the forgotten worlds - arunachal pradesh and meghalaya - day 3 - sangti valley and reaching tawang

day 3

view from room

a small walk from the room brings you to the dirang river where tents have been pitched for people to stay.

bridge to cross the river

mountain view from river side

bridge across the river

cosmos flowers on the way to the river

view of the place i stayed. room is on first floor
after breakfast we leave the home stay
first stop is a kiwi farm

scenery en route to dirang
next we wanted to visit some places in dirang but there was a heavy onflow of army vehicles through dirang so we passed dirang to go to the hot springs out side of dirang. it wasnt a good place to visit, because it was all dirty there and there was a small place where there was luke warm water. it was a big disappointment. then we were supposed to stay back in dirang for the day but chose to drive to tawang because it was not a good idea to go back to dirang with all the traffic of army vehicles. it is advised to stay in either dirang or bomdila to get acclimatised to the lowering oxygen levels as we climb up in altitude.

after lunch at the most popular place along that route, padma hotel, we started driving towards tawang.

just an example of how the roads start to become
as we climb to sela pass, fog covers up the views.

landslide along the way

just before reaching sela pass it started snowing.

highest point so far. sela pass. 13700 feet. it was snowing and freezing cold. the army guys there told us it would have been around -2 degrees Celsius

snow on the road side

just as you cross sela pass you can see the sela lake. it was snowing everywhere and covering up fast with fog.

the road for the next one hour was all fog, slush and dirt and snow falling.

 first yak sighting

the road we just came by.

 first stop is jawantgarh in tawang district. there is a memorial for soldier jaswant singh who fought the chinese during the 1962 war.

the tree from which he was hung when he was finally shot dead by the chinese.

jaswant singh - his family still receives pension and he is still enrolled in the army. armed forces whenever they cross this memorial stop by to pay their respects. across the road from this memorial there is a cafeteria run by the army. tea is served free. samosa or bonda is to be paid for. you can also buy jackets, gloves, boots etc for the cold weather from the shop next to the cafeteria.

statue of jaswant singh as a reminder of his courage and valour.
it got dark from here and hence we just drove all the way to tawang in the dark and checked in to the hotel for the night.

end of day 3