Day 3: Crossover to Asom (part 1)

My day started early again - 4:30. Courtesy the lack of any
electricity in the room, I fumbled around for more than half an hour
trying to get my things in order. After a cup of chai, I was out of
Namsai at 5;50.

The going was smooth all the way till the arunachal-assam border.
There wasn't much to see - just the rural views. The road was good for
the most part. Military folks were guarding every bridge! Once I was
stopped by a telugu CRPF guy. He pointed me to his kannadiga
collegue.The regular chit chat followed. I was at the border, Dirak,
at 7. Bought some juicy oranges there. Time to say bye to Arunachal.

Some time after entry to Assam, the tea fields started in all glory.
The road was flat but under repair. The same scene continued post a
bad breakfast, till I reached Rupai. After this, for the rest of the
day, I had the railway track for company on the left and the tea
gardens on the right. After 72km of riding, I reached Tinsukia. Only
item on my agenda there was replenishing my purse, which I did at the
SBI ATM. Interestingly, there are other ATMs there too. Extended tea
break here, parly to update my blog. I must be in a position to
live-blog from tomorrow...

Stopped for lunch at Chabua - poories! I was really hungry! Got
talking to one Mr Bhavani - local TVS dealer, mobile tower contractor,
etc. He told me a story about how oil was found in Assam during the
british period. Apparently an elephant got stuck and they had to dig a
wee bit to set it free. That small amount of digging liberated a lot
of oil. Later, wherever they dug, they found more oil. So refineries
were setup!

On Bhavani's advice I set off towards dibrugarh, hoping to stop near a
tea factory for a visit. Turned out that his contact at the tea
factory had gone home, and with it went my chance of seeing a tea
factory from the inside.

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