Aizawl – Beautiful city perched on hills

I planned my week in such a way that I get to spend at least a day in Aizawl – to explore the City, Culture, Food, road manners and the Landscapes. I was able to squeeze in half a day on Day 1 and another half on Day 6-7.
Landed in Lengpui Airport at 1115am, finished off the ILP formalities, picked up the Check-in luggage and then I was off to Aizawl City in a M800 taxi, along with a new Mizo friend whom I met an hour ago at Kolkata Airport before the flight took off.

Small and scenic – Lengpui Airport

Most of the guests on the flight were locals

The first view of Aizawl, as we crossed Vaivakawn. Had interesting conversations with the new friend I made, learnt some things about Mizo culture, about Bamboo abundance and how they’re planning to push Bamboo & Tourism industry forward. When I spoke about my week’s plan in Mizoram, the instant reaction seemed like – what’s here that you’re travelling up and down for a week.

Coming from a City full of Traffic Jams, this seemed familiar, yet so different. People have patience, they do not honk. No biker rides across the space between your legs. No vehicle goes on the wrong lane and then cuts the queue to join the traffic ahead. Yes, there are taxis but no “Cabbie” driving mentality(like the one I’ve seen in my city). People here ride on the roads & not footpaths, unlike my city. People here walk on footpaths and not the road. No jaywalkers, motorists here respect people crossing the roads (unlike my city where the attitude is “you wait, I will go first”).
Hardly any traffic signals, most of the junctions are controlled by cops, the rest are self controlled. (I can only imagine what is the state of an uncontrolled junction back here – where every damn vehicle wants to be the first one to cross it – and if you wait for a minute to let someone else cross, you will be honked at and abused with the nicest possible words)
How I wish, my city had even 10% traffic sense as Aizawl…

I checked into an hotel in Chanmari area which we’d booked a month back. After an hour or so, I stepped out for Lunch and then on a City tour by foot. My food list had two restaurants – Red Peppers & Chopstyx. I decided to head to Chopstyx restaurant for Lunch and then for Dinner to Red Peppers when the team driving down arrives.

I walked across bazzars of Lower Chamari towards Chopstyx Restaurant. Lots of second hand shops.

I actually overshot the place by 200m and had to come back searching for the entrance. It is located above a hardware shop through small stairs on the side, but once you enter the restaurant, it’s a different world. The interiors are done well, the ambience is excellent. The view from the balcony side seating is blissful. The food was limited on the menu but was great. Seems like a hot spot among the youngsters here. 

Christmas decorations had already begun in November end. Needless to say, the best time to be in Aizawl is during Christmas. 

After Lunch, I walked through Lower Zarkawt and across the crowded Bara Bazzar.

From showrooms to shops to street hawkers to mobile shops on Cars, you will find everything in Bara Bazzar area.

Walking across the town was pretty good. Many places in the bazaar area, there’s footpath only on one side, so make sure you don’t end up on the wrong side. Also, there are sky-walks in so many junctions (When will my city learn?)

From Zodin Square Skywalk, I watched a football game played in Lammual – one of the oldest ground of Aizawl, for about fifteen minutes. Football is the most played game in North East, as we know. 

You will notice lot of one ways in Aizawl. This is one such at Zodin Square.
Buses – I did see a lot of “City” Buses, but unsure about the frequency. 

In search of a landscape view, I kept walking – till south of Venghlui, after which I turned back towards MG Road to return to Chanmari on a different route.

Lots of places had stairs to climb up to the next road instead of going all around the hair pin bend. Some of them were steep and had atleast 200 steps.

It was about 4pm, sun had started setting. I had walked from Venghlui to Vaivakawn on my return route, was already exhausted and was searching for the shortest route to reach back Chanmari. Unfortunately, there is a hill across and I had to go South to Dawaripui and come up again or go up via Chanmari West on narrow and steep streets. 

All those who follow Google Maps in this part of the country, do remember, most of the roads are not on maps or there are two close roads like the below one and you wouldn’t know which is the correct one to go on. 

After a fabulous sunset at Chanmari, I walked back to the Hotel, while the team was conquering some treacherous craters on the route from Silchar to Aizawl. 

