from guwahati at the moment
 

hi all. sitting now (again) in guwahati waiting for permits to nagaland and AP. just spent the last several weeks in meghalaya, mizoram and tripura.

first, road conditions. if coming from siliguri to guwahati, take the southern route via goalpara. better road as the other one is under construction. in sousthern assam the roads around silchar are atrocious(good use of the word!)...to say the least. also, i was warned by EVERYBODY to avoid the cachar hills from silchar to haflong. bandits are competing with militants for your money!!
the roads in megalaya are great! very good condition in most places. the ttrip down to cherapunjee is outstanding and to stay in latkinsew (sp?) to take the walking trek to see the living tree bridges is as spectacular as gruelling! i have heard from ones who did it, that the center road from shillong to tura is horrible. there is a southern one but the military may not let anyone go on it. i will try to find out later about this.
the road from shillong east to silchar is great until the sign welcomes you to assam. then you can kiss the good roads goodbye. crossing down into mizoram the road is bad until (yep, guessed it) the border and then it is a beautiful highway all the way to aizawl. there is a big part of about 60kms under construction but it should be done by june. same for the road to lunglei in the south.
tripura has nice roads through rolling hills and flat areas.
you can go from aizawl to tripura without going back to silchar. up NW to mamit and then a small road also under construction.

i would say that mizoram is the most beautiful of the states i have been so far. mostly because of the mountains and riding the bullet here. there is not a lot of east-west travel though because of all the mountain ridges. the whole northeast is hazy now too because of the slash and burn farming going on. jhum farming.
meghalaya is also very clean mountain country and i want to see the western part around tura b4 i finish.
tripura is flatter and hotter but you can make better time there. lots of things to see and do there.

waiting now for my permits. for indian citizens it is an easy matter. being a foreigner makes some things difficult and others easy. ie, at the state bhavans, they go out of their way to help me.
after getting the permit for mizoram, i went through the border and nobody stopped me to see it. dammit, i thought as i went through. i WANTED to show it off!! and so i was in and without any time restriction either as i was not required to show up in the govt office to 'check in' there.

i would say for those in india coming from the south and west, you could save yourself some time and wear on your vehicle if you cross through bangladesh and come out into tripura. from kolkata you could be in agartala in 2 days of driving. that beats going up to siliguri.

will hopefully give some good info on naga and AP soon.
take care and keep the rubber on the road

Hi Tony,

Was interested to read your comments. The missus and i are riding from London to Melbourne in 2010. We've been trying to work out how much time we should plan for India and trying to get an idea of what part of the country are worth seeing and what aren't.

I appreciate that India's enormous but the views of somebody living there would be really invaluable and will go along way to helping us plan our trip.

thanks

Time In India
 

This is a really hard one.

Your best way to start planning may be to decide how you want to exit.I if u r going to Oz then the overland route thro China may/maynot suit you so,aiming for Kochi(Kerala) or Kolcutta may be the options.Whatever,you will then be able to plan your drive there.

Touring in India is painfully slow so,do not overestimate daily driving,400km here is a VERY full day in most places and like 1200k in Europe.If you have 'loadsadosh'you may wish to see some key places by internal air rather than days of driving.I have done a lot of driving in the North and have been driven a lot in Assam.See Mitchells prevoius message re NE but,this area should definately be on yr hit list.

If that were the case then I would allow 4 weeks to see all of Rajasthan,some of Gujerat and up to Amritsar.

Then to the Himalyas for 2-3 weeks and down to Delhi and Agra,say another week.

It may then take you a week to get to Guwahati(Assam) and do Assam and the NE.Check Mitchell on this but I would say a min of 3weeks just to cover main sites.Do you want to go to Sikkm and Bhutan,if so add time.

From there you could probably get to Kolcutta in 5 days and ship from there.

The other option would be to spend several more weeks touring thro South-Central and shipping from Kochi which is a great place and you will see a lot of India.

Kajuraho should not be missed but unless your a pilgrim the majority of Temple sites do not compare with it or,some of the ones you will have seen already.

If you allowed 3-4 months you will have done a lot but nowhere near all.

There are only 3 things required for driving here:

Balls of Steel
Nerves of Iron
Manic sense of humor

You will have developed all within 3 days of entering;failure of any could be disasterous but hey if you got this far what the hek.:clap:

weather issues
 

now in kohima, the capital of nagaland. nice place, people etc.
one thing i keep saying to myself here in the northeast is: 'i wonder how much more beautiful it is during the monsoon'.
you have two choices here. dry and cool winter season or the wet summer. in the winter, every day is dry but the sky is hazy, dusty and now with the slash and burn season, smokey too. all the fields are brown and dusty. very few lush green views anywhere. dry waterfalls. sometimes you cannot even see across a small valley due to the haze.
i'm thinking another trip out this way in the wet might be worth it for the beauty. probably from late oct to january.
now, i have also been on some pretty bad roads that i feel fortunate that it is not wet!! they would be absolute hell in mud during that time. most have been in assam as meghalya and mizoram are nicely paved.
just a note as i sit here.
later