Picto Diary - 08 December 2019 - Kohima to Dimapur by car

Above: 1. Mt. Japhu. Kohima, Nagaland, India. 08 December 2019.

Second highest mountain in Nagaland, at 9400 feet of elevation. Our tent camp is located in the valley below this summit.
Tent camp is five star. The best hot shower I've had on the trip.

Sadly, due to population growth, no more wildlife in this area. Tigers once roamed Nagaland.

Above: Kohima downtown. Kohima, Nagaland. 08 December 2019.
No look of wealth here, but, clean. Cleaner than Rome as Koessler points out.

He's right.

Irony. First world, Rome and San Francisco to take two examples, morph to third world conditions with uncollected trash and excrement on their streets. While Kohima citizens, with an obvious pride in their city, aspire to keep their city looking clean. Kohima debunks the notion that low income correlates to trashiness.

Kohima and Nagaland are not without their problems. They burn a lot of wood, not the cleanest form of fuel for eating and cooking.

Above: Pineapple Patch. Nagaland. 08 December 2019.

The Hmarkhawlien pineapples are reckoned to be the sweetest among all pineapple varieties in India as during the monsoon period their sugar content varies between 16 and 28 per cent. Three varieties of pineapple are generally grown in the tribal farms of Nagaland. These are Queen, Kew and Giant.

The average yield of pineapple in Nagaland is estimated to be 50-80 tonnes/ha. Currently, 3,700 hectares are being used for pineapple cultivation in Nagaland.

Above: Road Construction. Kohima Dimapur Road. Nagaland, 08 December 2019.

Road construction. Kohima, capital of the Indian state of Nagaland. Ensconsed in the rugged Himalayan foothills, Kohima has no airport. To get to Kohima, one must drive fifty miles from Dimapur, site of the nearest scheduled airline airport. Except, the route between the two cities is a construction project, almost the entire distance. The road is being widened from two to four lanes. Huge excavation going on the entire distance. We stopped counting excavators along the route at forty or so. Because of the construction, the fifty mile drive between Dimapur and Kohima takes up to four hours, depending on traffic.

Above: Dimapur Airport. Dimapur, Nagaland. 08 December 2019.

Bapu and Susa were the drivers of the two vehicles we shared...Toyotas. Drums and Mwah (sic) rode with Bapu, while, TIMDT and Koessler rode with Susa and our guide, Asu.

Addendum:

Steve,

Curious that you didn’t include, as cultural nationalist, Xi Jin Ping?

Ahn Rhee,
Larkspur, CA

Xi, Modi, Putin, Trump, Johnson.... all cultural nationalists. Its the way the world is moving.

Dear Steve,

Thank you for adding me to your mailing list. It sure does make for an interesting read for me.
I am really glad that you made it to the Northeastern part of my country and thoroughly enjoyed it.
We look forward to welcoming you again soon.

Warm regards
Jaya
New Delhi, India

Did you consume one or more👻
Mr. Z3
Oxnard, CA

No, but, Koessler made a game attempt. Regretted it.

Hi Banker Steve:

About this time of year in 1998 I was rolling around India on a newly purchased 500cc Enfield motorcycle. I survived, but vowed not to return on two wheels, learning it was better (safer) to take a bus, rent a car with driver, or fly around (but no trains - too crowded, dirty, and slow). Thanks for the reminders with your reportage.

Now I am rolling around SE Asia, where road signage is a mix of the local language and English, unlike India where English was used. From the attached photo you can see I am trying to follow road sign directions, meaning I'm hung dong, err, hanging dong, or from the 2019 Big Dog T-shirt one can see a Big Dog @ Hang Dong - appropriate if one can laugh at himself, which I do every day.
Cheers,

Dr. G
Professor of Motorcycle Adventure
Somewhere in SE Asia.

Above: At the Hornbill Festival I watched three motorcycle touring riders ride in on Enfield Bullets. I went up to talk to them. They were from Guahati, Assam. They had completed a ride through Bhutan and were now heading south into India's northeastern tribal states, of which Nagaland is one.

India could pick up where the west's declining motorcycle business is waning. These guys were thirty something. Our thirty somethings are not interested in motorcycling... or anything else their parents are interested in. With three hundred, aspiring Indian middle class, motorcycling and motorcycle touring in India looks to have some promise.

I rode an Enfield Bullet from Siligiri, West Bengal to Darjeeling, through Bhutan, and south, across the Brahamaputra, to Guahati in 2008.

Actually, Dr G., we're pretty close to one another right now. Nagaland sits right up against the Myanmar border.