My hopes for the northeast of India have been thwarted and dashed at almost every turn. I originally came on the hope that I would be able to visit Nagaland. It is still unclear to me if I could in fact have made that visit. But I was told I would need a permit to visit the area, a permit that could only be found in Delhi. Then I was told about Arunachal Pradesh state's Tawang and the really nice Buddhist temple there. But again a permit stood between me and the area. A visit to a tea research center was thwarted by a holiday, and the island of Majuli really wasn't all that interesting to me.
On my return to Jorhat, I planned to go and visit one of the other places recommended by the guy in the Assam Tourism office. He told me about a gibbon wildlife sanctuary. He told me that there were trails to follow there and there was even a guest house where I could stay. So, in order to make sure to get there with plenty of time to explore, I got up early at the guest house on Majuli and headed out. There the further surprise at the guest house of a higher price for the room that I had thought. I was pretty sure the young man had told me that the room would be 250 rupees when I checked in. But when I checked out the bill had the price as 350. It was still only 7 dollars, but I really thought he had said 250.
Anyway, I headed down to the ferry jetty, where I met Gili again. She was on her way to Jorhat to attend a seminar. It was good to be able to say goodbye to her. I also got to find out about her work here. She is doing a master's degree in community development and chose to come here to do her work. She has spent a lot of time here in the past few years. She is working with an NGO trying to band some women together in a business venture. The women here make some nice clothing that isn't made or available anywhere else. There is some unique piece of clothing that only the people of Majuli have. But they only make clothing for themselves. Yesterday, as I walked around, I noticed the looms and the thread-making machines under a number of houses, but I thought they were making something for some type of commercial purpose. It turned out that was not the case. Gili is attempting to get them together to make some things to send out to other markets and get some money coming into the island, more than what comes in with the small amount of tourism. It sounds quite interesting, and once again, I saw another person giving their time to try and improve a small part of the world.
It is a bit worrisome what may happen. As the people of Majuli get acquainted with how to make money and what money can do to help their lives, it may be inevitable that the approach to visitors will change and become more challenging, as elsewhere. But then there is no reason they should be denied the access to a better lifestyle, if it's possible and is what they want.
Once we reached the shore, I hopped on a bus and headed in to Jorhat. I arrived at the same bus terminal I used the previous time when I was headed to the tea research station. I hopped a bus to the same location and headed off. I got to the little town of Mariani, where I got off and searched around for smaller van to the gibbon wildlife sanctuary. I found one and we set off. It was only a few kilometers away. The driver was asking me why I was going. He seemed to think I might be coming to do some research at the sanctuary. This sent a small red flag for me. Suddenly I wasn't sure this was going to work out all that well. At length, the driver stopped the van and pointed the sanctuary out to me. I got out and headed across the road to what seemed to be the entrance. There was a sign. There was what looked like a hut where someone might stay, but it was no guest house, and it was quite run-down. And it was empty. I called around a couple of times, but there was no answer. There was a road at the side of the forest, so I figured that maybe there was an actual visitor center someplace off the road. I followed the road for a while. It ran between what was the forest of the sanctuary and a tea estate on the other side. There was no indication that this road led anywhere that might have something to do with a wildlife sanctuary. Eventually I met a man coming the other way. I asked him if the road led to the gibbon wildlife sanctuary. He said no, it led to some other place. Sigh!!!
I rested for a few minutes, for I was carrying my pack with me and it was getting heavy. Then I headed back to the road. I waited under the ranger's shack for a while, just to see if anyone would appear. Nope. So I went to the road and waited for some van back to Mariani to come along. There was no point in waiting around or trying to figure out if it was going to be possible to stay in the area. Perhaps if I had managed to be announced, or somehow to have alerted the ranger to my coming, it might have worked out, but it was going to be too much work to have that happen. And I had the temple foundation ceremony to attend the next day, so I just decided to call it another failed attempt. I really hope Kaziranga works out well.
The final ignominy of it all was that it happened to be the same driver who picked me up going back to Mariani. I had kind of hoped to slink back into town and get back to Jorhat without anyone being the wiser that something like this had happened. I didn't even get that right. Sigh!! I'm not sure what he thought of the situation, but I think he tried to call someone to find out what was going on. I heard something in his phone conversation about “Canada.” I don't think it would have been about anyone else. In the end, I just told him it was okay and headed back in to Jorhat. I returned to the Rhino Hotel and spent the rest of the afternoon checking email and wondering what had happened.
Now, despite all the setbacks out here, there have been some good points. I did meet some really nice people here in Jorhat. They invited me into their homes and made me feel very welcome. I saw Diwali celebrated and followed elephants around to new temples. It is a very nice area, and I will look back and remember it well. But it has also been a disappointment in a bunch of ways as well, and I might have learned more about India by seeing other parts of it with the time I have spent here. But I will never know.
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