Days 35, 36 and 37: Jorhat and Sibsagar

So on Wednesday it was on to Jorhat. Another short bus journey made long by plenty of faffing about. But it was not all bad as I got talking to a young guy on the bus (in my shaky Hindi), and when his brother called him I was put onto him and invited to their house in Mariani, an oil town near the border to Bangladesh. I accepted and took his number, planning to go yesterday. In te evening while waiting for dinner to be served, I checked out a nearby bar, where I was the only customer. So I sat at the bar and chatted (in Hindi!) with the two Nepali-Assamese behind the bar. It was a great feeling though I'm sure the beer helped!

Yesterday after trying in vain to contact my invitees to Mariani, I managed to organise a visit to a local tea factory and gardens for this morning, and eventually also a taxi to go there.

This morning I went out to the tea factory, where I was met by the estate manager, and then shown around by the factory manager. It was very interesting seeing how many stages were involved and what kind of issues there are in the fields from Red Spiders spread around by tresspassing cows to worker protests particularly around bonus time... didn't sound that unfamiliar! Then after breakfast it was on to Sibsagar, where nobody seemed to know where my hotel of choice was, so I settled for another, which is actually very nice, has BBC World and a quick internet cafe across the road... am I still in Assam? Tomorrow I will check out the old temples of Sibsagar, remnants of the mightly Ahom Dynasty, many dating from the 1700s.

-Dave