Trying to Find the Sights of Tezpur

The first thing I did in Tezpur was try to find an Assam Tourism officer. Although I missed him on the first day, he was in the office on the second morning. I also found they had a dormitory at the tourist lodge where he has an office, so I moved there for my second night.

The man (and unfortunately I forget his name), was great. Actually I think the Assam Tourism Authority is great. They have lots of pamphlets and maps and great information for visitors to the area. They are so much more informative than any of the other states in the area. They really seem to want to help visitors and make sure they have a good time in Assam and leave with a good impression.

In any case, he confirmed my suspicions that I wouldn't be able to visit Arunachal Pradesh and Tawang at this time. In addition to a permit, I would need to be in a group of four people. And since I wasn't in such a group, I was going to have to pay the permit fees for the other three phantom people (at 50 dollars apiece), plus some kind of administration fee, bringing the total fee for the enterprise to somewhere in the neighbourhood of 250 dollars. My 3 month visa to India cost 80 dollars, and I wasn't about to pay that kind of price for a few days in a fringe state, no matter how beautiful it might be. And besides, Assam seemed to want me to spend time in the state and were more than happy to be informative. So Assam it would be.

The man gave me a bunch of information about Kaziranga National Park, including that it wouldn't actually open for tourism until the 1^st of November (further making Utpal's information difficult to credit). He also knew nothing of a river cruise from Jorhat to Guwahati, so I had to kind of put Utpal's suggestions on a back burner as far as being useful. But he had at least made me feel better about my trip out here, and he was very nice, so I don't hold anything against him.

Then I got a bunch of contact information for the office in Jorhat and was told how to get to Jorhat itself. With that I took my leave and headed out to see what there was of Tezpur that would be interesting. There was a map on the wall of the city, although not a terribly great one. There were a few places of interest listed and I decided to see if I could track any of them down.

First I decided to try and find a spot called Agnigarh Hillock. I wasn't sure what it would be exactly, but I thought it might be a good vantage point for the whole area. Off I went, but as the map wasn't the best, I overshot and ended up on the other side of the hill. This turned out to be an upscale feeling sort of area. I think the British must have had some kind of presence in the area, as the houses just seemed to be the sort of homes that upper-class colonialists might have been living in. But I don't know for sure. I never asked anyone. But Tezpur had a better constructed atmosphere to it that other parts of India haven't had so far. Beyond that, it's hard to describe.

I checked out the river again, and then headed back to try once more to find the hillock. And this time, I was successful. It was a spot that had a small entrance fee as well as one of those hateful camera fees. I didn't have a big bill available to be ornery this time though. The Agnigarh Hillock is a nice little park. It also has an observation tower at the top, and this affords a great view of the surrounding countryside.

Also in the park are a bunch of sculptures depicting a couple of stories of the Hindu gods. One in particular seemed to be quite a bloody episode.

Once down from the hillock, I attempted to find the ruins of a temple to Shiva that was supposed to be in the city. I never found it, although I did find the police station that had the same name. Oh well, it was just interesting to wander around in the city for a while. And I did finally find in Tezpur some of what I have always heard or imagined about India. I was always told in school that in India, cows are sacred. They wander where they please, do what they want, and nobody bothers them. I hadn't really seen any of that yet. But now here in Tezpur, cows wander the streets without being harassed. They tear into garbage on the sides of the streets. They lay down where they please. And nobody bothers them. Aha!!

Tezpur had been interesting, but without the trip to Tawang, I now wanted to get on to Jorhat and the possibility of going to the national park to see some rhinos. So I got a good night's sleep so that I could set out for Jorhat the next morning.