Day 2: Guwahati

Ok so after the first full day in Guwahati we have made some headway. We found an excellent hotel, and after a longish meeting with the manager we came away with a very good feeling about the place - very nice rooms, restaurant, breakfast area, a very impressive lobby, with a glass elevator... and generally an impression of competence and a friendly vibe. We were not able to stay there tonight as it was full (we could see why), but we will definietely stay there on our way back. After that we headed to Kamakhya Mandir, a temple complex out of town, where we got to observe the temple rituals. It was a very colourful affair, and the Pandit that led us around was very friendly. There was a positive bustle about the place. We also witnessed some pigeons being sacrified and saw the blood of many pigeons and goats that had been sacrifcied... it was quite overwhelming.

From there we headed to Uma Mandir on a boat across the Brahmaputra. It was a little disappointing, probably because of the impressiveness of the previous temple complex. We headed on to Kalarshatra, a park a bit further out of town with various cultural exhibits and a little toy train. We did not have time to stay for the light and sound show that is the main activity of the evening, but hopefully on the way back we can catch that. Tomorrow we will take the train to near Itanagar and then a bus from there. It's an 11 hour train ride but thankfully its a sleeper so we should arrive early on Friday morning. On to Arunachal!

Dave