North East Odyssey: Part Thirteen

Day Ten (03.12.2021): Exploring Dawki

After a two hours' drive from Mawlynnong, we reached Dawki river. Traversing through the route adjacent to the river, we crossed the Dawki Bridge. Our bus was parked at a distance from the entry gate. We walked our way to the riverbanks, descending through a series of steps. There were hawkers selling jhalmuri. Young boys were enjoying cliff jumping. A lot of boats were parked at the banks. There were Indian as well as Bangladesh army officials standing at the unofficial border.

Dawki River

Dawki is a town in West Jaintia Hills district, on the border of India and Bangladesh. The place is famous for its river and suspension bridge. The water of the river is so clear that it looks like boats are floating on some invisible glass surface! 

The river flows between India and Bangladesh. We grouped into three and started with the boat ride at around 3PM. We could clearing see all the stones inside the water as well as few fishes at some point. It was a soothing and peaceful boat ride through the calm river stream. We passed under the Dawki bridge. The sun was throwing its sparkling rays on the adjacent hills and the same was getting reflected on the water. There were camping tents and a few stalls at other end of the river. We rowed till the point where the water was calm, stopped to watch the gushing currents splashing on the boulders at a distance from our boat, and then turned back to the starting point. 

Post the ride, we tasted the Bangladesh jhalmuri. It really did not feel that we were at the border. Some photographers were chasing to get us clicked. Done with the washroom break, we drove ahead to the Friendship Gate.

India Bangladesh Border (Friendship Gate)

The Friendship Gate has been constructed near Integrated Check post, 90 km South of capital Shillong on border with Bangladesh, at Tamabil. Our bus was parked aside. There were many vehicles, mostly trucks going to and fro. The Border Security Force (BSF India) and the Border Guard Bangladesh were carrying out security checking at the respective gates. All the vehicles entering India were thoroughly sanitized. There was the last milestone 1275 India. 

Done with a few clicks, we got back to our bus and drove towards our hotel in Shillong. We stopped at Four plus Two joint for tea, coffee, and washroom break. It was quite chilly now. On the drive to our hotel, we were singing and singing. By the time we reached the hotel, the streets were empty, the market area had wrapped up and the shops were shut. We got to our rooms and freshened up and then had dinner. The dinner as usual was delicious, corn palak, eggplant soup and pulav. 

We did not spend much time chatting on the dinner table. Instead, we gathered at the reception area to convince Bhushan for the Ward's Lake. He was not very willing to say yes, because an extra sightseeing might disturb the day's itinerary. But he said he will check with internal team. Post that we went to our rooms, Hiteshree and Shreya came to our room for chat-meet. We were munching on moong dal. After some time, we got a whatsapp message from Bhushan that the same is not possible since the lake opens at 10AM, so we would be late to reach Guwahati. Hiteshree and Shreya left our room. We both were done with our packing and dozed off, hoping to somehow visit the Ward's lake tomorrow morning.

Read next: North East Odyssey: Part Fourteen