Day 14 - Nagaland, rich cultural heritage

This continues from my yesterday's post.

From Shillong, we took a taxi back to Guwahati, from where we travelled to Dimapur, the commercial hub of Nagaland, by a night train on Nov 01, 2010. We reached the next day early morning. 

Our sojourn there was hosted by a friend, who arranged for a cab pickup from the Dimapur railway station to Kohima, the capital of the state. 

Kohima, which is about 75 km from Dimapur, doesn't have railway connectivity. A line connecting the two cities is under construction. In fact, there are ambitious plans to connect all the northeast state capitals by rail. But that's making very slow progress because of the challenging terrain.

We had these breathtaking scenery as we drove into Kohima:

We first went to Kisama Heritage Village, which showcases local traditions and cultural activities, on the outskirts of Kohima. The houses have thatched roofs, wooden walls that have intricate carvings of different designs, symbolizing rural folklore. Each of the 16 houses represents a community. It's here that the famous Hornbill Cultural Festival is held in the first week of December.

It will be hard to find a vegetarian in Nagaland. They love meat. We went to one of the typical markets in Kohima, called Keeda Bazaar. There they sell everything from vegetables and fish to meat of a variety of animals, insects and reptiles. 

We also went to a traditional Naga house, where we were welcomed by the family and treated to 'rice beer', which is nothing but fermented rice water. It's too light to get one intoxicated.

We then went to the Kohima War Cemetery which honours the soldiers of the Allied Forces who lost their lives fighting the Japanese Army during the World War II. 

There are stone inscriptions of over 2,000 soldiers, who beat back the Japanese troops at the Garrison Hills after a battle in 1944. 

We drove around the city as well to get a glimpse of the daily life. 

We enjoyed and learnt a lot more than we thought we would, during this two-state northeast tour.  

Anyone who loves to travel, see places and learn about people and their cultural traditions, should definitely plan a trip to this region. 

We hope to travel again to see the other states. 

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This post is part of the blogging challenge in April every year, wherein bloggers put up one post a day, from A to Z, every day except Sundays. 

I'm participating in #BlogchatterA2Z. I am also on A2Z April Challenge.