Crossing borders: Sleepy checkpoints, trek through no-man's land & new NE zone.
In: The Northeast daily. Guwahati. Friday, October 13, 2000. p. 1.

What makes it so interesting if a foreigner shows up in Guwahati who has just come from Bangladesh via Bhutan? Is it that foreigners are only slowly returning to the East of India after having been kept out for some time? Or is it, that of the few who make it to Bhutan, even fewer venture up the Brahmaputra? Or is it the combination of Bangladesh, Bhutan and India? Or the itinerary over land? Most probably a bit of everything.

Many years ago I set out for a journey from Dhaka to Islamabad overland. I felt very adventurous and was surprised to see that it was not so difficult to do, provided you are a foreigner and have no difficulties to obtain visa, have enough time and stamina to endure the various means of transportation, and are optimistic enough to set out in the face of lacking basic information about travel regulations, road conditions and time tables. I have done similar exercises later and found that things have become easier, especially technically. This time an invitation to a conference on SAARC in Dhaka brought me again to the northeast of the subcontinent and I thought this a welcome opportunity to go to Bhutan, the only SAARC country I had not been to. There are flights from Dhaka to Thimpu only by Druk Air, the Royal Bhutanese Airline, on route from Bangkok, and with the only other Bhutanese aeroplane under repair, the weekly flight is hopelessly sold out during the festival season. The obvious alternative would be from Dhaka to Badgora near the Bhutanese border via Calcutta. But since Bangladesh Biman flies from Dhaka to Saidpur in the northeast corner of the country, I chose that, after having gone to that part of the country by road last year. At Saidpur airport I hired a taxi to Burimari, one of the four places, where foreigners can cross into India from Bangladesh overland. The railway also crosses the border here, at least did so until 1965, when the border was closed due to the war. Going by the condition of the road, the absence of any other travellers, the nondescript buildings and the non-familiarity of passport, customs' and securities' personnel on either side with European Union passports, this check point does not see much traffic. But the whole procedure took less than an hour including the walk trough no man's land - not bad for the region. On the Indian side my Bhutanese taxi was waiting for me (already for four hours's, thanks to insufficient information on my side), one of South Asia's great wonders of efficiency. That I could be picked up at such an unlikely place had been arranged through e-mail, which has become the most efficiency means of communication across difficult borders. Returning from Bhutan I chose the route via Guwahati by train - not from Siliguri, as I was advised to do in Bhutan, but from New Alipurduar, which is much nearer to Phuentsholing and Jaigaon, the Bhutanese-Indian border towns. Returning to Dhaka via Shillong and Sylhet should not pose any further problems, although as a foreigner a transit permit trough Meghalaya has to be obtained.

So, what is so special with this route, besides, that an Angrezi has a nice story of an off beaten track to tell? The good news is, that in this part of the subcontinent it should be easier for the local people to cross borders than for foreigners, as compared to the Wagah-Atari crossing between Lahore and Amritsar, which is so much easier for a foreigner to cross than an Indian and Pakistani. Already Bhutanese people can move without any difficulty into India, with their cars and Indians can visit Bhutan much easier than foreigners, who need all kinds of permits and have to pay a hefty price per day. Another good news is, that transport between India and Bangladesh is being eased and regular trains are to start between the countries these days. It only shows, that new routes and combinations for tourism can be found. Maybe it would be possible to work out tours that combine Bhutan's mountains, Assam's hills and Bangladesh's beaches (at Cox Bazar), not only for foreign tourists but also for those from India, given the fact, that Indian tourists have started to outnumber foreign ones in many destinations. This would also help to get to know neighbouring countries, understand them better and personally gain some dividend from the regional co-operation. The free movement of goods, capital and people between member states, that we enjoy in the European Union, may not be achievable between all the SAARC countries within the foreseeable future, but maybe at least in the northeast's "growth quadrange".