Discovering Digboi’s 3 Must-Dos by Mandvi – Part 3

A Course Par Excellence

After overeating a dinner which starts with crisp finger sized fish had whole and ends with melt-in-the-mouth caramel custard (The caretaker nodded his head in approval at the choice of pudding. The not-so-secret Anglophile society rules Digboi!).

We need an early morning walk. The sun is blazing down even though it is just 7:30 in the morning. (My clock is set at Mirzapur Standard time! Cannot wake up at 5:30).

We stroll down from our guest room at the Patkai Manor crossing similar gorgeous colonial bungalows to the rolling 18-hole green golf course sandwiched between the forested slopes and the rail terminal.

A three-dimensional emblem of the Assam Oil Co is doing a mock charge at some lovely lilies in a pond near the entrance. After a cart ride through the undulating fairways where flocks of egrets reluctantly take flight to make way (makes me feel like I’m in a Jurassic Park movie)!

We have tea in the huge veranda of the Golf Hut. The clouds over the blue Patkai Mountains in front are dissipating in the heat.

A traditional elephant corridor to the mountains has literally hit the wall of the rail terminal in front. For the elephants they are mountains too far.

A tree trunk nearby is stained bright orange with lichens thriving in the mugginess of this place. I’m already wilting….

To be continued……….