This 3 week trip was arranged and booked through local company East India Birding who handled all the logistics including drivers, guides, accommodation, park entry fees, permits and food.
We had to arrange our own visas and get to the start point of the tour at Dibrugahr and home from the finish point in Guwuhati.
For me this involved return flights from Heathrow to Delhi with Virgin Atlantic and internal flights to and from Delhi with IndiGo.
Our small group consisted of myself, Graham Sorrie, AbdulRahman Al-Sirham and Thierry Jean. Thierry joined us just for the first half of the trip having to get home early for business reasons.
At just over GBP2500 plus flights the trip was extremely good value for money.
Visas and Permits
A tourist visa is required to visit India and at the time of my application this involved an appointment in London at an Indian Visa Centre. Since then the Indian authorities have re-introduced a online 'e-visa' which is much cheaper and more convenient.
To visit Arunachal Pradesh as a foreigner a 'Protected Area Permit' is needed. East India birding arranged these for us. Indeed the only realistic way to obtain these is through your tour company as part of an organised tour.
Guides and Drivers
We had 3 different guides and drivers
For the first half of the trip - Probin Hatibaruah
At Kaziranga - Pallab Prakash Saikia
For the second half of the trip - Lobsang Tsering
All were excellent, particularly Lobsang who tried so hard to find us the birds, often in some challenging weather conditions. He was also very personable and good company.
Accommodation
This was in a mixture to basic to mid-range hotels/homestays plus 3 nights in tented camps at Eaglenest. All were adequate except the camps. These were extremely basic with no running water, damp tents and poor food. Lama Camp is about 40 mins drive from the town of Tenga with a nice hotel so we opted to save a 4th night in squalid conditions by paying for the hotel ourselves. The other camp, Bompu Camp is more remote so staying there is a must. It was also slightly better with buckets of hot water, better food and more reliable (albeit time-restricted) electricity.
We only enjoyed wifi at one hotel. It seems this part of India hasn't caught up with the modern world!
These were where we stayed in chronological order:
The Dibrugarh Gymkarna Club
Government Cottage, Yatri Niwas
Dibang Jungle Camp
Padmini Resort, Maguri Beel
Namdang House, Digboi
Dubori Homestay, Kaziranga
Eaglenest Residency, Tenga
Lama Camp, Eaglenest
Bompu Camp, Eaglenest
Hotel Pemaling, Dirang
Balgora Eco Camp, Nameri
Itinerary
Our route took us birding at the following places in chronological order:
Dibrugarh - Brahmaputra River and Maijan Grasslands
Jia Grasslands
Mishmi Hills (all elevations)
Maguri Beel
Dihing Patkai
Kaziranga
Eaglenest (all elevations)
Mandala
Sela Pass
Sangti Valley, Dirang
Nameri
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