Manipur Travel

The new year started with lots of things happening among these one of them was a 10-day break from work. Amidst leaving my first job and joining the second and moving to a different city and handling all my other personal stuff, I decided to make use of this sweet break to take mum and dad to some off-beat place for a vacation.

Loktak Lake, Moirang, Manipur

Manipur was not an obvious choice. Tickets to most of the places had run out by the time we started planning the trip. We didn’t want to go too far either and we wanted to avoid any sort of crowd, for sure. One day, over a casual evening coffee, me and my cousin were discussing Loktak lake and that sort of stuck with me. All these, together with my love for North-eastern people made me book the flight to Imphal. 

Local kids in Ukhrul

Imphal, the capital of Manipur is a busy city. It was supposed to be a pit-stop for us. We checked in to Sangai Hotel (and even though the name reminds us of the place – Sanghai), this referred to the Sangai deer, famous in Manipur. We walked around the small city of Imphal, checking out the local markets, eateries, Shahid Minar, the polo ground and the main attraction - the Kangla fort. 

In the gardens of the Kangla Palace, Imphal, Manipur

We spent a full day in the fort. The fort is an old palace, belonging to the mythical God-King. It has a unique architecture and a vast landscape garden adorned with archaeological evidences of old ruins of temples and a museum.

At Kangla Fort, Imphal, Manipur

We ended up spending two days in Imphal and then made our way to Ukhrul. Ukhrul is at a higher altitude surrounded by mountains and well known for its tribal culture and rich wild life. On our drive up there, we visited the Mova cave. The car took a narrow right turn from a sudden ‘out-of-nowhere’ mountain road. After driving for a mile or so, we got down from the car. While mum & dad pottered around the place, I climbed down the cave along with our driver who showed me the way. It was a rocky climb down after which you enter a small cave and come out at the other end in front of a whooshing waterfall. My heart leaped instantaneously. Greens, hills, rocks and water…that’s what I live for! It was quite unkempt (just the way I like it) and there was not a single soul to be seen. After spending some time there, we drove straight till Ukhrul.

On the way to Ukhrul.

Ukhrul on a Sunday is a sleepy town. And I don’t mind a sleepy town at all but when it comes to my hunger pangs due to closed restaurants all over, I start getting panicky. Sundays are big in this town. Most of the population are Christians and they celebrate the Sundays by going to church and spending quality time with their family. All the shops were closed, and streets were deserted except for a few kids playing here and there and some lazy walkers. There was only one person at the hotel who juggled his role as the receptionist, caretaker, cook - everything. He declared to our disappointment that no food was available. He could, however, arrange for some rice and eggs for dinner, If we liked. We agreed immediately and then went out surveying the town. The view all around was beautiful with the never-ending folds of the Purvanchal mountains. 

Pretty Town, Ukhrul.

We walked up and down the undulating streets. It was very cold, and the constant chilly breeze sent shivers down the spine. We didn’t find any snow, but it was getting so freaking cold towards the evening that we decided to rest inside, beside a makeshift fire that the hotel arranged for us. We came back to the hotel and to our pleasant surprise, there was a table full of food! There was steaming rice, green salad, a hot soupy vegetable, daal and chicken curry, all neatly laid out on the table, secured in hotpots! We were cold, hungry and the caretaker’s effort to arrange a good meal and that too, hot, was overwhelming. I’m not so sure about God but its people like him I like to follow.

Khajing Bora, local fish delicacy

This is what I love about the people in the mountains. They are so humble, polite and always eager to walk that extra mile to help others is a rare, almost extinct quality in the cities.

From Ukhrul, we made our way to Moirang. Moirang is popular for the biggest fresh water lake in Northeast India - Loktak lake and the Keibul Lamjao National Park, the only floating national park in the world, also the home for Sangai deer.

Loktak Lake - View from the Sendra Resort, Moirang, Manipur

We were staying in the Sendra resort which is on the island, Sendra, in the Loktak lake. We had a little cottage to ourselves. The front of the cottage was all glass and the first thing you see when you open your eyes in the morning is the serene loktak lake in front, surrounded by tall trees on which sat many colourful birds. 

From our cottage at Sendra, Moirang, Manipur

This place was amazing. It was a small island in the lake and we could walk around it all the time. There were lots of long, slender trees and birds, chirping tirelessly. It was the perfect treat to the ears and the eyes. You could take the stairs up to the highest viewpoint on the island. From outside the resort, you could walk down to the lake side and take a motorboat to explore the lake. We went to a few other nearby islands, Karang and Thanga. The islands were of different shapes and sizes, each having a hilly bump on it. We climbed up and down the Thanga island and then took our boat to visit the floating homestays where the fishermen lived. It was an amazing experience. They lived on a makeshift floater carpeted with grass and had artificially created phumdis for fishing. 

Fishermen's house in the middle of the Loktak Lake

The fishermen (a greater number of women than men, I noticed) were very sweet. They showed us how they did fishing and the fishnets. The nets held the fish together whilst still in water, keeping the fish alive all along. They also offered us coffee and fried fish. It’s one of those rare luxuries in life when you could sit on a float inside a phumdi on the Loktak lake, sipping hot coffee and having fresh fish fries. I’m not sure if it was the freshness of the fish or the magic in the ambience, but that was the best fish fry I have ever had. There was a floating restaurant in the middle of the lake as well. It served hot momos, noodles and some basic stuff – all very cheap yet very yummy. We spent two days on this Sendra Island doing nothing but wandering around soaking in the nature and trying out local delicacies like Khajing Bora (Pakoda made of shrimps), rice cakes, watin, etc.

Coffe and fried fish in the Lake, Moirang, Manipur

Very near to Loktak lake was also the Sangai National Park which is a well known place for spotting Sangai deer. I must admit I was a tad disappointed here. We were driven to this elevated spot and before us was this huge thick forest with small trees and shrubs and narrow canals. We were given binoculars to spot deer from there. We did see a few but I guess, in my mind, I was looking for a more soulful experience. But it being the only floating national park does add to its charm.

Nature Park

We also went to the Japanese Peace memorial and the INA War museum nearby. The INA museum displayed a fantastic collection of information on Netaji’s life and details on his work. We gradually made our way back from Moirang to Imphal to catch our flight back home. Just before reaching Imphal, there was a big waterfall (Sadly, I cannot recollect the name now). You would have to climb up the rocky steps to get to the source of the falls. This walk was nice, very green, slightly wet and personally, I would remember the walk as I got a call from my next job whilst walking towards the waterfall. Now that’s something, isn’t it?

Waterfall on the way back to Imphal

From Imphal to Ukhrul to Moirang and back to Imphal, the tour in Manipur collected a lot of memorable moments in the landscapes of Kangla, on the beautiful Sendra Island on Loktak Lake, in the chilly wind in Ukhrul, in the falls of rocky Mova, on the wet steps of the waterfalls, the dear Sangais and so on.

Serenity...

With a fresh start to the year, signing off temporarily until I get back to the Nature’s lap…