A Magical Trip

We head to Arunachal Pradesh as the tourism board invites us to the land of the mountains

- Glen Francis

INDIA IS ONE OF THE MOST VIVID COUNTRIES I'VE BEEN lucky to explore. Every region has a unique identity of itself-be it the facial features of the people or the atmosphere, it changes drastically. One such region we'll be talking about lies at the northeastern tip of our gorgeous country. It is the land that sees the sun before the rest of the country. The place I'm talking about is Arunachal Pradesh. This time around, Arunachal Pradesh Tourism were kind enough to invite us for the second iteration of their adventurous Trans Arunachal Drive, an epic journey that begins from the lush forests or Pangsau, mapping to the snowcapped mountains of Tawang.

Mahindra Adventure have been a constant supporter of such events and just like the previous years, they were partners for this year too. While the fleet consisted of various vehicles such as the all-new XUV700 and Scorpio, we got to get our hands on Mahindra's most capable off-roader, the Thar. We were told that most of the areas we would be heading to had pristine roads, the bossman for the drive, Lhakpa Tsering, informed us that the patches that had no roads were going to be treacherous.

Due to prior commitments, I couldn't make it to the start of the road trip, hence our journey began from the central part of Arunachal Pradesh: Bomjir. As we landed in Dibrugarh, Assam, a fleet of Scorpios was waiting to take us through the mesmerising roads of Assam that were flanked by endless tea plantations. As we entered Arunachal, we were greeted by one of the longest bridges in our country, Dhola-Sadiya, a nine-kilometer-long structure that connects the two states. At first glance, I was extremely fascinated by the landscape and lush greenery around which is a rare sight in our concrete jungles.

Bomjir, we were greeted with a folk dance at the resort, followed by some lip-smacking lamb and pork preparations.