Day 3: Aizawl to Champhai

Day 3: Aizawl to Champhai

We started off at about 7:30AM to Champhai. Andy Vee accompanied me for the entire sweep ride.

Bike all set for the Sweep Ride. And yes we parked them in the Living Room 

Mission Veng Junction. Met up with Andy here.

Heading out of Aizawl City

TOPPINGS on a cake again 

Falkland - Outskirt of Aizawl

A Part of Aizawl City

The blue tarpaulins are laid down to prevent rain water from seeping into the ground and causing landslides.

With David and his Dad. David was my senior in college.

You may wonder what the Sweep Ride is all about, and no, it’s got nothing to do with the Swachh Bharat Movement 

The Sweep Ride will take us from Aizawl –Champhai (East Mizoram) – RihDil Lake (Myanmar) – Champhai – Khawbung - Biate –Darzo - South Vanlalphai (South Mizoram) – Sangau - Siaha – Lawngtlai – Lunglei– Thenzawl – Aizawl. So if you look at the map, we will be covering North (you enter Mizoram from its Northern side), East and South Mizoram, and hence thename – Sweep Ride, as we will be a one round ride over Mizoram and we will be riding in the monsoon so – Mizoram Monsoon Sweep Ride. We couldn’t go to theWestern side because this part is a little hard to ride in the Monsoon as most of the road will be very slippery and as told, the roads are like steps. Come winter and West Mizoram will be conquered too.. hehe

The route:

https://www.google.co.in/maps/dir/Ai...d23.727107!3e0

About 20kms outside Aizawl in Tuirial, we encountered a Landslide. We passed a long queue of stationary cars until we saw the landslide. The trucks ahead were stuck but our BIKES could go through. I have ridden over mud and slush before but this was different. Man was it slippery. The bike was sliding from side to side and I felt like I was in Shakira’s ‘Hips don’t lie’ video. We slipped and slid our way through and thankfully we didn’t drop ourBIKES. That was quite a preview of what the ride had in store for us. We stopped at the Tuirial Market to catch our breath and off we went again.

Tuirial Market

Tuirial River

If you want to see how slippery it was, check out this video towards the latter part

Heading onwards, the roads became narrower and the turns, sharper. The road condition was good and we had a good ride. We stopped at Seling for a Lal-chai break and then were on the road again. The views and sights along the road were just amazing. It looked like it was straight out of a vacation postcard. And if that postcard had Andy, me and the bikes on it, it would have fetched millions.. hehehe.. The hills, the clouds, the valleys made good company for the ride. 

We took a break a thatched house by the side of the road. It was the only house in that area and ‘Lone House’ was written on itsDOOR. That just immediately triggered a slideshow of all the horror movies I had seen and maybe, we could…... just….... be…... in one right now. After a few minutes, it started raining… thankfully there was no thunder and no dark background music to add to the effect of watching too many movies. Hehehe .. We sat there for a while and then rode to Keifang for lunch.

Keifang. Check out that purple building, it must the the most posh Police Outpost ever 

Lunch

View from the Food shop

One of my favourite dishes I had in Mizoram was San Piao. This is a Burmese dish of soupy rice added with chicken or pork and chips. I had it just once and the taste still lingers. I heard we can get it in some parts of Shillong too, San Piao hunting soon!

San Piao

Tea (San Piao) Stop

After Keifang, every 5-10kms we would be crossing a landslide in deep slush. Only thing missing was Rambo coming out of the paddy fields.

It was along this way that we saw the ‘shops-with-no-attendants’. These shops are by the roadside and they sell vegetables. The vegetables are kept in the shop without any attendants and the prices are marked on the veggies. There is aBOX or either a container in which you put the money for the farmer to collect later. I had seen a post on Facebook regarding this but to see them with your own eyes is something else. And it’s not just one such shop but quite a few. Honesty and trust still prevails here.

The road condition was not so good in this stretch but enough to get your adventure mode on. We took our time and rode slow and cautiously. We stopped whenever we felt fatigue set in but mostly whenever we crossed bridges. I don't know why we did that, it was dark and we couldn't see anything around us, but we stopped at every bridge for aSHORT rest. I guess it's the sound of the river and the insects .. The sounds which we are not used to anymore. 

We stopped at Khawzawl for tea and it started raining again from there. The closer we got to Champhai, the harder it poured. That was quite a welcome we got. Thunderous claps and piercing high-fives on the face from the rain. We reached the Champhai Circuit House at around 11PM - drenched, cold and hungry. To add to that, the kitchen was closed. We had to make do with some biscuits andLIGHT snacks we carried for the ride as our dinner. 

One thing I learned is that whenever you ride out, it's always good to carry some snacks. Especially if it's to a place which you are not familiar with. You might get stranded somewhere or might be too late to get any food. Dominos might be too far away too. So always carry some snacks or chocolate creamed biscuits; or like I like to call them - Power Biscuits.