North East Chron­i­cles: One of the most beau­ti­ful and lush states in the North East, Arunachal Pradesh is one of those unfor­get­table places that you need to visit at least once. After vis­it­ing the island of Majuli we con­tin­ued to Jorhat, Tezpur and then started on our trip to Arunachal. We broke jour­ney in a tiny town called Dirang and then went on to Tawang. On the way, we also vis­ited Jung, and spent a night there on our return jour­ney. March 2007.

We had passed this lit­tle town called Jung (also writ­ten as Jang) on the way to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh and all of us were quite taken in by this quaint and charm­ing lit­tle place. We made a deci­sion to revisit it on our return journey.

Jung was really not on our sched­ule at all. It’s usu­ally not on anyone’s sched­ule. At the most, a few vehi­cles stop for a short break : a cup of chai per­haps : and then con­tinue on to Tawang a cou­ple of hours away.

Ear­lier, when embark­ing on the North East trip, my dad had given me detailed instruc­tions with a list of State Bank branches I had to visit at every loca­tion. No place was really com­plete till we had paid a visit to the local SBI! My dad being an ex-SBI employee still main­tains rather close ties with the orga­ni­za­tion. Hav­ing worked there for most of his life : it’s in his blood!

So there we were at the Jung branch, which wasn’t dif­fi­cult to find at all. There is one main road and pretty much every­thing is on that road. We said hello to the branch man­ager at the bank there who then took us to his house where his wife offered us a most deli­cious meal of fish curry and rice. We gob­bled it down hun­grily : it was prob­a­bly the fresh air that was doing these won­der­ful things to our appetite!

The branch man­ager and his wife took us to see a hydel project plant and a water­fall nearby after which we pro­ceeded to Tawang where we spent around 3 days. How­ever, the mem­o­ries of Jung kept haunt­ing us. From Tawang, I made a phone call to the branch man­ager and requested him to orga­nize an overnight stay for us on the way back. He got us booked into the only accom­mo­da­tion avail­able : a rather musty and basic Inspec­tion bun­ga­low and we were all set.

There is not much to do in Jung in terms of activ­ity. But you can spend a whole day just walk­ing up and down the town, tak­ing these lit­tle moun­tain paths and roam­ing around the sur­round­ing hills. There are pretty white and pink cherry blos­som trees which make for very pretty pic­tures. And the steep hill­side roads will ensure your food’s well digested. All the locals are friendly and curi­ous but never intru­sive. And they all spare you a smile, how­ever busy they are, going about their daily work.

The kids are cute, red cheeked and wear the cutest multi-colour caps : some watch you curi­ously from a dis­tance. Some of them come up to you and smile shyly. And then say some­thing in their lan­guage and run away laugh­ing. Some­where along the road we meet a group of Apang (one of the tribes of Arunachal) women, all dressed in their tra­di­tional attire who pose for pic­tures when we request them to stop for a while. They oblige with a smile and then con­tinue about their work.

Later, the branch manager’s son, Naina, who had become our unof­fi­cial guide in Jung, bounded up an adjoin­ing hill and took us for a nice long walk. As we walked up, we got to see of the town of Jung from a van­tage point : a bird’s eye view. As evening was approach­ing the sky changed colour to a deep blue and a hint of the cres­cent moon appeared in the sky, leav­ing us mesmerized.

There were plans to go around explor­ing the roads and path­ways we could see on the hills in the dis­tance. But we were informed that these road trails are fur­ther away than appar­ent to the human eye and take days to tra­verse. Res­i­dents use these paths to access their remote vil­lage where they only way you can travel is by foot. When­ever they run out of sup­plies, they travel day and night some­times to make a jour­ney to the near­est town for rein­force­ments. It’s no won­der that these peo­ple are so agile and move around like nim­ble moun­tain goats!

It was indeed a day well spent and a very relaxed one too. We were com­ing to the end of our Arunachal trip and it had been quite a mem­o­rable one but the day we spent in Jung totally relaxed us before we were to head back to the hot­ter and mug­gier plains of Assam. We savoured our last few moments in these colder climes and then it was finally time to say good­bye to Jung, to the branch man­ager, to his lovely wife and son and the friendly res­i­dents of the town.

As we took leave, look­ing out of the vehi­cle into the green val­ley below, the lit­tle houses dot­ting the two sides of the road and the sur­round­ing moun­tains, I was glad that we had decided to spend a lit­tle more time here.

More than a year has passed since our jour­ney and images of the town come flit­ting into my mind : in crowded moments, in the midst of heavy traf­fic, when I’m going about my every­day work. At times like these, I feel happy and at peace for I know that there exists such a place where I can go for respite and peace of mind : and it’s not just in my dreams.

Pic­tures
– The Arunachal Album

Read more North East Chron­i­cles:
~~ Island in the Sun — Majuli
~~ Wild Wild East — Kazi­ranga
~~ Life on Stilts — Mawlyn­nong
~~ Back to School — Loreto, Shil­long
~~ Mag­i­cal evening — Umiam Lake