Wild Grass and Villages in Kaziranga

This is a photo-essay that seeks to capture the beautiful sights around Kaziranga from a recent trip made in October 2014. The Kaziranga National Park opens on 1 November every year. So it was a trip minus the National Park; but not less delightful in any way.

We arrive at the charming Wild Grass Resort at Kaziranga after a 5-6 hour drive from Guwahati. Manju Barua, the proprietor of Wild Grass, considerably shaped tourism in Assam by introducing the concept of eco-tourism with this property in 1989. Manju Barua, along with his son Maan Barua, frontman Kamini Barua and an efficient staff, has been successfully maintaining standards at this resort for the past 25 years now.  

At Wild Grass, nature is neither groomed nor preened.  

One can just sit and stare away at Wild Grass. Even that is so relaxing!

Wild Grass: Where the hand-crafted antique-feel furniture and decor blend with the vibrant nature around.  

That little red house on the steps is where pickles are stored. 

The dining area at Wild Grass.

Loved this quaint desk at the dining section.

Palash Bora, 36 year old ornithologist employed with Wild Grass, took us on a bird-watching tour around the Wild Grass campus, the nearby Bocha village and the Hathikuli tea estate. He told us that Wild Grass has about 85 species of migratory and non-migratory birds. We spotted several varieties of exotic birds that day.  

The homely guest accommodation at Wild Grass.

The inviting room!

At a corner of the Wild Grass campus.

We then made our way to the nearby Bocha village to spot more birds.

A house at Bocha village where orchids were in bloom.

A pretty house at Bocha village.

Bamboo bridges in Assam's villages. At Bocha Gaon.

When we reached Hathikuli tea estate, early in the morning, we were greeted by the sight of men and women with baskets behind them, on their way to pluck tea leaves.  

Later in the morning, we rode an open jeep to the nearby villages.

A house at the Doinang Sildubi Borbil Mishing village.

Pretty Mishing mother-daughter duo in the village.

A woman holds her child and prepares the warp for the handloom.

A Mishing woman working on the handloom she prepared herself with bamboo sticks under a Saang Ghar (an elevated house).  

Pretty Mishing girls in the village.

Village boys. They asked us for ten rupees to buy chips from the store at the mouth of their village. Am sure their mothers would have given them a good spanking had they heard them :D

An egret (bogoli) perched on a cow. And I taught my two and half year old daughter to sing "bogoli boga phut di ja" - the song i grew up singing every time we spotted egrets in the fields.