Kaziranga is another notable national park in India. This one is located in the state of Assam, which lies north of Meghalaya.
How to get to Kaziranga from Shillong
To reach Kaziranga, you have to pass through Assam’s capital, Guwahati. Coming from Shillong, that means taking a shared taxi (about 3 hours; INR 500) and then finding a bus from Guwahati to Kaziranga. The taxi driver knew exactly where to drop me off, and within minutes, I was on a comfortable bus to Jorhat.
Kaziranga is about 3/4 of the way from Guwahati to Jorhat, and although there was no official stop, I just had to tell the driver, and with some help and guidance, he stopped right in front of my booked guesthouse. That trip took another 6.5 hours and cost INR 600. So all in all, getting from Shillong to Kaziranga was almost a full-day experience, but these days are simply part of traveling India.
Kazrianga National Park
Kaziranga National Park is more easily accessible and cheaper than Jim Corbett National Park. Once I arrived at the guesthouse, they easily arranged two trips for the next day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. This cost INR 7300 for both safaris, still cheaper than what I had to pay for a single one in Jim Corbett.
Animals are seemingly much more abundant in this park as well. We saw dozens of rhinoceroses, water buffaloes, and different kinds of deer. A few elephants could also be spotted, along with several exotic birds, among which a hornbill was probably the most exciting one.
Only one candidate failed to make an appearance; it lies in their nature to stay hidden. The zoo of Darjeeling remains the only time I was able to see a Bengal Tiger. Nevertheless, I liked this park a lot, much better than Jim Corbett in direct comparison.
Getting to Alipurduar from Kaziranga
The next day, I traveled back westwards to the unassuming little town of Alipurduar, where I met my friend Shahil, with whom I bonded during the 5-hour wait for the delayed train a few days back. Upon hearing that I would continue in this direction, he spontaneously offered that I could spend the night at his place, which I, of course, gladly accepted. The trip back was another full travel day, first a 6-hour bus back from Kaziranga to Guwahati and then a train from there to Alipurduar. Alipurduar was a convenient stopover, also considering that it lies close to Bhutan, into which I crossed borders the next morning.
Goodbye India
So I was lucky to spend the last night with local people from India – just like the very first two nights of my trip. This sets a perfect frame to describe the little less than 2 months I spent in India. While there were certainly times where it was overwhelming (Varanasi, I’m looking at you), all in all, I can only say that India is a wonderful and incredibly diverse country, which many times stirred all of my senses at once but ultimately was always rewarding with amazing places to see, wonderful people to meet, and memories to make which I’llcherish for the rest of my life.
Dhanyavaad and Namaste, India. See you in this life or the next.
A few wildlife pictures from Kazrianga national park :
