"A Passage to India

                    Travel

    In the last few years several retired Planters and some children have visited and really enjoyed their time in Assam and elsewhere. This page is dedicated to passing on information about travel which may be useful to anyone who plans to visit N.E. India

#Bruce & Madeleine Dunlop's Assam visit
#Micky Massar's helpful air travel info
#New Delhi to Bagdogra

July 28 2006
The editor enjoyed the following story on Plane trips in the Ex Pat Telegraph of London and thought it was worth sharing

For many, one of the highlights of a plane trip is sitting back and enjoying the panorama of landscape unfolding beneath them.

Fearful fliers might be clinging to the armrest, but for others watching the patterns of fields, coastline and mountains can add to the wonder of travel. But what are the most scenic flights? Which seat on the plane will give you the best view?

Who better to ask than the experts - namely the pilots - who, below, share not only their favourite flights, but also hints on what to look out for en route and insider tips from crew on what to do and where to go once you've landed.

New Delhi to Bagdogra Captain Randeep Singh Panag, Jet Airways In the air I have been flying a Boeing 737 in India for 10 years and love the flight to Bagdogra - gateway to Darjeeling and the summer escape of the British Raj - a route that has you gasping at the Himalayan range within 15 minutes. You fly over Patna, the capital of the Gupta Dynasty and the historical seat of power of the subcontinent, and then Mount Everest comes into view. Sit on the left for the Himalayan view. On the ground Bagdogra is the airport for Siliguri, which nearby has the very English-sounding Windamere Hotel (0091 22 5555 1101; www.nivalink.com/windamere; £100 per double, full board), an old 19th-century boarding house for Scottish tea planters. The Palm Court in Siliguri (Hotel Sinclairs) does excellent Indian cuisine (as well as British if you miss your fish and chips). Close to Siliguri is the Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary, where you can see wild elephants.

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May 4 2006

  Our first contributor is Dr Bruce Dunlop who wrote to the Editor with the following description of their November 2005 trip:

Madeleine and I went to Assam on a short notice holiday. The whole adventure was arranged by the Wild Grass Lodge in the Kasiranga on the internet via their agents Nivalink (info@nivalink.com). The contact at the Kasiranga end was Hani Barua .

The organisation was excellent and they worked very hard to smooth over all the inevitable glitches in any organisation. The Lodge was comfortable and amiably rustic. Water and electricity worked. We had a car, driver andguide for the whole trip. We went from the Kaziranga to Nameri NP and then back to Dubrugarh, up the Dibru by boat to Dohla Ghat for 3 days. From Dohla to Digboi and then to Balijan to see my fathers old hospital and our now ruined bungalow. We saw our old servants and were feted wherever we went.
The tea-plantation management were very helpful and welcoming and nothing was too much trouble for any one. Delightful!

The accommodation was good on land. The boat trip was basic, with an old Tata driven country boat converted for the trip from goods carrying. No loo or any such convenience but with camping on sand-banks easy for the men and needing some forbearance from the girls. Food was always curry of some sort.

Money is available via ATM?s in all the main towns and like UK you can takeout £200 at a time. A kings ransom in Assam.

On a practical note mobile phones work well in India if you have a local smart card but the international GSM phones don't work. Getting a local card for your phone is easy however and useful as the land lines are hopeless.

Very few tourists in Assam and none in Upper Assam, the international crowd stopping at the Kaziranga. We were a novelty.

It was a great trip and very easy to arrange from this end. I would encourage any one to go back.

The e-mail  for Wildgras at Kazaringa is info@nivalink.com

Below is the description of Wildgrass lodge of which Bruce was so complimentary of.

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 May 2 2006

 Micky Massar of Calcutta wrote to the Editor with the following useful and interesting travel information and we thank him

     I read the article about Shillong in your web-site written by Margaret Deefholts which gave a vivid description of the place from a visitor's point of view. I would only like to add that Shillong has an airport of its own known as the Umroi airport, a little away from the Umiam (Barapani) artificial lake roughly 28kms from SHG.There are direct flights between Cal & Shg and the timings are as such--

November 15 2006

Micky has kindly advised of the schedule changes on the flights from Calcutta to Shillong and a new service including Tezpur

There has been some changes in the air timings between
Calcutta and Shillong hence, I thought I would inform for the benefit of all who wish to travel via this sector.

Flight CD7711 now departs Calcutta  for Shillong 
at 10:15 AM on Mondays,Wednesdays & Fridays.

Flight CD7712 arrives Cal from Shg at 15:30 PM on
Mondays,Wednesdays & Fridays.

New links have been established from Shillong(Shg) to
Tezpur & Jorhat by an ATR aircraft.On Wednesdays,

 CD7721 will operate will operate on the Cal-Shg-Tez-Cal, leaving Cal at 12:20 PM. The return flight from Tezpur will arrive in Cal at 5:25PM.


Flying time is a little less than Two hours and the type of aircraft is ATR(turbo-prop engine) with a seating capacity of 40 passengers.


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