> Tourism > Ethnic delicacy
I always have a list of places ready, which I want to visit. I usually choose place, where very few people would prefer to go, leaving their comfort zone of good roads, comfortable cars and star category hotels or guided tour.
I had a dream of visiting Champhai, the border town of Mizoram and to enter Myanmar by that route. I have already travelled to Myanmar from Moreh, Manipur. And now I wanted to try this route.
For such less explored place, it is usually difficult to get company to travel with. My friend Runu Dutta and my brother Fazlul Alam, who never says no to any of my crazy travel plans, agreed to go with me. We decided on April 2018, Bohag Bihu days.
I started doing homework about the route and places to stay etc.
Sadly enough, I didn’t get much information in the net. Few articles I got, didn’t have much information. So, I contacted one of my classmates from Assam Medical College, who belong to Mizoram. She said, she had no idea and gave me the contact number of another friend, who worked in Champhai for few years. When I called this friend, he initially tried to discourage me by saying I will not find anything interesting there, instead of jungles and bad roads. He said, we won’t even find any wildlife for sighting. Later ,he stopped taking my phones.
Then I started talking to people, who goes to those places on work. Most of them discouraged me by saying that, to cross that 188km to Champhai from Aizawl would take the whole day. Luckily enough, one of them was ready to help me. He gave me the basic information and contacts of tourist lodge and hotels in Champhai, and one local boy, who has a Bolero. When I contacted that boy, he agreed to go with us.
We booked our flight tickets, obtained inner line permits (ILP), which are required to visit Mizoram at resident commissioner of Mizoram’s office in Guwahati and headed for Aizawl, the capital of Mizroam. ILP can be obtained at Lengpui airport Aizawl also, for Indian nationals on production of Id and address proof.
After flying over the beautiful hills of Mizoram, which are a treat to the eyes, we landed in Lengpui Airport, Aizawl. Opui, the boy I contacted was waiting for us in the airport with his Bolero, along with Aman Thapa, who was also supposed to go with us to Champhai.
Opui knew the roads but was not familiar with the places as his driver usually drives the Bolero to Champhai. He didn’t have any idea about the places to visits. So thus Aman Thapa, born and bought up in Aizawl and lived in Champhai for some time. Both never crossed the border to Myanmar.
We decided to leave for Champhai early next morning, asked Opui and Aman to reach by 6am.
We checked in to our hotel, Hotel Ritz, situated at the heart of the town, on the main market. Since the town closes early, we decided to stay in the room and rest for the night. Our room had excellent view of the Aizawl city, so I clicked some night shots from my window.
To travel to Champhai by road, one need to take a private vehicle or can travel by taxis, usually sumos, which are available, either from Aizawl or from Lunglei. Booking counter in Aizawl is situated at Lower Zarkawt. Rate per head is around Rs450 /500. It takes around 8 to 10hrs with one stop on the way.
We got ready early next morning around 6 am, as everyone told us that the road is too bad, and it may take 10 hours to Champhai. We didn’t have anything to eat in the hotel as the staff were not awake and decided to have our breakfast on way.
Opui said we will take breakfast at Seling, situated 45 km away from Aizawl.
He stopped the car in the market at Selling.
Me and Runu went to a tea stall to have quick breakfast. Boys decided to have rice, so they went to a different hotel.
Fazlul came back and told us about the sumptuous meal they had with lots of green leafy boiled vegetables, chutneys of different kind and three kinds of meat only at Rs160 per head.
Later we found out , all small restaurants from Aizawl to Myanmar border, serve meal at an uniform price of Rs 160 per head, which includes rice, different kinds of boiled vegetable and green leaf, chutneys of different kind and three kinds of meat, i.e. chicken, pork and beef. Usually beef is curried and other two are boiled. Whether one takes only vegetarian or one meat or take everything, price is the same.
The journey was very rough. Roads were too bad in most of the places and very narrow. But the beauty of the hill was a morale booster. I found hills of Mizoram are a bit dry, then the hills of Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh, maybe because, we travelled in the dry season, before the rain started.
Asian Highway, which will be a 352 km road from Aizawl to Tuipang, is under construction, which shall be an all-weather road. Once completed, this will improve access to Champhai, and Myanmar from Aizawl and time taken to travel to Champhai, and Myanmar will be very less.
This will also improve access to ASEAN market and will help business to the main areas of Northeast and will help in the socioeconomic development of Northeast.
We reached Champhai town by 3pm and checked into our hotel at the centre of the town, Hotel Chawngthu, a small but nice hotel with great view of the hills, paddy fields and the town. Its contact number is 9862526788.
Champhai is the district headquarter of Chmaphai district, one of the eight districts of the state. Height of this place is 1678meters above sea level.
