India North East India - Assam

Activities in north east India:

caving, trekking,
rafting, wildlife
and tribal culture.

For info contact Partha Pratim Das of Extreme North East who managed all our trips, initially for Ashoka Holidays of Guwahati, Assam, later with Daobai Hospitality which specialises in Bodoland and Manas National Park.

ASSAM, National Parks, One-Horned Rhinos, Orchids, Festivals, Temples, Silk making & a River Cruise

At Kaziranga Park, we rose in the cold pre-dawn to ride an elephant through the tall grasses, coming within a few metres of India's rare one-horned rhinos. Otters played in nearby pools over which kingfishers darted. Wild elephants trumpeted a greeting to the sun. Deer and wild boar barked and grunted.

At Nameri, we visited the Orchid Research Centre and crossed the river for a walk in the Reserve - a Sambar deer leapt into the undergrowth and deeply incised tiger tracks told of a recent buffalo kill. The tiger, however, remained elusive as always.

At Tezpur Festival we were treated to an acrobatic display, delicious Assam tea and more excellent local food before continuing to Guwahati, Assam's capital. There, we visited ancient and modern Hindu Temples and a nearby silk-making village followed by a river cruise and concluded by an invitation to a Hindu wedding.

Flying out next day, the Himalayas were shrouded in cloud but all around, the jungle mountains inhabited by the most colourful of IndiaÕs tribal people disappeared into the distance offering endless opportunities for discovery. We had hardly scraped the surface.

We were back in Assam in 2014 on our way to and from Manas National Park and spent three days at Mayong just an hour E of Guwahati, trekking in the Mayong Hills, visiting the Pobitora Reserve with its rhinos and boating on the Brahmaputra. We also visited the remote forested mountain trekking area of Haflong in the Dima Hasao tribal area of Assam, 330 km from Guwahati via rail with some spectacular ancient bridges. Unfortunately we had no time left to explore the trekking potential of its jungle hills.