EP - 6 Roing to Pasighat to Ziro | Sirki Waterfall | Tribal food of Arunachal Pradesh, Adi Tribe
Namaskar friends! Welcome to Visa2explore! This is your host, Harish Bali. Right now, I am in Roing, in Arunachal Pradesh. We are starting our day at Deopani.
We crossed this bridge while coming from Anini yesterday but... ...since it was dark, we could not see anything around us. But I had an idea that there were good views around during day time. When we see water flowing over the rocks, like this... ...it makes for a wonderful view! I am enjoying the natural beauty of this place. But the flipside is this garbage lying around.
Along with empty beer cans and bottles, there is a lot of plastic waste as well here. So, I think visitors need to be educated about environment conservation. Let's leave for Pasighat now. We will stop on the way, of course.
Pasighat is about 100 KM from here. It will take us a total of two hours to reach. It means the road is in good condition.
I like the way the Roing town has been planned. There is a crossing after every 1-2 KM. It makes traffic movement convenient. In case one misses a turn, you can always make a U-turn. Though it is a single-lane road. But, the overall infrastructural quality of the road is very good.
I must also appreciate the top-notch cleanliness of the Roing town. There is a small market here. I don't know whether this town has other markets or not but, overall,... ...this market sells all essential items. Come, let's move on to Pasighat. After covering 15 KM from Roing, we came across this bridge. It was a long bridge.
Right after this bridge ended, another bridge started. I noticed that if these bridges were combined,... ...this could probably be the longest bridge in India. Interesting, right? We travelled a few more KM from the bridges. We have reached Dambuk, which is about 30 KM from Roing.
If I would've come here during the November-December months,... ...I would see lots of oranges on these trees. They also organise an Orange Festival here during December. The district we're going to enter is known for its orange farms but...
...Dambuk is famous for its oranges because,... ...there are orange farm clusters around here. Nice! Good! Let's leave here for Pasighat now. We'll keep showing you other sightseeing points on the way. As always! Once we reached the Silluk village,... ...I was trying to get a closer look at the village. I wanted to understand the level of cleanliness in the village. To tell you the truth, I liked it. There are baskets like these installed at different locations in the village.
You can throw your waste things in these baskets. I tried talking to villagers in order to understand... ...and I learned that this was not the scene earlier. About 6-7 years ago, there used to be lot of garbage around. You would've been surprised to see the piles of cow-dung lying around.
Then, suddenly, some villagers thought of getting the village cleaned up. Initially, they didn't garner much support from rest of the villagers. The group tried cleaning up a portion of village. Then, they asked the people living in the cleaned up area about their reaction.
Obviously, people reacted positively to this step. This is how a team of volunteers was formed and it was called S.S.A. "Swachh Silluk Abhiyan!" When the team started cleaning up the village...
...others also felt motivated gradually and... ...Silluk became the cleanest village in Arunachal Pradesh. Around that time, an NGO came here to participate in the cleanliness drive. They inspired the villagers to look for a better way to handle their waste disposal. The NGO guided the villagers to handle dry waste and wet waste separately. The villagers learned how to make compost from the wet waste. Thanks to all that guidance, this is a zero-waste village today! They use the household waste to make manure or compost.
I wanted to meet the village Sarpanch (headman). I wanted to learn more details from him but... ...the Sarpach has gone out and his phone is also not reachable. Whatever information I have shared with you,... ...I learned that after talking to a few villagers. I enquired about a homestay facility in the village but was told there's no such facility.
It reminded me of my last visit to Meghalaya. I had visited the cleanest village in Meghalaya as well. Let's do one thing now. Let's move on to Pasighat now. It won't take us much time, just 45 minutes to reach.
The time is 1.00 PM. We are near the Pasighat. I am standing atop a bridge to show you the view of the Siang river. I think that...
...instead of noon time, if it were early morning time or... ....or evening time of 4.30 PM or 5.00 PM... ...this view would get many times better in its beauty. I am saying this because the sun is harsh currently and I have put on a hat. This view is appealing to the eyes. The Siang river is flowing at a high speed. This river is known as Tsangpo in Tibet. In Arunachal Pradesh, its name is Siang.
When this river enters Assam, its name changes to Brahmaputra. Interesting, right? The hills are lovely to look at. Clouds are sitting atop these hills.
Though we are feeling warmer here, down below, but... ...looking at the hilltops, it seems the weather there is colder. Beautiful! I am feeling hungry now. Let's go and have lunch first.
After that, we'll visit Pasighat. Today's our night stay will be in Pasighat. For lunch in Pasighat, we've come to the Donyi Hango Resort. We haven't yet fixed our accommodation here.
