December 11 – Demonstrations and an interrupted trip

The hotel had a very cool "sink" near the dining patio.  It was a fat bamboo pole connected to a water supply.  It had a hole drilled into the side and a stick stuck in the hole.  When you wanted to wash your hands you pulled the stick out, used the soap to wash up, rinsed your hands in the stream of water and put the stick back in the hole to stop the water.  Guess you work with what you have.

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Video of "sink"
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Today we are to drive to Kazirange National Park where we are to take an afternoon game drive to hopefully see some of the one-horned rhinoceros to be found in the park.

The day started well enough with a relatively early departure to catch the ferry at 8:30.  

Not our ferry:

After arriving on the other side of the Brahmaputra River we stopped for tea and a snack at a very nice new restaurant.  Then we headed off for the national park.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get very far before we hit our first demonstration.  The political protests and shutdown were to have ended today but someone didn’t tell the demonstrators.  They had set up roadblocks in the form of burning tires.  Azim, our driver, found a detour to take us around the protests. 

Along the way we ran into several other areas where they were burning tires, but we generally had not problems getting through…until we arrived in the larger town of Jorhat.  There we had to take another detour around a major roadblock.  That only got us a short way before we hit an even larger roadblock with a long stretch of burning tires. 

When we decided to drive through it became clear that this group was not going to allow the International Tourists (the car is prominently identified as carrying international tourists) through for any reason.  The demonstrators surrounded the car and were quite vocal.  It wasn’t too scary, but it was certainly a bit disconcerting. 

Some of the more helpful demonstrators pointed us to a nearby hotel where we parked, had lunch and spent most of the afternoon.  We took a short walk but didn't get far because there were more protesters on other streets.  

The demonstrations were still going at 5:00 (it was dark by then) and it was decided to spend the night.  

Our hotel room had a most unusual "mural" on the door.  Looked out of place but very cheery  

We had granola bars for dinner and went to bed quite early.  We are leaving at 3:00am to try to get to the national park before any of the demonstrators are stirring.  The bill they are protesting is being voted on tonight and if it passes things might get nasty.  So we are taking no chance.