Holy Shit !! What a Ride !!
Only some lucky bikers gets a chance to be so unlucky to say " Holy Shit !! What a Ride !! " on the end of the ride and we were one of them.
When our group " Bikers of Assam " was formed on 20th of Jan 2013 and did an amazing ride to" Lake of No Return, Myanmar " we started discussing what will be our next destination.
Some of our members suggested to visit the Mega Reh Festival, Miao Festival or Mayodia and finally we decided to visit Parashuram Kund of Arunachal Pradesh on 17th Feb 2013 which was nearly 200KM away from Duliajan.
To & fro ride would be
400KM so we decided to start 5 AM in the morning from Duliajan.
Many bikers from all over Assam informed that they were interested & would join the ride. We all were excited about the ride. We designed our group logo & got its sticked in our bikes.
We finalised the route as Duliajan > Tinsukia > Makum > Doomdooma > Rupai > Namsai > Tengapani > Chowkham > Wakro> Parashuram Kund
We requested the members of Digboi & Margherita to reach Makum and meet us there By 6.15 AM
Members of Sivasagar, Moran, Dibrugarh, Naharkatia etc will reach Duliajan one day ahead & halt a night.
As the date of the event came closer some of the interested bikers said they cant join the ride as they were college students and have exam. Some of the bikers said that their pockets became empty due to Valentines Day & Saraswati Puja Celebration. As they were college students or unemployed we can understand how expensive these two days for them. Moreover on 15th Feb the govt increased petrol price by Rs 1.40 & various organisation declared 16th Feb as Assam Bandh. So unfortunately only few bikers were joining the event.
As 16 Feb was declared Assam Bandh Bhargav from Sivasagar who is the youngest member of our group was at Jorhat. He was so passionate that he arranged a scooty & came all the way to Duliajan to join the event.
At about 10 PM of 16feb it started raining. I posted a facebook status " Shit its raining & we had planned a 400+km ride tomorrow :'( " and slept.
17th Feb:
At 4 O'clock in the morning when I woke up. I saw a sms from Shantanu " Dada Boroxun dise jabo ne ". Santanu is from Duliajan & a trainee engineer in BVFC, Namrup " . So I called him up & decided to ride as far as possible since its not raining heavily.
I had bath, prayed to god, had a cup of tea with mom & started the ride at 5 AM in the morning. As decided Trideep was waiting near the new bus stand of Duliajan with his bike. Trideep is my school friend, a good photographer and a big foodie. I still remember we use to look for his lunch box where he brings lots of fried stuff for us. Actually he use to bring two lunch box one for himself one for us. After school I meet him physically after 15yrs as he changed the school at class 6.
We started our journey from Duliajan & reached BCPL Gate near Tilinga Mandir where Shantanu, Bhargav, Madhurjya Ch & Mrinmoy joined us.
Madhurjya Ch is also a musician from Duliajan & a good photographer. Mrinmoy is a Musician from Moran.
The sunshine brought a smile in our faces. We started riding together and reached Makum where Abhijit was waiting after his night shift duty. He works for Oil India Ltd as Jr. Engineer. He was so excited about the ride that he went to Guwahati and brought new handle bar & new chain sproket few days ago for his cruiser bike (Avenger) but unfortunately it was fitted with fault which broke down the bearings.
We went ahead and reach Doomdoma by 7AM where we had our breakfast. We waited for the Digboi bikers for few mins but they didnt reach there. So we decided to move ahead crossed Rupai & reached Kakopathar. The road condition was superb just like a runway. Our speedometer clicked 80-100kmph. In a beautiful location we decide to do some photoshoot. After few mins the Digboi Bikers also reached there. Though Bijoy & his three friends didnt get much time for photoshoot.
We reached Dirok Gate by 9.30 AM where we got the passes to visit Arunachal. They charged Rs25 per person. After Dirok gate the roads were underconstruction. We crossed Tengapani, Chowkham & Wakro.
We crossed many monastary on our way & refueled our tanks in Wakro as the petrol price was less compared to Assam @Rs67 per ltr.
The views was awesome. We said to each other " Manuhbure bidekhot ki sabo jai jodi amar usorote iman dhunia thai furibo ase "
We reached Parashuram Kund by 1.30 PM. It was bit cold there. We could feel the force of the wind. There was a big wind mill which is used to generate electricity for the entire Parashuram Kund temple & surrounding. There was also solar plates to generate electricity.
Some of the bikers didnt want to visit the Kund as there is a belief that the kund is not visited by people who have parents alive. When we met some visitors they said its just a superstation they have visited the kund many times since childhood. Moreover we saw Akshay Kumar's movie "OMG, Oh My God" a day before so we went down & spent some time there.
