Day 4

Wake up call at 3:00am. Today we had to go to Majuli Island. It is the biggest river island in the world. To reach there we had to drive 100km. in the morning when we were about to leave it was raining heavily. We surprised to know that our driver did not have any trampoline to save our baggage from getting wet. So in the morning we had to wait till the rains reduced. So we left our hotel at 4:30am. The morning was moist and weather was cool. In the vehicle during our journey everyone was having fun. Songs were being sung and jokes cracked. We were having a whale of a time. And again the calamity struck when we least expected it. At a railway crossing our vehicle stalled. Thank good ness there was a garage just next to it. So we spent a good hour in the garage trying to find what was wrong. Some of us also visited the Jakhlabanda station nearby in the meantime. So after pondering over the vehicles problem it was diagnosed that the fuse was down. So we replaced in seconds and were on our way to Majuli.

During this we drove through the terrains of Kaziranga National Park. It was nice and huge. We even saw a baby elephant! But then horror struck when we read a board saying Nimitighat 30km. This was the place from where we had to catch a ferry to go to Majuli Island. It was almost 4:30pm and last ferry was at around 5:30pm. Our driver then drove like mad and we reached Nimitighat at 5:15pm. But alas there was loads of muck in our way to the jetty. Driver refused to down as he was worried that the vehicle might get stuck. So we missed the ferry. We called our tour manager and he arranged a hotel for us in Jorhat- a horrible small town. Our driver had no idea where this hotel was. We stopped at a petrol pump and asked for directions. Over here we met a guy. He was a musician-guitarist. He told us that he has played for a studio and was the player strumming the chords of guitar for Bollywood flick “De Dana Dan”.

When we reached our hotel it was one of the worst places I have ever lived in. It was simply DISGUSTING. We dumped our bags in the hotel and got out to look for a hotel to have dinner. First place we visited was a small hotel which was not able to fulfill our requirements at all. So we found another hotel named Jay-15. This one was better “looking” than the previous one. So we opted for this. The food was horrendous. Preparations not good and rates over the top! But the high point was when the guy was trying to sell us two extra rice plates which we had cancelled and they hadn’t served. His argument was as the entry was made in the so called bill-having no VAT number-the order had to be paid for. Moreover he was charging us with money for services like no fan or AC, no lights, no ventilation! We told him that if he provides us with a proper bill containing all the details we would readily pay. Coming to know of his blooper and not ready to go of his extra buck that he would have gained he was disgruntled. So he cancelled the services cost but taunted us that we are not worthy of going to any restaurant! This was the boiling point. We just gave it to him in our Mumbai style! We told him that he should close this hotel and start a pav bhaji selling cart. Just imagine 15 Mum-“bhais” getting on a Jorhati hotel manager! It was chaos. After pouring our hearts out to him about the quality of his hotel we left the place. We reached our hotel and went straight to our beds.