After a mostly rainy night at Kaying, we started for Aalong at 0830 hours. It’s a two hour drive from Kaying to Aalong and the road is complete shit in patches and completely buttery as you get closer to Aalong. Kaying is a fairly large village spread out for many kilometers toward Aalong.
Once we were in Aalong at about 1100 hours, after depositing our luggage in the rooms, we headed out to the markets to figure out where to get locally made products from. Having completely lost track of dates and days of the week, only once we hit the market did we realize today’s a Sunday! Most markets are closed and now we’re planning the shopping spree on Monday as we’re staying two nights in Aalong luckily.
We’re planning to visit the Govt. Crafts’ Emporium and a couple of jewellery stores in and around what is called Nehru Chowk.
Today we visited the Patum Bridge, which is quite a scenic spot in Aalong. The drive to get to the bridge is quite another matter altogether. Horrible, just like most of Arunachal Pradesh.
I also spent a few hours photographing some more time-lapse in front of Siyom River as a storm brewed at the horizon. I also managed to figure out Time Lapse and Time Interval photography without using the remote control on the D810. So I set it up and left it under a shelter for 30-40 minutes at a time. I managed to get some lovely fast-moving rain clouds as they enveloped the blue-mountains of Arunachal.
I’m missing Menchukha already but also happy to back to civilization. And mobile phone network! I’ve been online pretty much since I got to Aalong. So much so that I think I’ve sucked out most of what’s available on my data plan. Got some SmartBytes in to last me till I reach Delhi. I’ve been blogging each day – saving the text on NotePad and only mobile phone photos. I think it’s a lovely way to keep a journal and I haven’t attempted anything half as ambitious earlier on. With the thousands of DSLR photographs I’ve shot, I will curate one photo story and present it on the blog but for the story from Day One to Day Fifteen, these “entries” are the best way to get a hang of what such a road trip would look like. It’s been fun but Arunachal could use better roads without tainting the foraging societal structure that exists.
People are warm, friendly, smile easily but don’t interfere in your business. I’ve heard alcohol is a problem – whether locally made or branded.
Dress courtesy BIAS.
Tomorrow is Day Twelve!
