a bridge on the way from Kohima to Mokokchung
We drive from Kohima to Mokokchung on a Sunday. Yesterday’s busy commercial centre is now abandoned, all the shops are closed, and the only people on the road are those who, well-dressed, make their way to church. Outside town, in the villages we pass, it is the same: everything closed, and now not a soul on the road – obviously the church services have started. It is a strange experience, as if driving through a ghost town.
extensive terraces along the way
some containing a bit of water, mostly dry in this season
in places stepping down the slope steeply
the odd colourful roof making the difference
And even if later – much later – people start appearing again, the shops remain closed, except for two small hole-in-the-walls, or rather, in the corrugated iron, almost next to each other. We stop for water and juice, and then I see them again. The wine bottles.
products of the local winemakers
and sometimes is the view obscured….
The Road Stops
We had prepared ourselves for another dry period, an interruption from the occasional bottle of Sula wine, because Nagaland has prohibited the sale of alcohol. I was thus not a little surprised to find a bottle of wine, admittedly plum wine in Kohima, made by the Anonymous Winery. It turns out to be alcohol-free, but once again, beggars are no choosers, and it is actually not too bad. Acquired taste, shall we say.
And these two mini-shops along the road, they, too, sell wine. Not from the Anonymous Winery, but from the Local Winemakers – although the bottles and the text on the labels look remarkably similar to our earlier specimen, and are also made in the town of Wokhe, which we just passed. And this wine is made of grapes! Still no alcohol, though. We resist. I suppose we are not that desperate, after all.
a metal bridge connecting to the other side of the river
and with a small hamlet where Sunday is also laundry day
a house along the road, standard bamboo woven walls and corrugated iron roof
the main road to Mokokchung
the Manipur Hotel, the only place open on Sundays, and run by extraordinarily friendly people
We still haven’t had our mid-morning tea, or coffee, whatever is available. Until we find, a little further, the Manipur Hotel – hotel being the term also used here for a small restaurant, no lodging. Where we find something resembling coffee with milk. And when we want to pay, we are laughed away, the coffee is on the house, we are their guests. Where in the world?
nearer Mokokchung extensive slopes that have been cleared
The Terraces
Before Wokhe the mountain slopes are frequently covered with extensive terraces, mostly dry, like around Kohima. Afterwards, the jungle takes over. All around the mountains are covered by trees, and there is little sign of population, except for the odd house, or very small hamlet. The road deteriorates to a potholed track. It is only nearer to Mokokchung that the village density picks up again – and the road improves. But the terraces are here in their early stages of development, mostly burnt patches on the slopes, with the wood laid out horizontally, as the first step to an agricultural piece of land.
next: Mokokchung
the fallen trees forming the start of the next terracing
and the first tool sheds already erecred
it is just a patch of jungle that has been cleared, for now
