Kaziranga

We visited Kaziranga National park on the 28th of march. It was an amazing experience. It was something that we had been planning for almost a month, but didn't materialise due to some reason or the other.
The weekend getaway was amazing, starting from the drive to the accommodation to having a look at the Indian Rhino up close.
To start with, the drive from Dibrugarh to Kaziranga is extremely relaxing. Both sides of the road were lined with Tea gardens. The road , though only a two lane highway, was good all through except for a small patch between Dibrugarh and Moran. With very little traffic, we made good speed (much better than what i had expected). Here are a few photographs of the drive -









We stayed at this place called Koliabor Manor, which is a refurbished bunglow of British vintage (built in 1925). Its known as the Old directors bunglow, other than the fact that it was built in 1925, it is hardly old, the place has all the major amenities (except Television). The service there was very good, and the staff was very friendly.

The furniture at the Bunglow was all cane and teak. Some of it was antique. We were lucky to get the 'bada sahib's room'. We spent the time after lunch sitting in the cool veranda sipping freshly brewed tea.
The staff there had planned a Bramhaputra cruise to see the birds and river water dolphins but due to the strong winds and state of the river it had to be canceled. Instead we went for the Gypsy (jeep) safari.
Kaziranga consists of 4 ranges of which the westernmost range was closed at the time due to Poaching. We went to the western range which is basically a lake and grasslands. The jeep safari was very good. We saw a Rhino as soon as we started the safari and as we were watching the Rhino a flock of cranes flew over us in perfect formation. We were also lucky to have a male Rhino chase us as we stayed in his vicinity for a little longer than he cared. He snorted and came up the track and we beat a hasty retreat! After the safari, all we spoke was of the Rhinos, the elephants, the deers, wild buffaloes and the birds that we saw... and we had a great place to sit and talk - the dimly lit verandah of the bunglow. The bunglow had these low wattage bulbs which gave it the colonial candle light look. And there was this amazing breeze blowing outside.
The Next morning we woke up early to take the elephant safari only to find that it was pouring outside, we wondered if rain was planning to play spoilsport. We set course anyways to catch the 0715 safari. Adu was most excited about the prospect of sitting atop an elephant and watching rhinos. With due preparations to brave the rain if required we reached the park, and the rain stopped. There was a mad rush but we managed to get an elephant thanks to the planning of our 'tour guide' from Koliabor manor. The elephants started on their trek through the grasslands. The first 15 min we wondered if it was good luck that we managed to see so many animals the previous day on the jeep safari, as there were hardly any animals to be seen. The elephant kept picking up grass and munching it was it walked through the grassland, it was an amazing site, something like eat on the job. We were wondering if we would see any Rhino and voila, there was a mother and baby rhino behind the elephant grass!!! It was an amazing sight, the mother kept getting between us and the baby and when like paparazzi we kept hounding her, she turned around and snorted at us, indicating to keep our distance. So we moved on, to find another magnificent creature giving us dirty looks as we spoilt his early morning siesta! And then it was wild animals galore, we saw two more pairs of mother and baby rhino, lots and lots of deer. Total paisa vasool.
The basic kharcha paani for the trip was as follows -
Drive from Dibrugarh - approx 290 kms to Koliabor manor (Jhoklabanda, approx 40 km from Kaziranga towards Guwahati)
Stay - thanks to this introductory offer, we got complimentary stay, and we only had to pay for the food.
food - this was a little expensive if you ask me they charged 250 per head per meal except b'fast which was 250 for all three. For adu they charged 100 for the lunch and dinner. The food though good was a mite too expensive for 250 per plate. It had good home made food, a chicken / fish, daal, roti, rice, pakora, papad, a dry veg and sweet.
Gypsy safari - 1200/- (this was on the higher side as the gypsy ride if organized yourself can be done for around 900 for two including guide, entry fee, camera charges etc)
Elephant safari - 300/- per head + 50 for still camera.

On the way back we found this great dhaba just outside kaziranga 'Pelican Dhaba' which gave a assamese thali for 35/-. wonder why we found it so late, we could have cut down on our costs by having this food instead of the 250/- per plate food (not that that food was bad, just that it was expensive) In this thali they gave two assamese dishes, two veg gravy dishes, daal, two dry veg dishes, rice and papad; and we ordered some local fish fry to cater for our fish taste buds (all of us being such major fish freaks)