Weekend breaks: Jampui Hills & Unakoti

Where we heading to?

Jampui Hills is hillstation located on Tripura-Mizoram border in East Tripura. Its about 200km from Agartala city and famous for its Orange hills during Orange festival which is in month of November. It is quiet place to relax and enjoy the scenic beauty.
Unakoti is located in Unakoti Hill range about 100km from Agartala city. It is famous for stone carvings of deities. It also features a small waterfall.

What to expect?

It is an offbeat hill station which is completely different than the ones we see in developed parts of India, so if you expecting luxurious stay, good quality food, tourist points, etc. then this place is definitely not for you. But if you are nature lover, love to explore and appreciate natural beauty do visit the place, you will love it.
Jampui Hills- Sunset point at Vanghmun Eco Park Tower, Sunrise from terrace of Eden Tourist Lodge, Waterpoint enroute Jampui Hills, Bettlingchip Peak(Highest peak of Tripura and Mizoram) and lot of unexplored territory and nature trails
Unakoti- Shiva stone carving, Ganesh stone carving, waterfall, stone sculpture museum, photo exhibition, nature trails
Betlingchip Peak- Observatory tower with 180 view, nature trail down the peak, bamboo huts

Best time to visit:

You can visit the place at any time though I wont recommend summer months (March to June) as you wont be able to enjoy waterfall. Also best time is during Orange festival which is in November month for Jampui Hills

Itinerary

Day 1:
Since we travelled from NIT Agartala, we took auto and reached Jirania Railway station by 6:40am. We boarded train at 6:55am. (For people traveling from Agartala city, they have to reach Agartala Railway station by 6:20am. We had booked train tickets which cost Rs.40 one way for Second Seating (2S) class. Train No. 55679 AGTL DMR Passenger which leaves Agartala Railway station at  around 6:30am)
Train reaches Kumarghat Railway station by 9:00am. As we were 6 people, we hired Maruti Suzuki Eco which would take us to Jampui Hills, Unakoti and back to Kumarghat on next day. We then started our journey towards to Jampui Hills which is about 76km from Kumarghat. It takes around 2hrs 45min to reach Jampui however we stopped at ‘Waterpoint’ a small waterfall enroute Jampui. 

Waterpoint

Enroute to Eden Lodge

We reached ‘Eden Tourist Lodge’,government owned lodge which is only decent stay option available, (there is one more option ‘Hrangchal Guest House’ but it aint that good as my friend suggested). We had reached by 1pm, had our lunch and took rest as we were tired. 

View from New Eden Lodge

Main Entrance of Eden Lodge

Old Eden Lodge

Vanghmun Eco Park is located just 100m away from lodge which has ‘Observation Tower’ giving 360 looks of Jampui Hills. We enjoyed Sunset from tower and explored the Jampui village which is about 400m from lodge.

Watch Tower

Sunset from Watch Tower

View of Eden Lodge

As it gets dark early, we headed back to our lodge. On the way back we stopped by Jampui Village to grab few snacks.

Our hotel manager had advised us not to be outside lodge premises as it’s not safe after dark due to presence of local militants. (Just a week before there had been 2 murders in Kanchapur due to NRC and CAA issues)
We had dinner and enjoyed bonfire (We made it ourselves) and concluded our day


Day 2:
We woke up early at 4:30am and planned to leave for Bettlingchip peak by 5am. However, our driver advised us to wait and watch sunrise which happened at about 5:45am.

By 6am we left for peak which is around 26kms from lodge and takes about an hour to reach. One can reach the peak directly by vehicle till top however if you want, you can walk till peak enjoying the hike. It also has ‘Observation Tower’ though it only offers 180 view since trees cover half the view. It has few open huts and there is one ‘Bible Box’ if someone wishes to read. We explored the place a bit however I couldn’t follow nature trail leading down the hill (All thanks to my uninterested friends).

Bettlingchip peak

Watch Tower

Hut ruins

We rode down the peak and had tea at base village of Phuldungsei. It was really cheap, just 5Rs for big glass and the lady welcomed us with great hospitality.

We reached back to lodge by 9am and checked out. We left for Unakoti and stopped at Kanchanpur to have snacks. It takes about 3.5hrs to reach Unakoti which is 92km from lodge.
We reached Unakoti around 12:00pm and explored the area. It’s a beautiful place with lot of stone sculptures to see. You start from Main gate and walk about 50m and find yourself staring at remarkable sight in valley below. You climb down stairs and see Shiva sculpture which is main attraction.

Main Sculpture

From there when you climb up, you will see small museum with 10-12 stone sculptures. There is also very old tree with deity.

