Do's & Dont's in Manipur

Don’t compare with other north eastern states

North eastern states have always fascinated me, I have firm belief that North eastern states are all about unending beauty and are a treasure box yet to be opened,  I started believing it more after my visits to Meghalaya and Sikkim.

With the same belief I decided to plan for Manipur, well started with Nagaland but could not receive any response from any of the locals I tried to connect in Kohima hence had to concentrate on its neighbor.

“Loktaak gaya hai ( been to loktak ?)  ” would be the common answer for the question , what are the places we can visit in Manipur , all the locals we spoke, refused to think beyond Loktak lake and we were already reconsidering our options on day two of the trip.

The way we plan our trip is , we keep two days for a single location and that way Manipur was supposed to be 10 Days tour but on day one itself while walking on the busy streets of Imphal we realized we have already covered most of the Imphal.

We had confidence in our ability to explore the places and  experiences, till we went to Senapati J

Lesson 1 :-  Manipur may not be the place for infinite travel , one week is good enough , club it with other north east states , unless you have unlimited time

Do Visit Kangla Fort

Right in the heart of Imphal lies a historical power center of Manipur kingdom, the kangla fort. While most of the ancient structures are not there anymore apart from Citadel wall and Govindji temple but it’s around 200acres of green belt and old British cottages will take you back to the history. The main gate of kangla fort is guarded by Dragon / tiger / Eagle, fictitious animal called Kangla Sha, also has temples, royal boats in its campus.

Kangla fort also has a museum which we think is a very well curated, it gives you a good chronological reference of events happening in Manipur kingdom, impact of powerful Burmese empire on it and rise of the British. It’s way better than the lackluster state museum which only has stuffed animals to show and resembles more with the zoology lab than the museum.

While we were doing our long walks in Kangla fort , we saw a lot of college boys and girls on cycles and thought it’s a good idea to have cycle tour done  , after finishing our 10+km walk when we were about to exit we noticed the rent a cycle stand nicely hidden behind the ticket counter.

Luxmi canteen near the all women run Ima market is a nice place to quench your hunger after long walk in kangla fort, traditional Manipuri thali or chakluk as it’s called has all the flavors, hot to sweet, sour to salty, balanced mixture of vegetables, lentils and protein (chicken /fish /pork). The only dishes we couldn’t get used to is the dried fermented fish. But if you are a vegetarian (a pure one at that, not a vegetarian who eats fish or chicken curry) you may have to spend your time eating lentils.

Visit to Imphal war cemetery during one of our city walks was also worth, cemetery is dedicated to the World War 2 heroes of the Royal British army but has place for Indian, African and soldiers of other nationalities who sacrificed their lives.

Red hill memorial which is at about 15kms from Imphal can however be skipped.

Andro village museum is open only on weekends, it was closed when we went for a visit but we could still walk around the closed museum.

Lesson 2: Two Days are good enough for Imphal sight seeing

Typical Manipuri Thali

Temple of snake god in kangla fort

Kangla Sha

Govindji Temple

Govindji Temple

Main Gate Kangla fort

British Cottages

Andro village museum

Ima Market : Market where men sellers are not allowed

Don’t visit Senapati

One good thing about Manipur tourism website, apart from the fact that it exists is it doesn’t ask you “Loktaak Dekha” , yes they do cover district wise tourist destinations.

Senapati ,the name itself had a merit, tourism website mentions about Yangkhullen (Place of Origin for Nagas) and Willong (Megaliths) and we were excited to start of the trip by visiting historical sites.

Dusty road from Imphal to Senapati, filled with Lorries and trucks failed to dampen our spirits, we were adamant that once we move away from the national highway we will be greeted with breathtaking scenery and the plants would be green not dusty green. We crossed senapati in 2 hrs and were on our way to willong.

Willong is a remote village near the border of Nagaland and yes the scenes did change after we crossed Senapati, hustle of national highway was behind us and we were cruising through the mountain roads, willong is around 45kms from Senapati and Yanghkhullen is further 25km ahead, breath of dust free fresh air and sights of Laikot peak and other mountains was soothing while the roads were testing capabilities of our SUV.