This is a small beautiful town, with some beautiful landscapes and very friendly people.
We went out for a walk around the town to find out about the place, places to see around and to gather information for next day’s journey across the border.
Livelihood of local people are cultivations of rice, fruits and vegetables. Trading and marketing of foreign goods is also important livelihood for locals here.
Champhai is also called the rice bowl of Mizoram, as maximum quantity of rice in Mizoram are grown here. This has the largest plain areas of Mizoram.
Champhai has an excellent weather, thus have some vineyards in a place called Hnahiam. Different varieties of Orchids and Rhododendrons are also grown here.
Several national parks and wildlife sanctuaries are also situated nearby, like Murlen National park, Lengten wildlife sanctuary and Palak wildlife sanctuaries etc, which are rich in flora and fauna and some rare species of animal and birds are also found here.
This place is inhabited by Mizos for more than 100 years by different Mizo communities E.g. Hmar, Ralte, Sailo, Lusei etc. Rich cultural heritage can be seen here along with some monuments, monoliths and caves. Caves believes to have opening at the nearby hills.
Chawngtlai, a village nearby, is popular for historical sites, has the tallest monoliths of Mizoram and monuments, representing success in war.
Lamsial Puk is a cave in Farkawn village has a century old history of a deadly war between two tribes for land and still showcase the skeletons of the war victims. Mura puk in Zota village, has six caves of tourist interest.
Being situated near the Indo-Myanmar border, Champhai plays important role politically and culturally. This place is also commercially important for Indo-Myanmar trades and many Myanmar products and cheap Chinese products are available here.
Photo - Fazlul Alam
Next day, we planned to visit Zokhawthar,23km away from Champhai, along India-Myanmar border. We started our journey early, as we have heard that the roads are very bad. It took us two hours to cross that stretch of 23km. Asian highway construction is going on at present. That is why, it was worst in some places.
The view from the road and view of Zokhawthar and bordering village of Myanmar from the hilly road are treat to the eyes, which make you forget the bad roads.
If interested, one can find lots of birds and mammals on the way. Way to Murlen national park is also falls on this way.
We reached Zokhawthar and stopped in a local tea stall, had tea and took in details, the procedure to enter Myanmar. We ordered our lunch there in advance, as this place gets very less tourists and it’s difficult to get food without prior order. Mizo’s usually eat their main meal early, by 10-11 PM.
If one wish to stay in Zokhawthar, there is a well-maintained tourist lodge, which can be booked online. But we were planning to go back to Champhai.
Permission to enter Myanmar for the day is given at the Deputy Commissioner’s office in Champhai and at the immigration gate at the border on payment of a minimal fees per person. One can enter Myanmar, without Visa by this route and stay in Myanmar till 3PM. Indian car can also be taken by paying a minimum amount at Myanmar check post at Rikhawder village on Myanmar side or hire a vehicle from there. Tiao river divides both countries and both countries are connected by a bridge over the river. This Tiao river serves as the natural boundary between the two countries.
Rih Dil, a heart shaped lake is usually the tourist attraction. This is 5km away from the border. The road is uneven and has lots of turns and ups. For Mizos, this is a holy lake. There is some folklore in Mizo on this lake. Mizo’s believe, the souls go to eternal abode from this lake. Taking pictures of newlyweds by this lake, believed to be pious. Sadly, after independence, such a holy place of Mizo’s went to a foreign land.
This lake is one km long and 70 meters in breath. One can enjoy boat ride here. There are some Burmese restaurants by the side of the lake. Lunch and snacks are available here. Language is a problem as they don’t speak English, they accept Indian rupees, but return Burmese currency.
One can also visit a Buddhist monastery at the Burmese village, Rikhawder, the first village on Myanmar side.
People are Buddhist. The day we entered was 14th April, and 1st Bohag according to Assamese calendar and was Bihu for us. Buddhist also celebrate water festival on this day. They give bath to the Buddha idol and play with water. Some boys threw water on us while we were waiting in the car and driver was doing the formalities.
We came out of Myanmar at around 2pm and went to the local restaurant cum house of a family, who prepared lunch for us. This was same lunch with three kinds of meats and boiled vegetables and chutneys at Rs160/head. The family was very friendly and took great care of us.
We returned to Champhai and did some shopping in the evening and walked around the town to learn about their culture and see the beauty.
Next day, we came back to Aizawl by the same road. While we stopped at a restaurant cum house at Khawlkulh on way to Aizawl to take lunch. I had to treat a patient there, who was given intravenous fluid by a pharmacist. Our driver has told them that I am a physician.
Next day, we flew back to Guwahati.
( The author is a Consultant Physician and her favourite hobbies are travelling and photography. She can be reached at [email protected] )
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