A Million Moments

Day 3 was leisure day at Dirang. It was necessary to acclimatize as we were climbing and receding to high altitude places in coming days. Dirang is a small town located in West Kameng district located at 5000ft above sea level. As of 2023, It is accessible only by road but soon we will be able to travel to Dirang Via Indian railways in near future! We started off the day with visit to the LDL monastery located on top of a near-by hill. The monastery was built recently in 2017. It was serene and calming to our souls after we had to hike up the hill due to a blocked road. The monastery looked over the entire valley where the town of Dirang rested. We went around the monastery and meditated for a while before resuming the photo session. We bid good bye to the monastery and headed off for lunch and then to Sangti valley.

Sangti valley is situated 10 kms away from Dirang. It is adjacent to the village of Sangti on the banks of Dirang river which is a tributary of river Brahmaputra. The valley is calm and all you can hear is the river flowing and at places even the water flows quietly where you can sit in calmness and enjoy solitude which some of us decided to do while others decided to hit the chilly cold waters! Sangti valley is also famous for sheep rearing, one could visit the sheep rearing farms near by and know about the process and if lucky play with some lambs too! After spending quality time it was time to head back as the sun too had hid behind the mountains and the temperature started falling rapidly.

We were back to our hotel & realized it was time for celebrations! My roommate for this trip was celebrating his birthday! Coincidently my roommate during my trip to Sikkim also celebrated his birthday at Lachung! The owner of our hotel along with his family and friends was having a Karaoke party which he invited us too. The evening was reserved to singing and dancing to retro romantic Bollywood songs from 70s and 80s. We arranged some pastries and celebrated the birthday and called it a night as it was a long day tomorrow.

Se-La!

The next day, i.e., day 4 was a travel day to Tawang via Se-La. Se-La is named after a tribal woman who helped legendary Rifleman (Later Hony Capt.) Jaswanth Singh Rawat MVC (P) during the 1962 Sino-Indian war. I will cover the heroics of our brave men in a separate blog dedicated to them. We started out early to avoid harsh weather over the pass. It was a 5 hour journey to Se-La accompanied with songs and talks getting to know others well. We were quickly climbing to higher altitudes with surreal scenery coming up turn after turn. Our first sight of the snow-capped peaks was as we approached Baisakhi Military Station which was a short stop for some tea and shopping at Non-CSD outlet. It is a small military station located overlooking the mighty Himalayas offering scenic views. Next stop of the day was at Se-La. We were happy that the temperatures were slightly high above 5°C but soon as we stepped out we realized how wrong we were when the winds started guzzling!

Se-La connects Tawang and further border areas with rest of the country. It is the only road in & out of Tawang valley. It has to be kept open round the year even during winters for the movement of goods and people. The other only way to reach Tawang is via air using helicopters. Se-La is very unique because it also hosts a huge lake! This lake was half frozen and just magnified the beauty of the area by a huge amount! Some of the boys went ballistic and decided to go shirtless while I decided to stick with iconic pose of Shahrukh Khan. After heating up ourselves with some tea & coffee and clicking pictures it was time to head on towards Tawang which was still 80+Km which would mean another 5 hours of continuous travel. The stop at Se-La was also special because some of us witnessed snow and played with it for the first time. We continued our journey with our heads tilted towards the windows looking out for the serene Himalayas and living the moment. On the way to Tawang you can visit the Jaswanthgarh memorial & Jang falls which we decided to cover while returning from Tawang as the weather had changed drastically as we came down from Se-La. We reached the destination for the day by 7PM in the evening when most of the city was already closed for the day.

Apart from the birthday celebration & quality of time we spent at Dirang, It shall be special for one more reason as one of our fellow traveler may have found his love of life! 😉 Further details will be shared in upcoming blogs and if there is a big update 😛