45kms took close to 3 hours of time on those mountain roads, willong town was busy in pre-Christmas mass we could hear the songs from the church on the top of the hill, the megaliths are right at the start of the town and hard to miss.

They are astonishing , huge stone slabs as tall as 20-30ft , around 40-50 of them , no one has clue who brought them here , how such huge rocks were moved in past with no tools to help .Few locals were busy playing with electric transformer placed right in between the megaliths, just like the rock slabs, existence of that transformer in between the archaeological site is unknown.

For something advertised as India’s only megalith site, that was disappointing.

We were enquiring with a local for kaikulu caves and how we can reach them, they had no clue but they told us about caves in the nearby mountain, around 2-3 hrs walk from willong, “Local girls and boys go there to sing and dance” the old man quipped, we knew we should stay away from the cave.

The old man was not excited about Yanghkhullen either and it was already late afternoon hence we decided to return to Senapati for lunch and halt.

While passing one of the small villages on the way back, we noticed a girl holding a dog by the chains and a man pulling heavy hoe , before we could gauge what’s happening one swift stroke was on the dog , it was day before Christmas , feast was getting ready

After spending 30 minutes finding decent food options in Senapati we settled for a café serving Chinese food, while the café was busy figuring out if chicken fried rice should have pork or not and if thing like egg fried rice should exist, we were busy discussing if it makes sense to stay in Senapati for another day or not, as we have already visited the places and by looking at the place we were sure there is nothing else left to explore in Senapati.

We decided to return to Imphal.

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Lesson 3:  If its the last habitable place on earth and you have nowhere else to go , do visit Senapati

The megaliths

Do Visit Tharon Caves and Tamenglong District

After prolonged interrogation of our driver, hotel staff and few other locals we were able to get a location out, Tharon Caves in Tamenglong district towards the east Manipur. 

Tharon caves are the largest water cut caves in Manipur, you will find their one line mention on the tourism website.

Considering rest of the itinerary fixed and bookings done for loktak on next day, we had to do Tharon caves in one day only, which our driver Malayan ( or mangalam as we preferred calling him ) said would be possible , the journey however would be arduous as the entire 150km stretch is a mountain road and in a shape worse than the imphal – senapati road but having traveled spiti and other areas , road conditions do not derive much emotions out of us.

We decided to leave at 5AM , before sunrise however due to heavy fog in the morning we had to start a bit late , winding mountain road starts just 15 kms into the journey however the road is lot more scenic that the one we had seen a day before.

After witnessing a beautiful sunrise over the imphal city we were making our way to Noney, a small town on the way. We were welcomed by the sign “You are in head hunter’s territory” but these are not the Naga head hunters, the 18 Assam Rifles call themselves hunters and we were in their territory.

Tamenglong district is known for its jungles and beautiful Irang valley. Many migratory birds visit this district in the month of November Amour Falcon festival is celebrated by the tourism ministry, this is a way to conserve the migratory amour falcon which once was a favorite game for local village hunters. 

 Indian railways is building a rail route from Silchar , Jiriban to Imphal.

After about 4 hrs of continuous mountain roads we managed to reach Tamenglong, scenic hill town. Tharon caves were 20 kms further. Road after tamenglong almost doesn’t exists, thankfully we had a SUV and a skilled driver. 

Jungles become denser and prettier, after an hour we had left the location of tharon caves in google map left behind, there was no sign board nor a human being we could inquire, we kept driving, after another half hour we had reached a small village of sonpram. Our driver inquired a person and he pointed to a muddy road to our left, “8kms” he said.

If the road condition till now was bad , the 8km road to tharon village will fail to have any objective , SUV was tilting in every possible angle , we had to check with Malayan if he is really sure he can drive on this road or we should walk , but our driver was equally hell-bent on testing his car as we braced for another hour of bumpy ride.

