TRAVELLER TALES : MECHUKA: CHAPTER 1

 

Menchuka- Paradise unexplored

 

Lush green valley, a gurgling stream, cascades of green hills with snow peaked mountains playing peeka-a-boo, among the clouds, does not it seem like the perfect definition of a hill station. Well , Menchuka is all this and much more. It seems like a place right out of the postcard or of the fairy tale.

However, it is rightly said that all good things come at a price, and the journey to Menchuka is one hell of a ride through never ending winding terrains.

Nestled in the north eastern most part of India, lies the small town of Menchuka, also called as Mechuka in the state of Arunachal Pradesh, which happens to be the last town near the Indo-Tibet border with LOC within a distance of 30 kms from there. Menchuka, the name is derived from three words- 'Men' means Medicine, 'Chu' means Water -streams, rivers, etc. & 'Kha' means Snow; Meaning "the land blessed with medicinal snow-fed water- river & streams".

Being accessible only by air till some few years back, Mechuka stands hidden from the hustle bustle of urban development; as if time has stood still in this little hamlet. Although, with the construction of roads and its improved connectivity to Arunachal Pradesh’s town Aalo, the number of tourists have enhanced, and hence a few home stays have sprawled up, still the natural essence and beauty of the valley remains intact. And thus, also, it becomes a destination to be considered in one’s bucket list if one wishes to be a part of nature- pristine and untouched.

 

On a random conversation over a dinner, with a group of friends, the idea of visiting Mechuka took seed in the year 2019, and we planned to visit the place in December 2019, but as fate had other plans-a series of anti CAA protests in Assam , followed by the great pandemic, we were forced to shelve our plans. After that life happened, and people got busy with their jobs, marriage, kids, etc, and the idea of Mechuka still remained like that lingering flame,  that could not be doused.

And then after 3 years, in the April of 2022, one day we suddenly decided to fructify our Mechuka trip. Monsoons have set in early in north east India, and most parts of Arunachal were seeing heavy downpours and landslides. Nevertheless, this time we thought of taking the plunge and set off for the “forbidden road trip”. It was in the morning of 11^th April 2022, that I got a call from a friend that we should do the Mechuka trip on the next day, and although I had inhibitions in my mind, because of the torrential rains and roads broken at places for landslides, after some deliberation, I packed my bags and was all set for the trip to Mechuka.

 

The journey-

DAY 1:-

Mechuka is accessible both by roads and air. The nearest railway station would be Murkongselek, near Jonai, from which a taxi could be taken on rent to Mechuka. Apart from this the nearest airport is Passighat, from which helicopter services are available. However the chartered flight from Guwahati to Pasighat is irregular, and also the helicopter services are disbanded sometimes for rough weather. Another good option is flying to Dibrugarh Airport, and then cover rest of the journey vide road.

Also it is difficult to cover the journey from Dibrugarh to Mechuka on the same day, and Passighat or Along can be considered as a good pit stop.

Another important thing to be considered is entry into Arunachal Pradesh from any state of the country requires an ILP(inner line permit). ILP is easy to apply for and can be applied on the Arunachal Pradesh govt website vide https://arunachalilp.com and is generally obtained within 24-36 hours on working days. However to be on the safer side, it is better to apply before 5 days of travel. One can apply for single ILP or group ILP, and cost per person is Rs.100. In order to enter Mechuka from Assam, if travelling by road, first check point is the Ruksin Check gate, which is the Assam Arunachal Border, wherein the ILP’s are checked and also one can apply for ILP,offline there itself. However the process takes time and is better to go for online application/ e-ILP.

For us, we embarked on our journey from Guwahati vide road to cover a distance of 843 km. We decided to cover our entire journey/trip within 5 days, and thus Passighat was our first pitstop. The distance between Passighat To Guwahati is 558 kms, and the journey takes around 12-13 hours. It is advisable to travel vide NH-27, and then on NH-15 from Tezpur , as then one could travel on 4 Lane highway, also detour vide Tezpur is recommended since the NH-715 is under construction, and road conditions are not good at certain places. We set off for our journey at around 8:30 AM, and stopped for lunch at Tezpur at 12:00. However leaving early like 06:00 is not a bad option, as then one could relish the scenic beauty on both sides of the road, before entering Passighat.

We reached Passighat at around 10:30 PM, and checked into a hotel called The Serene Abode, Passighat. The hotel is centrally located in the town ,and was quite decent with all basic amenities available. If one wants to explore Passighat and savour in its beauty there are several other options like the Abor Country,etc, which is located on the banks of the majestic Siang River and surrounded by the mighty Himalayas. Around 12 kms from Passighat there is a place called the Ponging bridge , from where one could reach the banks of the Siang river. The place is so serene and beautiful that one could sit on the banks of the river for one whole day and watch time flow by.

However, as we were travelling on a tight schedule, all we could do was have our dinner, plan for the next day and jump on to our beds, as we had a long journey to look forth to.

DAY 2:

First rays of the Sun

Our day started as early as 04:00 AM. Although the road distance from Passighat to Mechuka is 281 km, due to the road conditions and rainy season, we knew that it would take us nothing less than 14 hours to reach our destination. In order to avoid the hectic journey and travel during evening hours, travellers prefer to make Aalo a pit-stop for the night before reaching Mechuka. Many shared TATA Sumos/ Bolero s are available for the journey from Passighat to Aalo, and hence having a rented vehicle is not mandatory upto this leg.

As we were a group of 6 people, with another friend joining us at Passighat, travelling from Dibrugarh via Bogibeel; we rented one Bolero from Passighat for our journey to and fro, and the other vehicle was self driven.

