INDIA: KAZIRANGA NATIONAL PARK, DAY 4

 December 20, 2024

On our last day at Kaziranga National Park, Chris, Stan, and I needed a break from driving around in the Jeep and elected to take a boat ride on the Brahmaputra River while Bob went on a morning birding drive with Bablu.

I'm not sure it was the right decision.

It took us almost an hour to drive to the river and appropriate dock, and then there really wasn't much to see.  

We walked out onto the very fine white sand and gazed out at what looked more like a lake than a river. The water didn't seem to be moving, and the expanse was very broad. The Brahmaputra River is the 15th longest river in the world and the 9th largest by output.

We three passengers boarded our luxury yacht with our guide and two people running the boat.

We motored away from shore and upriver for a while.

There was very little action on the river, but every now and then we saw another boat and were glad for our "comfy seats."

We feasted on some snacks washed down with Coke . . .

. . . and when we got to the middle of the river, we stopped, dropped anchor, and waited for river dolphins to put on a show by leaping out of the water.  

FF to about 29 seconds and 49 seconds to see the spectacular show.  Yup.

After a while we moseyed back to shore and parked in front of this luxury boat. Do they really get enough people to fill that thing? 

Here we are with our guide (in red scarf) and the two captains.

Back at Diphlu River Lodge, we hung out at our much prettier river, waiting for Bob and Bablu to return.

We didn't have leaping river dophins, but we had something much better, an elephant!

And we even got to say hi.

The rider/trainer took his mount into the river for a bath.

Several men went into the water to scrub the elephant down.

This looks like a fun job, doesn't it?

After the now sparkling clean elephant came out of the water . . . 

. . . he and the rider took a stroll through the dining area. Very fun.

Bob and Bablu returned from their birding expedition in time for lunch, and after we had our fill, Bablu took us on a short walk to Lahé Looms, a weaving "factory" that, according to their website, "is dedicated to celebrating the slow, sustainable lifestyle intrinsic to Assam." It produces "exquisite handwoven and handcrafted . . . items woven from the four distinct silks of Assam."

Later in the trip we would go to a weaving factory in the city, but to see this place with its straw walls and packed earth floors was a totally different experience.

Everything is done manually using a very complicated system of silk strings, levers, and pulleys.

There were only a few women at work, but that meant it wasn't crowded and we could get close.

The long, gold, paper-punched strip on the left is the pattern the weaver follows. There are many different designs, of course, and some are very traditional and very old. In the photo on the right, a woman is using a spinning wheel made from the back half of a bicycle to make silk thread. She is using the peddle as a handle to turn the wheel. Ingenuity!

More beautiful patterns and mind-blowingly complicated threads:

When Chris and I saw this blue and white elephant and rhino design on a loom, we both instantly loved it.

I think they had to pull one that had just been finished off a loom, and they found a second one somewhere else. These are meant to be part of a sari and have a long length of lightweight blue cloth on one end. The guide in the shop told us that it takes about seven 8-hour days to make a cloth this size. We paid about $60 each and felt like we were stealing.

View from the back:

View on my dining room table:

Close-up of the pattern:

It was mid- to late-afternoon, and we just had time for a stroll with Bablu through a "model village" across the busy road from Diphlu River Lodge.  Named "Joysing Doloi," the village was established in 2002 on about 100 acres.  I can only find information about it that is 14 years old, but in 2011 it had 165 residents, of which 60% of the males and 53% of the females were literate.

This must be a school, but all the signs were in Hindi.

The residents here work on small farms or at the neighboring tea plantation. Not far up the road we came upon this young woman working at a loom outside her house. Although it was much simpler than those we saw in Lahé Looms, it was essentially the same mechanism.  

She had only a few inches done on the piece she was working on, but her eager husband went inside and brought out a long piece of Christmas-green cloth with a simple design at one end. How could I say no to $14? It is meant to be a skirt, but I will probably use it as a Christmas tablecloth.

On the other side of their very humble home, this simple mechanism was set up. Neither Bob nor I can remember what it was used for, but the part at the top had a handle that could be pulled up and the the post at the end was smashed into the ground to crush . . . ? I wish I had written it down.

Just beyond the weaver's house was a sign that was a lot easier to read than the weatherbeaten one at the entrance. 

We pressed onward through the model village, the dirt road buttressed with small farms . . .

. . . and acres of tea plants that looked like manicured gardens.

Very skinny cows grazed among the trees.

A pig was lassoed to a tree.

It seemed unusually quiet for a late afternoon, but clothing hanging on the line testified that the village was inhabited.

Then we met these three handsome boys. Using Bablu to interpret, Stan befriended them. I think they were brothers, ages 6, 9, and 12. 

They eventually began to follow behind Bob and Bablu, who were busy looking for more birds. The oldest one listened carefully to every word, perhaps trying to discern the English he was likely learning in school. The middle one rode a pink and blue bike, and the barefooted youngest ran crazily all over the rocky dirt road.

There seemed to be more people outside when we retraced our steps to return to the lodge than there had been earlier. We got a lot of curious looks on the way back, but everyone seemed friendly.

We ate our last dinner at the lodge and went to bed early in anticipation of our departure and a long drive the next morning.

And just because I haven't included these pictures earlier, here are photos of two of the people who  made our stay at Diphlu River Lodge so pleasant: Upashana, a beautiful young woman who is working on her master's degree in tourism and is an employee of the Lodge, and Bablu, a wonderful safari guide.