To visit caves one need to pay a nominal entry fee of 50rs per person to the local student union which in turn provides the guide and lunch needs to be taken in the village which will be paid separately. 

Hindi is not spoken at all, English to some extent, thankfully our driver was translating things for us.

Tharon is a beautiful village, neat and clean and the mud houses are just too pretty, this place is worth camping, unfortunately we had only a day and were not carrying our tent. 

Village is surrounded by amazing jungle and the caves are at 1km walk from here , after much discussion , 2 members of the union agreed to show us the caves after-all we were disturbing them on the x-mas day.

Unlike the caves in Meghalaya which are limestone caves and few other caves to the south of Manipur, Tharon caves are water cut caves (similar to those in Indonesia where massive rescue operation took place last year) , they are about 4-5km in length and only experienced locals would know their way in and out of them , so don’t even think of venturing on your own.

The experience of tharon caves , restored our faith in Manipur’s beauty after disastrous Senapati visit , we spent some quiet time in hidden lagoon inside the cave , we all agreed that this place should be the camping site and at least 2-3 days should be spent exploring the surroundings and the jungles , surprisingly the jungle was very quiet , no birds no movement nothing.

 I remember seeing documentary on north east and excessive bird hunting, not sure if its impact and practice still exists.

Tharon caves had left us spellbound and hungry, Bhoto our local guide invited us over to his house for the lunch, typical Naga house, a big verandah, kitchen at one end and living area to the other end of L shaped house . 

Verandah had animal skulls and family photographs . In one of the photographs we saw a group of armed young men in camouflage uniforms ( not indian army greens ) , “He is my son , he was a commander of NSCN-K , he was killed by dogra regiment in 2015” Bhoto’s father provided the information , we were in an awkward position , we knew what NSCN-K is. 

NSCN-K is a notorious insurgent group demanding Nagalim (free Naga nation) in a violent way, the group was responsible for killing 18 army personnel in 2015, following which Indian army conducted its first surgical strikes across the border in Myanmar. We were having lunch in a rebels house , lunch was delicious , simple daal and rice , we tried testing U-Morock , hottest chilly in the world ( same as bhoot jholakia ) , we could only take a small bite and realize how hot that chilly is , world record is of consuming 6 chilies only.

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After the lunch Bhoto showed us around the house and took us to the obituary stone build in memory of his brother, while he was proud of his brother, there was no hatred for Indian army either, nor were we treated as outsiders.

Nagas are many different tribes , while they are fiercely protective about their territory and defend it with their life , in such remote villages they are still some years away from nationalist feeling .

State government is yet to reach their houses , central government and the lotus flower are few light years away. 

Even in British days,  naga tribes were only defending their own territory and were never under a rule by a single king, when India was gaining independence that’s when the concept of Nagalim or greater Nagaland was born and groups like NSCN-K under communist influence started demanding a free nation. 

Nagaland, the state was formed in 1963, till that time it was part of Assam. However the groups wanted a free nation and include area of bordering states, Manipur & Arunachal which still has some naga presence. 

Meitei majority Manipur doesn’t like Naga’s much but is defenseless in front of their violent ways. 

After the surgical attacks most of the insurgent groups are reduced to null, their main leaders have fled to Europe but they still assert their presence from across the border and are now involved in drug and human trafficking, somehow they still have some hold on the daily lives of people.

Lesson 4 : Tharon is a peaceful place , home stays are available , must visit for nature lovers.

Tharon Caves

Map of the caves

U Morock

Obituary stone

Do visit Loktak

Loktak symbolizes Manipur and you cannot escape it, Loktak is the largest sweet water lake in the Indian subcontinent but what makes it special is its floating ecosystem, It has worlds only floating national park and home to Swamp deer or Sangai ( Manipur’s state animal ).

What forms this floating ecosystem is a floating biomass, locally called “Phumdi” , if you search loktak you will find thousands of images with circular shaped grass rings floating in the lake , these circular shapes are man made , the local fisherman bring the floating biomass in a circular shape and its used for fish farming. As many as 1000 people live on these floating islands.

