I reunited with Kati and Jacob, the couple I met with Lauriina in Myanmar,in Dimapuri. We decided to cycle through Kajuranga nationa park. The road was following the side of the national park and for the first time during this journey, I passed sine posts, which warned about elephants and tigers. We were lucky, the road to Kajuranga was not busy, flat and beautiful. Along the way we met extremely nice family, who led us pitch our tents outside of their restaurant StopOver. The extremely hospital family was our first family, who showed the kindness of people in Assam.
Everything is possible in India and on our second day in Assam we were followed by a man with a videocamera. It started in small village where we looked for a place to eat. We found it a bit disturbing, that man with video camera(some 20-years old camera) is just sitting on top of his motorbike and smile while filming us. We continued cycling and for a lunch we found small restaurant next to the road. It took few minutes until the man with the tiny video camera run into the restaurant filming the situation all the time. After few minutes filming he told he is from local news. We continued our journey and after 5km we met the same man waving us to stop to the road side. As a duty of a man Jacob was the one talking. Later we heard that during one day we were 4- 5times in the news.
Kajuranga national park is one of the largest national parks in India. The park is home for one horned rhino, elephants, tigers, leopard and many other animals. We decided to rent a jeep and enter into national park. Some of the villages next to the national park will be emptied within few years, because the national park will grow in size. The poachers are hunting the one horned rhinos and tigers and selling the important parts of the animals for China's dealers. Our guide told, that the punishment for poaching is life time emprisonment. Our guide explained that most of the poachers come from Nagaland since they have a long history for hunting (headhunters). The villagers have made groups out of the volunteers, who guard the park during the nighttime to provide good safe night for the animals. We found the experience good and interesting to learn about the environment of the park and wild life conservation in India.
The road from Kajuranga to Guwahati was full of surprises. I couldn't believe my eyes when two huge domestic elephants walked towards me on the national highway. The elephants were followed by three men, who controlled the elephants with 30cm long bambu-sticks. They made the elephants to walk straight towards us and I can just imagine how the men were enjoying our surprised faces. Lady-Princess got gentle blessing from one of the elephants. Later we saw another working elephant on the highway and small boy was riding it back home. Of course not even one single local person stopped to take a photo of the elephants, they see them everyday.
The road was offering us beautyfull moments of passing by wild rhinos (can you imagine to see wild rhinos while cycling! Mind blowing to see how differently the wildlife is taken in India. They are just part of everything, because everything is accepted. We even saw rhinos grazing together with cows on the edge of national park. Incredible India. Otherwise the landscape in Assam is dominated by agriculture and especially rice and tea fields were dominating the scenery. 2/3 of the population in Assam are farmers.
We decided to have days off in George's retreat, which is a beautiful eco resort near by Guwahati run by helpful and kind George with his family. From there we went to Treasure wheel museum to stay in one of extremely beautiful tree house. The place is located into the jungle and is run by inspiring Pickloo, who has collected old cars, motorbikes, gramophones, clocks and other interesting old stuff. The folding bicycles and motorbikes, which were tight on packs of Second World War parachuters. I mange to record the last play of hundred years old gramophone.
The night in the tree house was one of its kind, the full moon made the jungle light and the sounds of injects were magical. We were going down to the toilet and the two guys who stayed to guard the museum during the night time, shouted us not to come down but to stay in the tree house, because the wild elephants were near by. We climbed back into the treehouse and soon we saw huge try creature came very silently through the push (the local people said that elephants always come with silence). The elephant went straight into the kitchen. After the kitchen was empty with the food the elephant decided to get into the museum, where was one rice box hidden. The elephant moved the roof, broke through the concrete walls so easily, piece by piece. Once the elephant was partly in the museum, I understood the sentence "being elephant in the porcelain shop". There was two elephants on the property of Picloo and we saw other elephants roaming around on the street which went through the forest.
"Elephant is a honest animal" says Picloo, after he saw the damage that these huge creatures made during the night time, they only want food. He was not blaming the elephant, he said that he was the one who moved into the jungle where the elephants are, so he must understand the risk and respect the animal. Somehow, the whole attitude towards wildlife and nature is different than in Finland. The jungle hides in it leopards, tigers and elephants but still people live their life next to them.
After Treasure Wheels Museum, we started our journey towards Siliguri, West Bengal. We decided to cross Brahmaputra river and leave the big road behind us. During this time of the year Brahmaputras fine riversand starts to fly on the air due to strong winds. The amount of dust on the air was just incredible, we had to use a mask in front of our mouths not only because of the pollution from the cars, but also because of the sand which was getting straight into the eyes and mouths.
During this part of our tour Assam changed a lot; suddenly majority of people were Muslims from Bangladesh, if we stopped into a bigger city people started to gather around us in very intense numbers. There used to be tension in between the indigenous people from Assam and the Muslim immigrants from Pakistan and West Bengal as well as with refugees from Bangladesh. The Muslim population on the area has increased during the past years and while cycling it was very clear that the Muslims stay in their own communities. The competition for livelihood, land and political power (currently there are elections going on in Assam) have been the biggest reasons for the past violence. Yet the villages were still extremely friendly and while camping on the edge of the villages the people brought us dinner, invited us for breakfast and gave us gamosa, their traditional scarf, which is to show the big respect for the guest.
During our ride through Assam, we stayed couple times at the police station overnight. Once we were moved there by the police and once we went to ask for a place to sleep by ourselves. I felt comfortable sleeping there with Jacob and Kati, and we got always a nice room, one time even with beds. Yet, the police force is full of men and as one woman, who is in high position in the police force said, it's not always safe. The police is corrupted and if the leader of the areal police forest does not know a westerner is there, anything can happen. Coming from Finland, where normally you can trust the police, this always sounds wrong.
What can you expect while cycling in Assam? A hospitable population, wildlife, different religions, good food, rice and endless tea plantations, experience life along Brahmaputra river, new friends and adventures. Assam is flat area, and the roads in some parts are in extremely good condition, for a few days we cycled on a big highway without any cars and traffic, and then on more rural areas the roads can be in very bad condition.