Till they came, it was time for read some local happenings. 

A while after they reached, especially after sorting with the hotel on where to park the XUV, we went out for Dinner to Red Peppers. Just like Chopstyx, this one too didn’t look the same from outside, but the ambience inside the restaurant is pretty good, with traditional look, traditional songs and traditional food. Although I didn’t know what was what, the food was something different and tasted nice. Like I said in my previous post, this is a Rice-based state. 

After capturing the nightscape of Aizawl right from Red Peppers restaurant, we retired for the night pretty early, it was going to be long and exciting 5 days ahead.

When I came back to Aizawl after the drive, it was a different scenario. It was a SUNDAY! Every restaurant, shop, store.etc was closed for the whole day. On inquiring, I found out that this is the case every Sunday. The hotel I checked in to, refused to cook food on a Sunday afternoon. I was back again – exploring the streets – but this time in dire need of Food. Had I known about this before, I would have stocked up some snacks from the XUV’s huge snack store, when they dropped me and proceeded to Silchar. LESSON LEARNT

Another spectacular sight.

Millennium Centre is the place where you need to park your cars if you do not find a place to park in Zorkawt, Dawarpui, Chanmari area.

Even with the hunger, looking at how Aizawl traffic is maintained was a pleasure to watch. 

Finally, in a small building – I found a restaurant open – FOOD! I ordered the biggest combo in the menu and relished some Kimbap. I later found out that, they’re open on Sunday because they go to Church on Saturday.

I came back to the Hotel, walking through streets and then went to the terrace in the Hotel – hoping for a view of the City. Boy o Boy, I was lucky indeed!

Not just the Sunset, I witnessed the moon rise as well. 

The Hotel was kind enough to prepare Dinner on a Sunday. It was a lazy evening, with nothing much to do.

Overall, a wonderful start and end to the trip in Aizawl. I missed out on a few places in Aizawl like Solomon’s temple, Khatla, JF View Gallery – nevertheless, a reason to come back next time.

General observations about Aizawl :
1. Have already written enough about traffic and road mannerisms.
2. Lots and lots of scooters & bikes. Was surprised to see 100s of Aprilia SR150s within few hours – something which I haven’t seen in Bangalore in all these months.
3. Bikers wear helmet, some cases I saw the pillions wearing helmet too – not always the ISI ones – I saw a lot of DOT, ECE certified helmets too.
4. Narrow and steep roads everywhere, lots of taxis, there are bike taxis too.
5. Good presence of cop at junctions and people respecting the rules.
6. Friendly hospitality shown by Mizos – right from a taxi driver to hotel receptionist to a random person I met on the flight.
7. Most of the hotels in Zarkawt, Dawarpui, Chanmari area, are without parking facility(the Hotel guy will drive and valet park your car elsewhere). If you want a place to stay with parking, Tourist Lodge in Chaltlang area is one of the few options.
8. KFC, Baskin Robbins, Subway – yes, you will find them all in Aizawl – but not on Sundays! DO NOT expect any restaurant to be open on a Sunday.
9. You will cross a Church in almost every street.
10. Taxi charges – one way to/fro Airport is Rs.1000 (fixed) for the 30-40kms irrespective of whether you book through the hotel or prepaid counter. Budget a max of 1.5 hrs for the journey under normal conditions, and leave 3 hrs before your flight from Aizawl City.
11. Taxis are costly – in Aizawl as well as rest of Mizoram, a 2 km trip from Chaltlang to Zarkawt cost about Rs. 50. But taxi drivers are very friendly – if they know English/Hindi that is. If they know only Mizo, pray that your sign language is understood well.
12. Jio 4G works fabulously – much better than Airtel.
13. Best views of Aizawl landscape – Khatla for Sunrise, Pushpak area for Sunset. The hues are awesome everywhere. Although, there are many places in Chanmari, Zarkawt, Venghlui – you might be lucky to get a nice view – just like how I found the Hotel terrace.
14. Puri/Sabji or Bread/Omlette for breakfast. For Lunch and Dinner, you have quite some options. There was “Mizo” famous Momos stalls on the streets – although I wasn’t able to try it.
15. Bara Bazaar/Lower Dawarpui area is the place you need to go for shopping.