Small Museum

Towards small museum

Old tree

As you again climb down from rightside further down below Shiva sculpture, you will see Ganesh stone sculpture. It’s a great spot to click photos. 

Ganesh Sculpture

Once you are done with Ganesh sculpture, there is small trail which leads to 4 faced sculpture and continues inside forest (Again I couldn’t explore it). You can hike through forest to reach main gate or just continue back from paved road.

Hike route 

4-faced sculpture

Photo exhibition is located above main gate, you have to climb stairs just infront of main gate. It takes around 1.5hrs to visit everything and we headed back to Kumarghat about 28km away.
We reached Kumarghat at around 2pm which was 2.5hrs earlier than what we had planned. We had confirmed tickets in Train No. 55680 DMR-AGTL Passenger which leaves at 4:36pm. Since we tired and ticket was just 40Rs, we decided to book ‘Unreserved tickets’ in Train No. 55664 SCL-AGTL Passenger which took us back to Jirania. Train leaves at 2:18pm and reached Jirania Railway station by 4:20pm. We then again took auto back to our college and returned with happy memories. If you want to spend more time exploring Unakoti or Jampui, you can should opt for train which we had booked.

Some important guidelines:

1) I advise you to travel in group as it’s not safe to travel alone or as couple in Jampui Hills, the area isn’t that safe and its definitely not safe for solo female travellers. Also make sure you don’t stay outside lodge premises after dark.
2) If you are planning to rent bike or car for self-drive, make sure you are really good driver as the roads are in bad shape, narrow and hard to drive.
3) If you are Vegetarian, compulsorily carry Cup Noodles, Snacks and Kettle so you can have your own food. The food in Lodge is extremely costly and is tasteless. Also, Non-veg options too are costly considering quality and quantity so better carry own food.
4) Everything is chargeable at Lodge, we asked for paper plates and they told us 200Rs, however they agreed for 10Rs each, still costly but anyway we agreed so carry own paper plates and cutlery. For bonfire, they sold us wood at 10Rs each
5) Lodge charges Rs. 100 for driver’s accommodation and keeps on asking tips, silly charges however don’t pay them.
6) You don’t get anything in village as well except few chips, you don’t even get maggi noodles.
7) If want to have good time, you have to bring all alcohol from Kumarghat itself since no alcohol is available unless you wish to go for Desi. As most tourists are students and younger people, you can also party in Parking area.
8) Carry umbrellas to protect yourself from sunlight while visiting Unakoti as it gets really hot
9) Lodge managers and workers are really unenthusiastic and won’t tell you about any things and usually discourage you from exploring around (Don’t know the reason) So better explore yourself.
10) You get 4G connectivity for Airtel, Jio only at particular spots. No range for Vodafone. Connectivity is bad in area so pre-download maps if you want to self-drive to place.
11) Book your stay well in advance as rooms in New building are best else if you get the ones in Old buildings, your stay might not be pleasent.

Costs:

Auto cost (NITA Students)- Rs.150 per ride for morning train, you can adjust as many people as you want, Rs. 20 per person during return journey
Train tickets- Rs. 40 for reserved, Rs. 25 for unreserved class
Car rental- Rs. 4800 for Jampui, Rs. 900 for Unakoti and Rs. 300 was what we paid for drivers’ accommodation and food
Lodge- Rs. 800 for 4-person room, Rs. 900 for 3-person room, for more information visit Tripura Tourism website
Food at lodge- (Not recommended at all) Rs. 170 for Chicken Meal, Rs, 120 for Egg meal, Rs. 80 for Veg meal (Rice only), Rs. 120 for Veg meal (Roti), Rs. 40 for Omlet and Rs. 120 for Pakora
Tourist Charges- There is ticketing counter at Unakoti but we weren’t asked to buy tickets. They may start charging later
Car Rental from Agartala- It will cost around 10000Rs for SUV, they charge about 1400Rs per day as vehicle rental and Rs.13 per km. Its better if you go for train and then rent car option if you want budget tour.

Contacts:

Autorickshaw (NITA Students)- 9612804906
Eden Tourist Lodge- For booking- https://tsu.trp.nic.in/tourism/or (0381) 231-7878/232-3893/232-5930. Helpline- 0381-2300332. Carry valid ID card
Vehicle Rental (Kumarghat)-0 8413984280
Vehicle Rental (Agartala)-
Option 1- 9774913917
Option 2- 08974893345
Option 3- 08787632757
Option 4- 09436463808
Bike Rental (Agartala)-08794816233