Let's go in, have lunch, and check the staying facility. If it is good.... ....we will stay here, otherwise,... ...we'll stay somewhere else. I have 4-5 options in hand but... ...either the person is not picking call, or their accommodation is fully booked. So, finding an accommodation to stay is a challenge. At the resort, I asked them to serve us local food. I wanted 4-5 local food items in one meal for an overall local food experience! They said they would take approximately one and a half hour to prepare the meal.
They asked us to wait and, so, we are waiting. I also had to check the accommodation here. They have just told me that they have non-AC rooms available now.
I have checked that room. It is basically a tent accommodation, its double occupancy tariff is Rs 2900. Just here, I've also met Nino, who is the owner of this resort. We've been talking for 5 minutes now and he told me he belongs to the Adi tribe.
Yes, I come from the Adi tribe. What would be the approximate population of your tribe? Adi tribe's approximate population would be about 3 lakh. Alright! In the past 3-4 days, I've noticed something. I thought finding vegetarian food in Arunachal Pradesh would be a challenge.
But, in reality, it isn't that challenging. Not at all. Actually, our tribe.... ...we are meat-eaters, no doubt, but... ...if you look at our traditions and history,... ...meat wasn't always available to us. So, we had to learn how to procure veg options from the jungle, and... ...we have a lot of vegetarian options in our regular diet. Comparatively, meat forms a smaller portion of our regular diet. Mostly, it is vegetables. I've seen in the past few days that wherever we've informed in advance...
...they were able to prepare 5-6 vegetarian options. Yes, definitely! It means there is a variety available. Variety is there. What about marriages in your tribe? We know that dowry culture exists in our country. Somewhere it does, somewhere it doesn't, but mostly we hear about this.
So, tell me something about it with respect to your tribe. If you see, though dowry isn't really prevalent today, but.... ...it usually came from the female's side. In our tribe, the male side pays the dowry. The male's family pays dowry to the female's family. Yes! Usually, our dowry consists of animals like Mithun.
That is what we pay as dowry. During ancient times, one was asked to pay upto 10, 20, 50, even 100. That is how it used to work.
The female side had to reciprocate to the number of Mithuns with arts & artefacts. Though, the system has changed drastically but that is how it used to be. That was the root system. Yes, that was the root system. Quite interesting! Can we do something till our lunch gets ready? Sure! Can you join us for lunch? Sure, not a problem! Alright then! They managed to get a lot of dishes ready! Yes! Isn't it! So, I recognize Karela (Bitter Gourd).
Yes! Please tell about the rest of the meal. I will start clockwise. These are the rice cakes. You have steamed and fried rice cakes. These are made with newly harvested rice. Then, these are your bitter gourd...sorry, bitter berries.
It is called Kopii. Kopii? Yes, Kopii. K..O, P....Double I! Then, there are chilies, which is a smaller, local variety of green chili. It is served boiled. Okay! Then there are some herbs like Marsang and Onger.
Onger is basically the plant that gives Sichuan Pepper. This is Sichuan? Yes! Okay! The other herb in this plate is Marsang. That adds a zing to your palate. We use it to make chutneys, etc. This is Lai Saag. In Pasighat, we call it 'Pattu.'
You call it Pattu? Yes! This is local rice cooked wrapped in Ekkam leaf. Ekkam leaf belongs to the 'Elaichi' (cardamom) family. This is Gaam vegetable, which has been lightly fried. These are boiled pumpkin leaves.
Pumpkin leaf! Pumpkin leaf that has been boiled. This is steamed banana flower. With chilies? With chilies and some ginger. Okay! What is this? This is the local khichdi. It is made after boiling pounded rice with lots of vegetables.
Really! Interesting! Do you eat lot of red rice? This red rice is mountain rice, which is grown through dry cultivation method. It isn't grown through wed cultivation. Alright! When you boil it for eating, don't you add garlic to it? Normally, when pumpkin leaves and Lai Saag are cooked, In fact, I think there isn't even salt in it. I think if it is boiled, then it won't have salt. Therefore, we eat it with chutney, etc.
Hmm! We also eat the bitter berries with it. We also add extra salt and chili to it. It goes with it. Yes! This bitter berry, is it boiled? Yes, it is boiled. Actually, we had it two days ago. Okay! It is bitter, right? It is slightly bitter.
Not much! Lai Saag is very juicy! I liked it very much. With so many boiled veggies, this meal is good for weightloss. This, you told me, is Oyk? Oyk! We will have Oyk with rice. There is this local khichdi too. This has pounded rice boiled with veggies.
Let's have this as well. This is a different dish! I thought it would be like any other boiled vegetable, but it has a peculiar taste! Can you show me the raw Oyk leaf once again? This is the one. This plant grows in a rice field. Like a creeper.
