Seat of Our Pants

Today, we yet again failed to secure a permit for Arunachal Pradesh (they’d moved the office to another part of town). We did, however, have a lengthy conversation with the Commissioner at the Manipur office. I’m posting this here for the benefit of travelers interested in visiting Manipur, because there is so much misinformation out there about what is possible and what is not (the Rough Guide appears to be completely off the mark, for example).

In 2009, the Guwahati office (yep, this is the main one) issued exactly one permit. To a nun. A Hare Krishna nun. The problem, said the commissioner, is not so much the fact that people are not given permits, it is the fact that few travelers have 14-30 days to hang around in Guwahati waiting for a permit. Worthy applicants, like a British lady wanting to visit her Uncle’s World War II grave in Imphal, wasn’t denied; but since she couldn’t wait for the permit to be issued she never finalized the application procedure.

IF you should be so happy as to receive a permit, the only parts of Manipur you would be allowed to visit are the valley leading in to Imphal and the Loktak Lake – something like 40 kilometers of road with surroundings. The Commissioner suggested that two days would be enough time to spend in Manipur.

Also: the crossing to Myanmar is CLOSED. It is open to Indian and Burmese nationals from morning till 2 PM, after which they have to return back to their country (apparently there is some sort of border market going on there).

If you came to this page looking for information, I hope this helps. If you’re one of our regular readers, I’m sure your eyes must be glazed over with boredom by now.

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