Tawang Sightseeing: How Did I Plan My Trip?

My journey of Tawang sightseeing was fun and adventurous, how did I make the difficult trip to this beautiful place?

The beautiful region of Northeast is a must-see destination for anyone who wants to travel India in its entirety. And it was my checklist for so long.

But executing a Northeast trip is not easy, as it takes a lot of time because of connectivity issues. Finally, my dream got executed, and I explored the lengths and breadths of Northeast, thanks to my husband who is posted there.

Tawang sightseeing begins!

Tawang is the last big town in the northwest border of Arunachal Pradesh. There are times when even our mobiles get confused and show Bhutan and India time together on screen, and there are places from where we can see the China border as well as their Army people.

We start our journey of Tawang sightseeing from Tezpur

• Day 1

The night before starting the trip, we reached Tezpur by cab for overnight stay. Tezpur is the most common point from where majority of Tawang trip starts.

We started from Tezpur after breakfast. Within half an hour, before the uphill journey started, we were received by the stunning view of the snow clad peak at the distance with shining sun rays.

Then the hill journey/mountain road started, which continued non-stop for the next four days. Since we went immediately after the monsoon, the views were full of lush green mountain slopes dotted with a number of water falls. There are few accessible ones where we can get down and feel the tasty and chilled water.

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Along with the villages, there are many small Hindu temples and Buddhist monasteries on the way with interesting legends. Learning the story along with the names of the places is a fun in itself.

Usually the tour-driver himself helps us with that. Since it is a border state, the roads are made and maintained superbly by BRO (Border Roads Organization). If you are travelling, do look for their interesting and thought-provoking quotes on the sides of the road!

Ziro point is the first major stop for Tawang sightseeing

We reached Ziro point where first time we felt the chilly wind. This is a famous view point on the way. We can also shop for locally produced apples and kiwi here. After some time, we stopped for lunch. Apart from the ubiquitous maggi in any hill station, we can also try the simple, hearty local cuisine.

Then we stopped in another major view point Bomdilla pass near Bomdilla village where we can get stunning views along with chilly wind. From here the vegetation changes to pine trees because of increase in the altitude, giving an all together new view. For night stay, we reached Dirang Valley by 5pm.

When we reached, it was already on the verge of getting dark.  As the name says, it’s a small and cute valley. With the Dirang river flowing through the centre and high rise mountain slopes on both sides, the place becomes completely silent by night that we can hear only the Dirang river.

Dirang valley view

Dirang valley

• Day 2:

We visited the hot water spring and Dirang Monastery before proceeding further. The hotwater spring was a disappointment as it has been spoiled by the ongoing construction work. Dirang Monastery is a place to behold. It s perched on top of a peak and the art work is stunning. Look out for the paintings in the outer wall depicting Buddhist philosophies.

Dirang  Monastery Art work

Then we travelled to Sela pass. The highest point yet in the trip. The continuous and dangerous curves and complete lack of vegetation on the sides of the road tells us that we are reaching  an altitude of 13500 feet. The place has a small monastery with around 20 steps. But climbing that makes us pant like dogs because of lack of oxygen.

As we are panting, the beautiful and serene Sela lake, which we can see on the side from the monastery, looks at us calmly along with the Yaks grazing on the lake bed.

View of sela lake from Monastery

From there it’s down hill till the Jaswant war memorial. This stretch is the first sample of the multicolour version of slopes which is going to greet us   the way ahead. For someone who wanted to visit Northern Europe to see such landscapes after watching Game of Thrones, I threw that wish out of the window after seeing this.

Jaswant war memorial tells all about the historical Indo-China war and worth seeing. Our next destination was the Jung falls or Nuranang falls. After parking, we have to climb down a little to reach the place. The place is so astoundingly beautiful and terrifying at the same time that words can’t explain.

One side the water falls, falling  gustily and joining a serenely flowing water stream from inside of dark and lush green mountains on the other side. I got the King Kong/Jurassic Park movie type forest vibes here.

Jung Falls

From Tawang to Bumla Pass

• Day 3:

From Tawang we started to Bumla pass. Tawang was the last civilian town. From there it was fully military. The multicolour slopes I referred to earlier were there everywhere. Luckily it was sunny on our way up, so, it was a mix of red, green, yellow, orange reflecting brightly in the Sun. There were many small lakes nestled in between the slopes to add to the beauty.

The travel from Tawang to Bumla pass took around two hours and we wish that the road never ends. Hill after hill we see more and more stunning and breath-taking views.

One of the many breathtaking views

After reaching Bumla pass, the military will take us to the border point and explain a few things about the place. We can see the china camp on the other side.

Then we went to Madhuri lake. It’s a lake formed recently because of an earthquake. By the time we reached there, it was raining. So we did not get many views and reached back to Tawang by night.

Landslide ahead!

• Day 4:

We started early in the morning as we are supposed to reach Tezpur by night to catch the train to Guwahati. But the mighty Himalayas had other plans. We have reached halfway when we heard there is a landslide ahead. Either we have to stay somewhere for the route to be cleared or take a detour to reach Tezpur through Orang route.

We decided to do the latter and returned to the point where he had to take the other route by 4pm. So we got less than one hour of sunlight to see the new route. It was made recently and has a different aura altogether. But from 5pm to around 9pm it was one of the most adventurous journeys of my life. No one including the driver knows much about the route.

There was heavy fog and hardly a few feet were visible. It was difficult to believe there are villages on the way and people are actually living here. We have even come across small landslides happened just a while before.

Thankfully, the roads are good and well lit at dangerous curves. We reached plain lands safely after 15 hours of downhill journey. We also caught the train on time and reached Guwahati.

PS: Here is the youtube link of the video of our trip. Though it is in the regional language, an idea of the locations can also be gathered from here.

Image source: author, and popartic via Getty Images, free and edited on CanvaPro,

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