After hustling through long queues—waiting for a taxi—we finally reached our destination. I felt a sense of calm as I laid eyes on our resort. Up until now, we hadn’t been very lucky with our hotels, but this one was worthy of a mention. We had been welcomed to Awoo Resort with a surprise. There were welcome drinks for us at the reception and we were introduced to an azure blue cottage, overlooking the hills.
Unlike Bomdila and Tawang, Dirang was warm. The pleasant weather, the sight of a meandering river from the cliff, and a swig of homemade rice wine made this quaint little town one of my favourite places to visit. We decided to go to the hot springs and the yak breeding centre—one of the major attractions of the city. While we didn’t get the chance to enter the hot springs and cleanse ourselves of any underlying diseases as proclaimed by the hotel staff (it was filled with locals), a visit to the yak breeding centre was quite an experience.
We noticed that Dirang thrived on farming the long-haired bovids. From yak fleece to yak cheese, the humble animal had made its mark on every aspect of life in the town. In fact, you would often find a stray yak climbing up a jagged, hilly terrain in the distance, and surviving the climb, too.