Thu - Travel 1 - The Plan- before leaving the North East I wanted to stop off in Bodoland a tribal area of Assam and see Bodo culture. I had been thinking Dhubri was Bodo so I headed there first. Then I would go to Kokrajhar after lunch. - I would have to come down off the mountains first and cross the river at Phulbari. - The most direct route would have been on the Guwahati road, but my bus took the Northwest road coming past Sherwood School a much longer route. After 3 hours the bus actually ended at Signimari I got the 20Km extra to Phulabari. People told me it would take 2 hours for the ferry to cross.. Surely not so long to cross 2Km wide river ? No cos it took nearly 5 hours if you include the 2 hours waiting. Ferry Phulbari to Dubri Stranded in a small town - Since it was late I had no time to stop in Dhubri ...seems like a Bengali Muslim town.There was no direct bus to Krokajhar so I headed for Bilasipara.... But when I arrived there at 6pm, there was no transport and no hotel.. Seems cos of terrorism .. So I had to track down the Police Chief a Mr Das ... He got me a room in the nearby IB Inspection Bungalow and invited me over for dinner. But then it was loadshedding. It was all black so I guessed the whole town was sleeping, but his wife laid on a complete banquet at 11pm ... Fish, chicken, pork etc ..Assamese Hospitality again ! Bilasipara Police OC Das Photos of the Police Chiefs Family

Fri - Kokrajhar - After breakfast at the police house, OC Das drove me to the bus ... I arrived in Kokrajhar at 9.30am and found a 100Rp guesthouse Fri- Malaria false alarm - After the bumpy bus I had diarhea and felt dizzy so - coming from Malaria area the first priority was to check... .. whilst waiting for the 20Rp blood slide test results I found malaria incubation period is 9 days ..but it was only 8 days since I entered the area. .. test negative no surprise Fri - Bodo culture not found - I walked around, but little sign of interesting Bodo culture ..As ever many urban people seemed to be immigrants from other places in India. - Actually there was no special thing about Krokrajhar. No sign of interesting tribal culture. New Indian weather forecast : BASTARD HOT ! - Now I am off the hills, the temperature during most of the day is too hot. so snooze at lunchtime. - I found out about the Krokrajhar Museum 2Km out of town just past the new Assembly Building. The fancy new Museum building hidden across the road one block back. It's only open on Sunday. I saw it was mostly Bodo clothes, tools carving etc, but nothing amazing. - Tried to do internet work, but cyber closed early cos a terrorist event and next day was Saturday the local holiday. Sat - Travel on - Bought a train ticket and did some internet before train at 1pm <-- PREVIOUS PC HOME INDIA 2009 Index TRAVEL INDEX note/comments NEXT -->