December 4 – Flying to Kolkata and the start of the Hornbill Festival tour

We were up before first thing in the morning (around 3:00am) for our drive to the airport and then our flight to Kolkata and on to Dimapur.  While sitting in the airport we were treated to a cat wandering around.  I’ve seen birds trapped in airport terminals before but never seen a cat.

Our meal on the airplane had wooden utensils.  India is working hard to reduce the use of single use plastics and several of the flights have had these wooden utensils instead of the plastic that you usually find on US flights (when you even get a meal).  Also, note that there was a packet of ketchup with the meal.  This seems to be a favorite condiment in India.

Once we arrived in Dimapur we met our guide and driver and headed out on one of the dustiest roads we’ve ever been on.  They are working on converting the road to 4 lanes but right now it is almost entirely dirt.  Took us three hours to get to Kohima.  We had a short rest break along the way.  The facilities were pretty rustic.

We arrived in Kohima after dark.  There were lots of Christmas lights out.  This area has a very high Christian population and we saw lots of Baptist churches.  We saw a fair amount of Christmas lights.

  

We are now in Nagaland in the far northeast section of India. We are here for the Hornbill Festival. There are 17 tribes here and apparently most/all participate in the festival. (Turns out they used to be headhunters. That wasn’t mentioned on the original itinerary. OMG!! 😱)


This area borders Myanmar and is almost directly east of Bhutan (with some Indian states in between).

Maps of the area we are visiting.