PLANNING THE TRIP
Planning the trip can be a more exhaustive exercise than the trip itself. Route planning has to be done in advance and we work out detailed itineraries right down to the hour. You cannot stop by and ask the bystander "Bhaiya, tell me the route from Kolkata to Mumbai". Keep your own counsel and stick to your route unless you have strong reasons not to. You must carry good road maps of each of the States that you are visiting.
You need permits to visit Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram. These are limited-stay/destination permits and have to be obtained from the tourism offices of the respective states. All of them have offices in Delhi and Guwahati. Applying in advance through a travel agent could save you a lot of time and spare you the running around. After all, there is a lot of corruption in India.
The North East is not well-visited, hence getting hotel accommodation is not very difficult. On a motoring holiday, your precise planning may come unstuck and the hotel rooms you booked in advance may go unoccupied. Although this is supposed to be the peak tourist season, we had no difficulties in finding ourselves good mid-budget rooms to stay in. Whenever in doubt, ask for the Government-run Tourist Lodges (equivalent to MTDC) – they are often the best in town. During winter, try to arrive at a new town before 600 p.m., else you may find yourself totally shut out. And sleep in the car and munch the crumbs of bread and biscuits that were left over.
Estimate expenditure, and carry at least double the cash you will require for the trip. Always provide for that contingency when you may have to pay for some repairs to your car or worse, medical care. Credit Cards are still not widely accepted, so do not bank on them. In case you have ATM cards, keep addresses of ATM locations in case you need to withdraw en route. All highways are not safe, it is advisable to split up your cash and find yourself a couple of good hiding places in the car itself.
In case your mobile phone has a national roaming facility, let me tell you that presently most of North East India is not on the network.
India is a vast country that should probably have 2-3 time zones to adjust the watch for the daylight hours. During the course of our trip, we saw sunset at 415 p.m. at Jorhat in Eastern Assam, and a week later 615 p.m. in Mumbai.