Kurangani – an offbeat tribal hamlet

Kurangani is one of those offbeat places, breathtakingly beautiful, yet far away from the noisy city and also the tourist crowd who I try and avoid all the time. It was a perfect choice when I was looking for a quiet family weekend getaway. The place is so remote that no mobile with exception of MTS at places works there. Even my BSNL which is my personal favorite for connectivity at remote places where no private network works, meekly said ‘No Service’. While I love being off  phones at internet when I go away and loved it this posed a great challenge for us when we were trying to confirm our booking in the government guest house and had to resort to cajoling our local theni contacts to help us with our booking.

Kurangani Hills

Kurangani made famous by the movies shot here – Myna, Kumki and Azagarsamiyin Kudhirai, is thankfully not hounded by tourists yet. The mist surrounded Western Ghats are a delight to watch for any nature lover.

Kurangani also is a great trekker’s paradise and is the starting point for the trek to Top Station via central Station, a much frequented route by the locals who claim it to be a three hour trek. But with my trek experience I know the trek time for even frequent trekker like me, would be easily double that of what localities say. This route follows an abandoned cable station, hence the name Central station and Top Station. Central or Middle station does not have road access and there is a small neatly maintained place to stay overnight. Since this is not an elephant corridor, you can even make your own camp sites if you so prefer.

The other awesome trek route here is the kolukumalai trek route which is a tea estate and has a Zig Zag route with tea plantations on both sides. A moderate trek which has one of the oldest tea factories which process tea in a traditional way and is also one of the highest organic tea plantations in the world at over 7000 ft MSL. More about these, when I trek there, not much trekking this time around as I was with my family.

Kolukku Malai View from Aadhi Kadu

Although we came in a car, we took a jeep for to Aadhi kadu a tribal hamlet a few Km’s away. We soon found Sambalaru Falls on the way and took a break to relax there. Sambalaru is the source of Kottakudi river and serves as the drinking water source for the Bodi town nearby. The off roading experience starts soon after Sambalaru Falls, it is quite a challenging and a thrilling ride up the hills.

Aadhi Kadu did quite have the tribal feel, where except for an abandoned local hut, all houses were made of concrete and were sponsored by the government to the tribals. The ladies wore saree in a traditional way which was similar to what we had seen in Kumki movie. Even older kids were being tied to mom’s back with the saree even when they were involved in arduous task near the house like washing clothes. The Forest watcher who had accompanied us told us that the tribals were both shy and fearful and are even hesitant to speak up to the government officials about their own needs.

Aadhi kadu also provides a shorter trek route to central station and top station cutting down one or two hours from that of the Kurangani start point. This short trek gives us some breath taking views of Kolukumalai and a number of other surrounding coffee/tea plantations around dotted with smaller falls, which provide perennial water supply to this area and the one nearby.

A Visit to Kurangani can be complimented by one of the trek routes mentioned above or can be combined with Bodimettu and Munnar trip.

• ·         Best time to visit: August and December
• ·         Bodi is the nearest town around
• ·         Munnar Via Bodi Mettu is an awesome drive from here.
• ·         Local guides can be arranged for the Top station or Kolukkmalai Trek for Kurangani 

Kindness of Strangers

When I travelled across the breadth and length of the country, I have experienced the love of many strangers for whom I am deeply grateful. They have made a deep impression not only in my travel but also on my outlook about life. The North east India hospitality has been the crowning glory of this lot even when not including our host Rinchin uncles’ hospitality.

There was never once in our trip, when we asked for a way to go somewhere, people just told us where it is, they almost always ensured we got there. Once I was inquiring about restaurant for us to have breakfast, the little boy not only came with us all the way to the restaurant, but made us sit, called the owner and asked him to attend to us and left. Even a police man on duty, came in his cycle and ensured we took the correct turn to our destination. For someone with as bad as geo skills as mine, it was sure more than helpful.



We were travelling from Guwahati to Tezpur in a local bus and a few hours into the journey the bus halted in a bus stop and many alighted. Clueless to where we were, we inquired the conductor about the place and how much more time it may take for us to reach Tezpur. The conductor told us it’s an hour halt and so we may get delayed. Saying so, he picked our backpacks (a 65 L and 45L backpack) and asked us to follow him. He boarded on to another bus, put our backpacks in the luggage area, asked two guys sitting in the front seats to vacate it for us, called the conductor and even bought tickets for us to Tezpur and told the conductor to take care of us. As soon as the bus reached Tezpur, the new conductor again picked our backpacks and got down for the bus, we dutifully followed him. He got hold of a rickshaw puller deposited our bags in the rickshaw and told the rickshaw guy to take us to our hotel.

When we got to the hotel I had been counting on (but didn’t book, lazy me:P) was full for budget rooms but had AC rooms which were costlier than our initial plan. The Hotelier didn’t try to persuade us to take the costlier rooms; he simply referred us to another budget hotel a little further ahead, which he thought was good and safe enough for women travelers like us.  After checking in to the hotel, we rushed to book for the early morning cab service to Tawang. In spite of being the last people to book, just a simple request got us the much coveted front seats in the Sumo.

After an eventful journey in Tawang, we had to travel to Demaji from Tezpur, a 6 hour journey and inquired about the same at the bus stand ticket counter. The ticket issuing person suggested it would be very untime for us to travel in the night and suggested we stay in Tezpur for the day and get the early morning bus. He asked us to wait and brought another man whom he introduced as the person who will be in the ticket counter the next day. The new guy gave us his number and suggested we come 30 – 45 mins before to get the tickets. The next day morning despite our best efforts we were late as usual when we got to the bus stand and the ticketing guy whom we met yesterday immediately recognized us and told us that he was waiting for us and asked us to come inside the office instead of standing in the queue. He also had exact change ready for us even before we handed over the money and had reserved the front seat tickets for us. He asked us to have tea and wait near the bus until he finishes issuing ticket. After some time he came and helped us deposit our luggage and ensured we sit in the front seat, which is safest for women travelling alone.

What a contrast it is to the many auto and taxi walas who dot the railway station who lose no opportunity to con the new comers to the city.

Most times we didn’t even get to ask their names. None of them expected anything in kind for their kindness. The innumerable invisible helping hands and the hearts of gold that helped two lone women travelers cruise through a holiday in a destination where they neither spoke local language nor had any friends of their own was indeed overwhelming.

The true meaning of ‘Adhithi Devo Bhava’ (Visitor is God) reflected in their attitude in which they greeted us. The God was not we the adhithis but the localities themselves for having shown such kindness to us.