Thanks to our friend Nitin and Kaustubh we had managed to find a floating home-stay run by Ashok (sangai moonlight camping). Ashok had asked us to wait at a boating shade so that we can be picked up in small boats. Two ladies arrived after a while, like everywhere else in Manipur, women do most of the works be it running a market, farming or anything else. Ashok told us that Manipur was the first state to have women taxi drivers.

Ashok’s Aquamarine floating home-stay is right in the middle of the lake and takes around 10-15 minutes by boat to reach there, initially we were worried about the overall hygiene and protection from cold but the home-stay is warm and cozy with clean toilet built on top of a phumdi.

We also had the company of two Austrian’s Jakub , Tanja and a German Christopher who were cycling from Nepal – India – Myanmar – Thailand , when we mentioned that we did visit Senapati we all broke into huge laughter , “not even in my worst dream again” Christopher concluded.

It takes a while to get used to floating nature of the phumdi and its like staying on a water bed, the food served on the home-stay was amazing, best we had tested so far and around the bonfire we had a chance to talk on various subjects, hear from our foreigner’s friends about their experiences of cycling.

When you are in north east the conversation would invariably switch to how different the north eastern states and its people feel in India and the discrimination and negligence the government has done to the state, while it’s true that north east has been cut off from the mainland we ensured Christopher that we consider Ashok and others as much Indian’s as we are. 

Christopher turned to Ashok “So what are you Indian or not?”, “Indian for sure but we feel that we are treated differently when we travel to other states “, as the conversation drifted ashok told us that Bollywood movies and songs are banned in Manipur and also the national anthem, this was a surprise to us, “but you said you are Indian right? How can you allow your own national anthem banned?” Christopher was quick to point it out. Ashok was smart to change the subject.

Historically trade has existed along the length of India from Kashmir to Kanyakumari , that’s how the cultures of the states across the length are introduced to each other earlier whereas North eastern states due to its mighty rivers like Brahmaputra have been difficult to reach and could be the reason have remained secluded from the mainland , their culture while as rich as the one in mainland is largely unknown even today. Surprisingly though king of Manipur had good connects with South India , you will see Tamils settled near Moreh.

While in Loktak do visit INA museum in Moirang , Moirang is the first indian village with INA ( Indian National Army of Subbhashchandra Bose) set their base and announced free government. Museum has old photos and personal items used by both British and Japanese soldiers during war.

Lesson 5 : Loktak is must visit but do stay on the floating island to experience it from closest

Floating Homestay

FLoating Village and phumdi

Misty mornings on the floating homestay

Checking the fishing nets 

Transport has arrived

Ashok weighing fresh catch

Do Visit Moreh and Myanmar

Myanmar shares an open border with India, Moreh is a small boarder town from where you can get a one day pass to Myanmar, its markets have goods imported from china and rest of south east asia , electronics are available at cheap price , people from all the neighboring states flock to moreh for shopping.

We were astonished to see the impact of Myanmar goods on Manipur, no matter where we went, villages as remote as tharon had people wearing branded (replicas) clothes, shiny shoes and latest fashion so much so that we felt as if we are backwards.

Another major export apart from the cheap good from Myanmar is harmful drugs, Myanmar as we were told is world’s largest manufacturer of the drugs, Indian army has multiple check posts to stop entry of these harmful drugs in mainland.

We were surprised to see how less secure the border is, by just showing our ID card we were let in without frisking and questions, we came out as easily as we went in.

You can visit the nearest village on Myanmar side Tamu, visit its temples, enjoy Burmese food and come back at the end of the day.

Lesson 6 : if you are a shopping freak do visit moreh else you can skip it

Tamu Market in Myanmar

Tamu Village

This marked the end of the Manipur visit , it was a mixed bag while we loved loktak and tharon we were pretty disappointed with Imphal and Senapati , may be it would be worth to visit it again in monsoon season when its lush green and rivers are on rise or visit Ukhrul during June-July for the annual shiroi lily festival