Really? Yes! I liked it. Couldn't we add some chilies to it? We could, right? We could, but everyone has different levels of tolerance. That is why we haven't added any. You guys usually make chutney out of chilies separately. Yes! Do you use King chili too? Yes, we use it and it is called Sibol here.
Alright! Yes! That is really 'King.' Its taste is worth its name. Have you used coriander to it? Yes, it is a local variety of coriander and it has thorns on it. Can you show it to me? I don't have it here now. Yes! You mean it isn't normal coriander.
Yes, it is a different variety. Really!! Rice is first put into a leaf. Yes! Then, it is steamed. It is steamed.
Then, it is fried! Then, it is fried! You can fry it, as well as roast it like a roti (flatbread). Really! And it is eaten steamed as well. This leaf must also be playing a role in imparting flavours? Yes, the leaf plays the main role. Moreover, its shelf life is up to a week. The tastes and flavours of each of the leafy veggies are different from each other.
Yes! There is no similarity. Not at all. Right! Interesting! Each of these veggies has different tastes and textures, that is how it is. Very nice! And these are seasonal! Yes! In 3 months' time, the vegetables would change.
Yes, absolutely! Why is Pasighat so important, because... ...as you told me, the accommodation here is fully booked. It was the same case when we called up a few other hotels. So, is Pasighat geographically important for travellers to halt here? Yes Sir! If you look at Pasighat on a map...
...it is like a gateway. From here, you can access the upper areas, Northern areas. So, Pasighat is a transit area, a gateway! Since it is centrally located, it is well-connected too. From here, you can easily travel to any part of central or eastern Arunachal Pradesh. This is why travellers prefer to spend the night here. Yes, travellers often spend a night or two here.
The second important feature of Pasighat is the Brahmaputra river. Here, it is called Siang. Yes, it is called Siang here. Personally, I liked the meal they've served here.
Especially, the variety of food items. So, let's do one thing. I eat my food slowly. It takes me time to finish my meal.
Yes, sure! I think it might take me 15-20 minutes or even half an hour. So, I am going to say bye to you for now. When we will leave here after half an hour... ...I don't know how dark it would be because the sun sets here quite early. What's the time? The time right now is 3.40 PM.
3.40, so even if we leave by 4.30 PM, we can still visit the waterfall? Yes, you can. Provided it isn't dark. Yes, it would be dark by 5.30 PM. Alright. So, we can visit the waterfall. How far is it from here? 4 KM?
5 KM. 5 KM, that's ok. In any case, there isn't much traffic on the road. There isn't. I will join you in a short while and I will try my best that....
...I don't miss visiting the waterfall today because tomorrow, we won't have time. It is a famous waterfall, right? Yes, it is quite popular. After finishing lunch, we ordered tea for ourselves. And, just like that, we didn't realise when it was 5.15 PM.
By then, we were too late to go to the waterfall. So, now, I'll try to visit the waterfall tomorrow morning. Right now, I've reached my hotel. Its name is Migung Resort. This resort is about 6 KM from where we had lunch and it is on the outskirts.
If I remove the curtains in my room, you'll be able to see the Siang river. Though it won't be visible in the dark, I can show you the view tomorrow morning. A view of the Siang river. From a height! Though it is not that high, we are on the first floor itself. Anyways this is where we're going to pause today's video.
Now, we'll meet again tomorrow morning and... ...I am standing in a room whose tariff is Rs 5000 on double occupancy basis. I tried my best to find a budget option for tariff between Rs 2500 to Rs 3000. It is a matter of chance that I could not connect to any of those. Anyway, we'll stop here now and join you again tomorrow morning. We will try to visit the waterfall and a few other spots before leaving for Ziro.
But we'll see how soon we can start our day tomorrow. It is good night for now. Good morning! The time is 6.30 AM. We are standing outside our hotel in Pasighat. And I am enjoying a strong morning breeze.
It feels good! Let me take you across the road to give you a closer look of the Siang river. This is how far we can come from our hotel to see the Siang river. Look at the span of this river and the current. If you look here, you'll see a lovely stream joining the river. The mountains on the left and right side of the river, though not so tall,... ...are full of lush greenery. Look at this grass swinging, it'll tell you how strong the breeze is.
The room where we were staying is right in front of us. They have total 8 rooms, all of which are river-facing. We were staying on the first floor.
The river looked beautiful from our room and its looking beautiful from here too. A while ago, I was standing in the balcony of my room, looking at the river. And now, I am looking at it from here. Now, let's go and visit some sightseeing spots.
