Guwahati to Madarihat

10 April 2011
We woke up early at 5 AM, packed our light luggage in the sedan and started our journey. Being Bihu time, the roads were empty. We zoomed through NH-52. Our motorcycles were in our minds. How lovely it would have been to ride on these roads. We covered 110 kms within 2 hours arriving at the cousin's place.
Almost all of the conversation was in Assamese so I couldnt make sense of it. Then the serving started. It began with tea, sweet and biscuits. Then the pork arrived. And Poori. And Paneer. And Dal. And chicken. And another sabzi. Man, this was breakfast. I hope we didnt disappoint our hosts because we were gobbling every minute.
We gave up when our stomachs could hold no more. But, the treat was still not over. Out came lao paani, or rice beer. I had been longing to taste it. Nilu refused to have but still had to taste some for courtesy's sake. We had a bit more for courtesy's sake. Nilu warned that it is extremely potent. It is said to be good for digestion, a fact proved as Doley immediately went to dump. This activity would become a big joke later in the evening as we came to know about a secret.
Our hosts packed up a tiffin filled with pork and a 3 Litres milk container full of rice beer for our journey. Being Bihu time, we were also presented with the traditional gamusha. We thanked our hosts immensely. Note the trip meter reading of 110 kms. We continued our journey to stop again after 5 minutes. The smokers badly wanted a drag. As we continued, with blues playing in the stereo, we mulled over what else to do. About 20 minutes must have passed since we left. Out came the milk container. Our hosts had also packed a few disposable glasses. I took my duty as the bartender, though it looked more like a milkman. I even wrapped the gamusha to complete the effect. We stopped for a while so that even Nilu could have some. It must have been killing him to see us gulping down the beer. But then he gets his high from driving.
As we bypassed Bongaigaon, an incident occurred. Suddenly, the vehicle began to lose power and the transmission warning light came on. This had never happened before. We were left with reduced power. This reduced the speed limit to just 70. Nilu was highly worried.
Dutta was a source of relief in between. Nilu frequently questioned him, "Dutta, so gaya kya?". This was only the beginning. He would be facing much tougher wraths in the days to come. But he was always sporting.
As we reached the Assam-Bengal border, miles of trucks greeted us. This is one of the two gateways to all the North Eastern states and is extremely crowded. Nilu had to manouver offroad to progress. But at one point, we were badly stuck. Then a good samaritan guided us towards a village path that would bypass the chaos. The Fiesta was now in unknown terrain. It handled everything extremely well even when underpowered.
And we were through. Now, we were in Boka-land. Remember the point where the trip meter reading was 110. It was now nearly 260. We had managed to finish 3 Litres of rice beer. That translates to 50 kms to a Litre. Not a bad mileage, I'll say. HAAAAARRR HAAAAAAAARRR.
The roads were still decent. We made good progress till New Alipurduar. Here we turned towards Madarihat. This road is in a bad shape. Huge potholes slowed our journey to a crawl. This road passes through the Buxar Wildlife Reserve. Greenery was in abundance. There did come a good stretch and Nilu made full use of it, racing the Fiesta to a speed of 140 kmph. It was a good 60 kms later that we arrived at the Guest House. It was placed well inside, past the Madarihat village. Enroute, we also saw the road that we would be taking in the morning to Bhutan alongside massive tea estates. The rooms were spacious. But the most spectacular part were the bathroom fittings. I wouldn't have written about it otherwise. Truly, state of the art.
We had picked up 3 bottles of Blender's for our time here and further on. One was opened tonight. It was during this session that Nilu dropped a bomb. He told us that he doesn't meet his cousin that often. We had enjoyed all the frills and eats at an almost-stranger's place. Doley was hit the hardest. He had dumped at that place. He exclaimed, "Shit!". Yeah, it was literally a shitty situation.
After the bottle was finished, we got down to the dining table to have dinner. The cook had made the chicken well. I dont even remember the taste of rest of the dishes. We would be carnivores throughout this trip.