Today was supposed to be kind of a blur in my trip memory as it's supposedly through and through highway riding. Though considering my perception and (now) limited experience of the roads in the northeast, I was still skeptical of accepting the concept of a multi-lane highway. But then Assam proved me wrong. Assam is the only state out of the 8, which is blessed (depending on how you look at it) with planes. And the road connecting to cities like Guwahati and Tezpur is indeed 4 lane express ways (in India it means faster roads). Having said that, there exist numerous alternative roads, which would also take you to your destination, should you choose to avoid the (relatively) longer highway. Which I did in the last stretch till Guwahati. The highway was butter smooth and was the reason I could cover such a long distance in a day. So I am happy with that. Now coming back to the day, it was a usual one in my book, as Sikkim has already raised the bar in adventure riding. In this journey from West Bengal into Assam, the change of terrain was nothing drastic really. However, I did enjoy the lush green (due to the rain) tea estates on both sides of the road, while entering Assam. The view of the mountains in the distance was also beautiful. The rest of my day can be summarized through the photographs that follow.
Lunch break somewhere close to the West Bengal border. Decent food at a decent price. More importantly, I can watch my bike parked right outside the window :D
Bit of drizzle here and there keeps everything nice and cool.. and green :)
Exchanging some admiration for each other's ride :P
After coming down to the planes, I was missing the mountains again... So was just thinking, when does the climb begin..again!!
Usual milestone photos, just in case I need to track them down someplace later.
Bhutan was to the left.. mere 37 KMs away... It was tempting not to get into a foreign country. Maybe some other day... I had interesting places to go in our own motherland :)
The bull was getting ignored, so another shot of the same place.
In a never-ending horizon, this was a cool thing I noticed... the abstract pattern of the clouds in an otherwise clear blue sky.
After getting bored of the highway, I took an alternative dual carriage (both-way traffic) road to Guwahati and that was full of greenery (as can be seen here)...
So if I remember correctly I reached Guwahati late in the evening. Booked a hotel close to the station area, as I had to catch up with a friend, who would get me my necessary permits including the one for Arunachal Pradesh. Where I will be heading next via Tezpur. So I got a dodgy-looking hotel, bang in the middle of the 'Fancy Bazar'. Had it been a decade or two ago, I would have been excited by the idea of staying right in the middle of a busy market with a lot of shops around. But alas, I have grown out of that phase I guess or at least at this point to appreciate it. But again, given I had a long riding day, I needed a place to crash ASAP. So just got into my tiny room and passed out. Not really, just went for a shower, as Guwahati on that day was exceptionally humid. So a shower did wonders in making me feel fresh and the dinner was... um, I don't really remember now. Is that even important ?!!! You get everything in a city, every freakin city. So nothing special there anyway. So the point is, I had my food, put on my riding gear to get some air, and had a proper sleep. Tomorrow is when I was to meet up with Shuhel, a friend of Krish, a friend of Monjit, and a friend of Gopal who happens to own a Cast-Iron Electra 5s. For those of you rolling your eyes, the last one is the model of bike I have and hence got to know all these people and now they are all good friends of mine. Life works in weird ways really. LOL. Theoretically speaking tomorrow is the day I meet a guy, collect the permits, and ride my way toward Arunachal. But the lord of motorcycles (if he exists), had other plans.
Until tomorrow...
Sid
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