After that, we need to leave for Ziro on time. Let's go now. After covering 10 KM from my hotel,... ...I am showing you the confluence of two rivers, standing at Pongging Viewpoint. The large river you see flowing in, is Siang. Yamne river is flowing into Siang river here. Though the confluence isn't that clear to the eyes but...
...the two rivers are clearly visible. The Siang takes a U-turn after this confluence. After crossing Pasighat, Siang gets distributed into multiple tributaries. And as soon as it enters Assam after a few KM,... ....it will be known as Brahmaputra. Going forward, rivers like Kameng, Lohit,...
...etc meet Brahmaputra, which is the lifeline of Assam. And Siang is the largest river in Arunachal Pradesh. Actually, it is Brahmaputra, but here, it is known as Siang. Lovely! Let us now walk towards the waterfall now. I am not sure about the distance to waterfall. But the Google Maps is showing 21 KM, so we will go along, asking on the way. Once we reach there, I will tell you how far it is.
Let's go. After the viewpoint, we found the road empty. This is what I noticed this morning as well. We are on the way to Raneghat, while enjoying the lush greenery around us. We've reached Raneghat now.
I showed you this view yesterday too, while we were on our way here. It is looking good now as well. If you visit here early in the morning, it would be a wonderful experience. Or in the evening, at the time of sunset. That's when you'll enjoy this view. We will go some 6 KM up from Raneghat to reach the waterfall.
Finally, we've reached the parking of Sirki waterfall. From Raneghat, we travelled about 6.5 KM I am carrying a towel and a change of clothes with me. So that, I can take a bath.
We are climbing up these stairs, made of such small steps. We will walk for about 10-15 minutes before we reach the waterfall. It started feeling cold as soon as we reached here.
So cool even in the summer season! As the water flows down It is looking good. It seems we are closer to the Fall now. The water is cold! Ohh! By God! Amazing! This water is so clear! Amazing! There are small stones at the base of this waterfall, so I'm walking carefully. But, I'm enjoying a lot! Wow! Now, I'll have to take off this microphone.
When I reached near the Fall... ...I became confused about whether or not to take a bath here. Because I am not sure whether or not the rocks underneath the water are slippery. Then I gave up and decided to tread along slowly. In no time, I was bang under the waterfall.
When I sat under the Fall... ...the water was slapping on to my back at full speed. It was amazing fun! Oh God! After enjoying for 5 minutes, I shifted to a side of the Fall. I kept repeating this cycle.
This has been going on for the past 30 minutes. I am enjoying so much. I mean what do I say! We've had a brilliant start to the day! To sum up, visiting Sirki waterfall has started our day on a great note. Too good! In between, I also threw my I-phone into water 3-4 times.
I wanted to capture the underwater shots too. Those shots gave us an idea of what lies beneath the surface of water. Too good! Okay, so it has been almost 45 minutes since we came to this waterfall.
The time is 9.15 AM, we should leave here now. Let's go to the hotel. After breakfast, we'll leave for Ziro.
Finally, we left for Ziro at 11.30 AM. Pasighat falls under East Siang district while Ziro comes under Subansiri district. There are two ways to reach Ziro. One is to reach Ziro while touring Arunachal Pradesh. Alo will be on the way.
Second way to Ziro is via Assam. We are taking the Assam route, though there is no specific objective. But I think if I had planned a nightstay in Alo,... ...then we could've taken the Arunachal Pradesh route to Ziro. Let's travel ahead while enjoying this journey. The time is 10.30 PM.
We are in Ziro. It is only now that we are settiled in our rooms. We reached here 30 minutes ago.
We had lunch as soon as we reached. Then put our luggage in our room. Here, we are staying at the Abasa Homestay. Tariff on basis of double occupancy is Rs 3000. As soon as we got down from the car, I realized that the atmosphere is colder.
The weather was cold in Anini as well, but Ziro is much fode. We're told that the night-time temperature here goes down to 18 degrees. We've been told not to open window at night. I asked them if I could open window at night or there would be mosquitoes. They said mosquitoes are not the problem, cold is. We are in Ziro for the next two days.
The next episode will contain our Ziro tour. In today's journey, we took only one break, to have lunch while passing Assam. So, we had lunch.
I liked the food there. I will share the location of that eatery in the video description. We had to spend half an hour to get our ILP too. We were told to go back 10 KM from the Assam border for the ILP. It was then that we decided to get our ILP Online.
We asked one of our team members in Delhi to get us online ILP. Due to slow network, we had to wait for another half an hour. It took us a long time to reach here. Imagine, we'd left at 11 AM...
...and we reached here at 10 PM. Anyways, this journey was very tiring. It took us a long time to cover the distance. Though we weren't stopping on the way, but we were driving slowly. Now, we will end this day here. We will meet again soon! Thanks for your time!
2024-11-27 10:03