As we mounted on our cars, with a cool breeze blowing in our hairs, and the sunrays pervading the night sky with its orange hues, we let ourselves lost in the magnificent views of the mighty mountains and the deep gorges. By 7:30 AM, we reached our first pit stop for breakfast. It was a scenic little place by the river side with bamboo benches. 

Our pit stop for Breakfast

The weather so far was also favourable, and we were highly expectant of reaching Mechuka by day break. After filling our tummies and souls, we moved on towards Aalo, by 8:30 am, and this is when the roads started giving in. The actual Aalo-Passighat highway was taken off by the landslide and the roads that we took were built recently so that connectivity is not disrupted. The roads were rough but the rain gods were kind, so we passed off smoothly (with some road bumps of course) and reached Aalo in reasonable time. We decided not to stop here and went further to a place called Kaying for our next pit stop. However it is advisable if someone wishes to have a proper full course meal, it is better to stop at Aalo.

Landscapes en route Aalo

                                     

Reaching Kaying at 13:00 hours, we felt we were way ahead of our time and Mechuka was only 4-5 hours from there on. We stopped at a small village café with thatched roofs, with the hills and the rivers encompassing on all sides. It seemed like time has stood still there, like we were in an utopian reality. The porch where we sat had a missing roof, but it was difficult to judge whether the place was new and under construction, or it was old and worn out by time- such was the timeless nature of this place, and we actually understood what it meant by the expression- time stood still.

The place where time stood still

And thus we sat there, maybe for minutes or for hours, we did not realize till we finally decided to continue the rest of the journey for we could anticipate what beauty lay ahead. Hardly another 2-3 hours from this place, we stumbled upon another beauty. A cascading stream of water , from high mountains, a serene waterfall, named as the Siko-Dido Falls. Generally , in other tourist places the water falls are found crowded, but this was a beauty we had all to ourselves, with almost no crowd and one could simply walk to the base of the fall and marvel at the flow of water from above. By the time we left the falls, it was around 5:30, and darkness was slowly starting to envelop the valley, but we were confident of reaching in another hour. Little did we know, that time in the mountains is a relative entity.

 

Majestic Waterfall

Landscapes en route the fall

Fifteen minutes of crossing the fall, and the first misadventure befell us. There was a long trail of vehicles on the road near a place called Tato, and we could not fathom where the queue started from. Initially we thought it would be a 10 -15 minutes halt but time passed by and we were stuck for almost 30 minutes, when it also started raining heavily. The mountain beneath where our car stood seemed to have a heap of loose mud and we did panic thinking that the mountain might slide any moment. The reason for the long queue was also because of a landslide that happened and although the roads were cleared, an oil tanker got stuck in the loose mud and it was unable to move inspite of all attempts. Also another factor one should take into account is that roads are narrow and there is very less space for maneuvering. One wrong turn , a slight skid could make the vehicle topple down into the gorges. However the only ray of hope in such situations for all stranded passengers was the presence of BRO personnels who were not clearing the roads but physically pushing the vehicles stuck in mud , clearing the muds from the wheels of the stuck vehicles, in the heavy downpours and that day we understood what messiah did mean. They were our saviours in this hour of doom. After waiting for 1.5 hour, the queue started moving, each vehicle precariously crossing the sludge, the tyres slipping and struggling to find a grip. Finally, it was our turn and the vehicle did quiver but managed to find its path out of the mud. We actually had to thank our stars for making our way out of this situation. We still had another 40 kms to cover, and it was already 7 pm. 40 kms in hilly terrain meant minimum 1 hour of travel. So we went on with complete darkness enveloping us, and the roads being visible with only the headlights of our cars. And thus after travelling for an hour, we saw some lights and a signboard that spelt Mechuka, meaning we had reached our destination.

But our adventure had not yet ended. We knew that Mechuka had only BSNL connectivity , but little did we know that only 2G network was available, that meant we were unable to trace our hotel in the google maps. Our only point of contact was a petrol pump operator, the only fuel station in Mechuka, however even his phone was not reachable. And after a few minutes, even the 2G network was gone. So there we were 6 people in this sleepy hamlet, with no one to contact to, seemingly lost. In fact there was not a single shop, a single person on the streets at 8 , and to us travelling from the cities this came as a surprise. So the town was completely dark , and we started searching for our hotel name on signboards with the headlights of our car. This continued for some minutes till we came back to the fuel station, and luckily this time we could reach him over a call. He guided us to our hotel – The Myst Boutique Hotel and it was on reaching the property that we sighed a heave of relief. It was a pretty property, with all amenities as that of any decent 3 star hotel, with a restaurant and neat rooms with balconies overlooking the mountains. However, as it was already dark, so we had to wait till the next morning for the views.

Our bodies ached after the long travel, our feet cold with the decreasing temperature, nevertheless we decided to set our tiredness apart and quickly came down for dinner after freshening up a little.

But the hour and two that followed took all our tiredness away.

As soon as we sat down for dinner, we were greeted by the caretaker of the hotel, who was actually a nephew of the owner, and his wife. They were from Arunachal and stayed in the hotel itself. They also had a toddler of two-three years who immediately came to befriend us. We heard stories about the place, their adventures, about how the tourism boomed in Mechuka after the visit of Salman Khan, to the extent that a view point was named after him. And although there was no internet connectivity in that place, we never really did feel the need. After our dinner, bollywood music started blaring in one of their speakers, and all of our danced our hearts out, we were all from different cities, states, communities, yet binded by the love of Bollywood songs. That day I realized that maybe, sometimes, that it is necessary we keep ourselves away from the distractions and humdrum of internet and social media, and celebrate the essence of life and humanity for what it truly stands for.