While going down to the Kund we went down easily but while climbing up it was damn tiring. Some said there is 150 steep steps but it seemed like 500 steps
We climbed 10-15 steps and start eating the fruits, sonpapri, biscuits & local oranges. We chatted with the Sadhu babas, shopkeepers & we also met some foreign tourist from France.
We spent some time there & went to the Parashuram Kund bridge. The wind in the bridge was so strong that it pushed our us backward. Our bikes were shaking in the stand & moreover it started raining there.
As it started raining we started our return journey, it was about 4 PM. After riding half an hour we reached a small hotel where we met Nandini.
A cute little girl from Arunachal, Nandini is the daughter of the shop owner in whose shop we halted for a few minutes due to heavy rain. The owner said they dont have enough food for us so we decided to have lunch at Wakro. We bought some Chips, Kurkure etc from his shop and was busy eating when suddenly she came out from her fathers lap with a teddy in her hand, standing amidst us without any fear, in her innocent childish way she was saying - "ku kukulle (kurkure) ke packet edhal mat peko, mele papa aake tumhe khub pi pitenge, melle papa boht gussa karte haiii"
We bursted out laughing, and then offered her a packet..
We chatted with her, clicked pics and when we were about to leave she was asking about our bikes- "ye kya bike haii, woh kya bike hai", we answered her questions and asked her "tumhare pass kya bike hai", she said " mele pass to chotta bike hai, mele didi k pass bhi bike hai, boooht bala(bara) wala bike hai"
By then her father also joined in our laughter :-)
After saying bye to Nandini we moved ahead. It was getting darker minute by minute. It was raining heavily.
We dint meet any living soul in the Kamlang Reserve Forest and Kamlang Wildlife Sanctuary with dense forest. We could see fresh elephant dung on the road. There was nobody to help us in case of any mechanical fault. Infact we dint have anything for self defence in case of any attact from wild animals.
We rode in a constant speed in a zig-zag formation so that we get a view of the road ahead & its sides. The visibility was very less about 40% as it was raining. My black glass of my helmet made it more difficult to ride. We were getting jerks constantly as there many potholes on the road which were hidden by rain water.
When we saw the fresh elephant dung on the road we just said to each other " Atia kotu aru robo nai dei, Axom pua loike "
After riding for 2 hrs we reached Wakro. It was around 6PM. As we were all wet I decided to stop for a tea break but other bikers repeted " Atia aru kotu robo nai, Axom pua loike ".
I could understand we have to cross one more underconstruction road through the long dense forest. After seeing the fresh elephant dung it not a good idea to make delay.
Now we had very slippery muddy road to ahead due to heavy rain. Our bikes skidded many times. Our hands & legs were shaking out of cold. To ride few miles ahead took lots of time. We were constantly changing our riders.
Many times one of our rider had to get down to push our bikes from the back to make it stable & keep the wheels moving. Madhurjya Ch & Mrinmoy who brough new boots for the ride were filled with water & mud.
I remember once when Madhurjya Ch asked his pilion Mrinmoy to push his bike Mrinoy replied " Roba moi nijey pori golu ".
Mrinmoy fell down in the sticky muddy road :(
We reached Dirok gate at around 8PM. The Army man asked us to stop as a dumper had killed a young boy near Kakopathar & locals are protesting on the highway.
We went to a nearby shop to buy some chips, kurkure & chocolates to eat. We decided to halt a night at Digboi only Trideep will ride back to Duliajan via Tinsukia.
We squeezed our clothes, riding gloves & take out the water from our boots. We realised that we are wet upto our innerwear.
After the break we started riding again. We reached Doomdoma by 9.15PM from where we took a shortcut to Digboi & Trideep continued riding towards Duliajan via Tinsukia.
We were damn tired, hungry, our fingers were numb & whenever we stopped our bikes our legs shake out of cold. Only the engine heat makes it feel better.
We reached Digboi by 10PM. As soon we reached Abhijits room we went to the water tap to clean ourselves. The water which we feel cold normally was like boiling water. We changed ourselves to dry clothes & went inside the blanket to make ourselves warm.
After one an hour we had our dinner with boiled rice, potato and maggie. Next day early in the morning we came back to Duliajan to resume our respective duties.
Thus one of the most adventurous, challenging & memorable trip of " Bikers of Assam " came to an end.
Such challenges makes our bond stronger & helps to understand each other better.
Cheers Bikers of Assam
By – Madhurjya Bindass Axomia
Keep Riding || Keep Inspiring
~~~ The End ~~~
