walls of the camps were painted with Indian propaganda- Indian army is a friend of the hill-people) and patrols roaming around the area. I think I have never seen so many guns in my life ( the locals were also carrying guns for hunting). In Manipur, there is over 33 tribal groups with different interests; some of them wanting independence from India, some smuggling guns and drugs etc. The area is mountainous, bordering area with Myanmar and very off the grid, remote without proper infrastructure, running water or electricity.
After spending one night at the army camp and crossed number of checkpoints, I reached Imphal, busy capital of Manipur, where I met Danish cyclist Nikolai. I was lucky with my timing of arrival because the day before the city was closed due to some bombings or risk of bombings. With Nikolai I shared the mountainous road from Imphal to Dimapur. I was pretty proud of myself after cycling 120km on the mountains (40km of downhill included) in one day. The roads in Nagaland were pumpy, sometimes I tought there was more potholes than actual road. Every second villages seemed to be Nepali village, women carrying wood on the basket, selling memos as chowmain.
Nagaland is state of the Naga people and the Naga people of Manipur are campaigning for independence, or boundary alterations. Manipur state is run by a different distinct tribe than the Nagas which has resulted in the Naga areas of Manipur being left drastically underfunded by corrupt officials. This is the main reason for the violence between the tribals. As the army commander said, the people in the villages are just believing into different things than what Indian government beliefs, both of the opinions are equally good. People have strong need to believe into something, otherwise they are lost.
I was very scared to returns to India by myself with bicycle. I was mostly scared of men and traffic. Once again, I had to face my own beliefs and ideas that I had created in my own mind, and realize that it faraway from the reality. Even if the states of Manipur and Nagaland are heavily armed in sides of Indian army and militants, I never felt unsafe there. In both sides people were saying that nothing bad will happen to me, they were just so happy to see a tourist! In general, the woman are having higher position in the society than in mainland of India. I found it easy to talk to the women and I never felt that men were staring at me too long. I was not really sure whether I had even entered to India yet, since the local people said that India starts only after Assam, this area is North East. The local people were complaining, that if they travel to Delhi, thy are not recognized as Indians, but more like foreigners. Yet they were themself very proud to have different ethnic background than Indians.
Yet, the traffic is quite crazy in north east of India. Noisy, polluted, and all sorts of moving objects are coming from all the possible directions any time all the time. The noise is the one that drives me crazy the most. Sometimes, I find myself loosing my temper and starting to ring my own bicycle bell when everybody else have pushed their horns on constantly over minute. How much my little bell makes noise in Finland, but in India I cannot even hear it. I have been considering to start cycling with earplugs in the cities and get proper horn for lady princess. Anyways, I believe the traffic looks worse than it actually is, once being inside of it. The drivers are so used to have everything on the road, so they do respect the biker, at least little bit, or at least sometimes. I got a big realization once I was just about to loose my mind in the traffic; no matter what happens around me and how crazy it gets, the peace is only found within myself. But still once entering to the cities I just hope all the horns and noises would quiet down for little moment.
My driving space has slowed down a lot after I almost crashed into a track on 40km serpentine downhill. The driver was drunk and overtook my line on the curve and because of the mountainside I couldn't see the truck coming. I barely manage to turn my bike away and the car, that was just one meter behind me crashed with the truck.
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