Mr Zhato and his wife welcomed me with a cup of warm Naga tea and even warmer hearts. The place was bustling with a huge bunch of curious enthusiastic travelers. Two hitch hikes and a km walk later I am finally at the homestay. kitchenware mostly made of bamboo and meat/pork hung over the fire place Who had thought I’d be camping on a homestays terrace by the end of the trip ( about that later though) The quintessential Nagamese kitchen.at Vicha Homestay. Well this was just the beginning of my adventures here. Until half an hour back I had no idea where I’d be crashing tonight. Thanks to a blogger friend I know through insta, I got Mr Zhato’s contact who was kind enough to fix one bed for me even on a short notice. My plans of attending Hornbill materialized at the last moment and whoever I called in the last two days was fully booked. Btw it’s just half an hour back that i confirmed my stay booking at Mr Zhato’s homestay. You should be able to find a shared taxi from this point,’ quipped the guy who was kind enough to drop me close to NST.
‘ Kigwema is another 16 kms from here madam. But apart from that what’s not to love about this quaint yet bustling beautiful capital perched on a hilltop. Men and women dressed in flamboyant overcoats, berets and boots walk down the streets of Kohima, Cathedrals sparkle like Christmas trees and I can’t help notice an array of coffin shops that endlessly spam either side of the streets. The city is lit up like a Roman candle, bedazzled in all its Christmas fervor. It’s 8 pm and I’ve just landed in Kohima. Blogs of solo female travelers were reassuring and inspiring and so I document yet another tale from this often misunderstood land of Nagas that turned out supremely incredible so that just in case you too have any lingering doubts or fears like me, you know who to listen.īeginning Of An Adventure Burnt, exhausted yet thrilled….after taking a wrong turn and hiking back to the main road bwtween Mima and Kigwema Living in Assam I couldn’t have let go of this opportunity and so I decided to shut all those voices in my head that kept intimidating me and went on a reading marathon. While it was around the corner, Instagram and bloggers from the northeast couldn’t stop talking about it. One should not venture out on their own’ is what i mostly heard every time i expressed my interests in traveling to this state. Rest of my opinions were made out of the news that I often heard, ‘It’s unsafe. All I gathered from my super brief rendezvous with her was that the Nagas love their pork ( clearly food was all that mattered back then). Long time ago when I was in college my roomie’s best friend was a Naga. Like most of the people living outside of the north east I too had a very skewed perception of Nagaland. What I Thought About Nagaland! The Land OF THE HEADHUNTERS Isn’t it amazing how we end up finding motivation at places that we least expect. Thanks to this random stranger that i just met in this crazy metro rush, the heart felt like sharing travel tales from her place. The feeling of belongingness to a place that I call home for perhaps just this year was overwhelming. I picked it up in December during this incredible backpacking trip to Nagaland. A traditional Nagamese design with the typical leaf shaped spears decorated with red tufts all delicately embroidered by the Angami tribe women of Kigwema. On seeing my puzzled expression she exclaimed, ‘Your mask! Are you from the north east?’ Aha! I realized my mask spoke before I could introduce myself. I was sitting in the Delhi metro watching the hustling city zoom by when I found another female co-passenger smiling at me. Every time i visit a different place i realize I know nothing about my country and her tribes! There’s just so much you learn while traveling and even more when you’re doing it alone for there’s so much time and space to introspect.
Writing about trips is therapeutic, it makes me feel closer to that place, transporting me to all those neverlands. I am visiting my folks in Delhi and somehow I feel the city eats my charm.
So what makes me write today then? Two prime reasons for that In Case you’re wondering where’d I go missing, did I not travel all these months? or was it just the creative slowdown? more commonly known as writer’s block ( not even sure if i could use that fancy a term for mere mortals like myself for whom writing is synonymous to puking my feelings out in the form of random unfiltered travel rants.
Fiddling with my keypad for an hour now, I try hard to wake up my blog from a deep deep slumber.
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