Summer Vacation in NorthEast India - Part 7 (Guwahati)

We reached Guwahati on a Friday morning and straight headed towards Starline hotel for our accommodation as I booked before reaching the place. It was 4 bedded room so we all 7 members (4 adults and 3 children) stayed in the same room. The hotel do not have water geyser at the bathroom but they provide hot water in a bucket on demand, other than that I found the hotel room comfortable.

When we reached Guwahati I was told by a friend of mine that it was likely to rain but that day was sunny and we started out trip for city tour in the morning hours itself.

Our first stop is to go to Guwahati Zoo as the children were waiting for this day to come, we took a Maruti Alto (White board taxi) and reached the zoo entrance it was almost empty and with little bit of reading in the main entrance I understood that the zoo is closed on Fridays, I really had to disappoint the kids.

After convincing them that I will bring them back to the zoo in another day of the trip, we moved towards Umananda temple. Just before getting on the the river bed, under a tree avenue I found the colorful Kali of Kolkata

The Umananda temple is located in a island in Brahmaputra river, the river looked like a huge lake and if you closely notice the entire river water is so wild and running really fast.

The Assam State Water transport department runs boats from the city side to the island for pilgrims. However the boats are in a very bad shape and rust is seen everywhere in the boat, seats are also badly damaged and some places people have to sit on the poles that holds the plastic seats, I leave that issue with Umananda to deal with

The temple was located in a cool place and the steps to the temple were made by marble stone giving a classy look.

I found the design of temples in northeast is unique and had a touch to it, also every where I found that the sanctorum is below ground level compare to the south where we have our temple’s sanctorum always placed above all the ground level in the temple premises.

While coming down from the temple I noticed a heart sign engraving on the woods, I only remembered “Love is God”

After giving our prayers I took few pics and return on the boat to the city side, I should say that the chat walah in river bed of city side showcased most colorful edible item on the entire trip hence the picture below.

stay tuned, next on the series is Kamakya temple