Tawang stay

no luck day
round and round
Heli crash
Chhang Gela
17 April 2011
We had expected to stay asleep for a long time. But still, we were wide awake at 8 AM. I had woken up even earlier at 7 AM and got in conversation with one of the cab drivers on the places to visit. He suggested Madhuri Lake, 50 kms away. The place is known for shooting of the film, Koyla. Yes, we also suspect that the name of the lake was changed after the shoot. The road to the lake is said to be a tough one.
After having tea, we set out to explore the town. Nilu was leading. Dutta had chosen to stay in the room and dry off his riding clothes. It turned out to be a very wise decision. We were also carrying with us the cook at the hotel so that he could shop for chicken for our dinner. After dropping him off, we went to the nearby petrol pump to fill up our bikes. We got numerous stares on our way. Now, Nilu started to ask for directions towards the lake. We followed him. Again, the stares. Now, he made a U-Turn and headed the other way. We followed. Stared at again. On asking for directions ahead, he again U-turned. We followed. Now the stares were turning into glares. We stopped at the ATM for a while. A man came up to me and said Hello. He reeked of alcohol. At 10 AM in the morning. People are a happy lot. He asked to be dropped some distance ahead. I mumbled something about going the other way and took off. We did go some distance ahead and then again U-turned. WTF!
After some more U-turns and glares, we thought we were heading in the right direction in a near vertical climb. Suddenly, Gyan's Karizma turned off. He had some electric issue. The connection was breaking while turning the handle towards the left. So, he could ride but turn only in the right direction. We came down again, crossed the same road yet again and stopped at a mechanic. He opened quite a lot of parts and arrived at the problem. A broken wire. This was fixed. We asked the same guy about apong, the local rice beer. He pointed us to two shops nearby. Nilu and I discovered them to be ahaatas. But when we stepped inside, we found some locals having beer. On asking the caretaker, we were told that nobody drinks that anymore. Modern breweries had taken over.
Since, it was late now, we dropped the idea of going to Madhuri lake and chose the nearby PTSO lake, 12 kms away. But first, we needed some food. Dragon restaurant fooled us saying it would take one hour to prepare our meal. So, we went to a Assamese restaurant nearby and ordered chicken thalis. The owner was an Assamese too and he told us that he would find some rice beer for us. We could collect it in the evening. After a hefty lunch, we set off for PTSO, 12 kms away. Again, the market rounds continued. When we finally started going in the right direction, Nilu and I were stopped at a military check post. The others had sped away by this time. He asked for ILPs. We had left them in the rooms, so Nilu had to go back to retrieve them. Then, another senior military man came forward and told us that the entry time to go upto PTSO was over. He could not allow us to go forward. Even if he allowed us, the check post up ahead would stop us. We had simply run out of luck.
That was when the tragedy happened. A man came running and told us that a helicopter had crashed at the local helipad. We reached back to our hotel and from the roof, we could see smoke on the mountain opposite. Details came later. A Pawan Hans helicopter had crashed killing 17 people. The pilot and co-pilot had bailed out before the crash. The whole market closed. These are decade old choppers and are still operating. More such tragedies are just waiting to happen unless these copters are decomissioned.
There was nothing left for us to do now. After sometime, Gyan went out to bring the Chhaang. He returned with a 2 litres bottle costing Rs 20. Most didn't like the taste. They said it was some low-quality chhaang. I, on the other hand, was having glassfuls of it, non-stop. It was not having any effect. I wondered what all the commotion was about. It must have been a rare event that the bottle went unfinished amongst us.
We went to sleep early as the following day was going to be Hard Ride day.