Entry 21: Field: Day 12: The long road home

21st June, Tuesday

Lawngtlau- Lunglei- Aizawl

We left Lawngtlai at 7:30 AM in a drizzly foggy morning! We were supposed to arrive an hour before lunch at Lunglei. But our car had a flat tyre and we ran out of spare tyres. We were still a good 10 kms away from the nearest service station. So my dad called up my cousin and we couldn't do anything but wait for relief.

The smile lasted for 30 minutes approx. It was all frowns for the rest of the wait!

I got bored after half an hour and roamed around for something to click!

When relief came after two hours, we were cold and hungry. So we were more than happy to go ahead to Lunglei to have lunch while waiting for our tyre to be fixed. At Lunglei, I met my newborn niece for the first time. I thought I was hungry but I was more engrossed with the tiny little human rather than the lunch. I made a few phone calls to a few friends apologizing. I had promised some friends a meet-up but then I couldn't make it due to the unavoidable delay. A couple of them were surely not happy with me. Who can blame them? I wasn't happy with me and my schedules either.

The little human. The teacup human! :D

We left Lunglei at around 2:00 PM. We expected to have dinner at Aizawl. Lunglei was only five hours from Aizawl. Or so we thought. 

I fell asleep in the car. I woke up just in time to see a snake crossed the road just as we entered Mausen village!! I screamed as we ran over the snake. We didn't want to but the snake 'threw' itself right before our wheels. My dad then talked about the bad things that are bound to follow when you ran over a snake while on a long run. "Flat tyre" he specified. I laughed. We already had a flat tyre in the morning and our tyres were all checked and the flat one replaced with a brand new tyre.  There's no way that we should have a flat tyre.

Not so.

We were 10 kms from Aibawk when we got another puncture. But I find it strange that the new tyre we just replaced was the one with the puncture. Luckily we had a spare tyre and we changed it and headed on.

The second puncture in a day! I blame it on the snake!

The culprit! We dug this out at a service station in Aibawk.

 It was getting dark and raining when we reached Aibawk. We drove slowly looking for a service station. We found one which was run by a woman. Oh yeah! You should see this woman fixing the tyre. Sometimes she'd hit the tyre, sometimes sit on the crowbar when she realized it won't budge with her arms. She fixed and change the tyre all on her own. All we did was sit and watch.  And I had never admired a woman so much when it comes to mechanics. If I ever drive by Aibawk, I should remember to go say 'hi' to that woman. I'm such a big fan!!

The wonder-woman with tyres.

Driving away from Aibawk, we thought we're done with the road problems. But then again, there was a landslide at Muallungthu, a few hours away from Aizawl. Unbelievable isn't it?? And we were stuck there for a couple more hours while we wait for the roads to get cleared. By that time, I was so frustrated, tired and sore that I just wanted to cry.

When we reached home, it was well pass 10:00 PM.  It takes 9 hours approx. to reached Aizawl from Lawngtlai. But we took well over 14 hours. The long road home indeed!!

Sometimes I wish I could go back to Mausen and run over that snake again and again and again.

It's just a wish though!

And the dutiful girlfriend always makes it a point to tell her exact location while on the road! :D