Above, Colin attempts a traditional Naga dance with his new friends. TT is to the right of Colin. Below, TT salutes in his new Land Rover Certified hat.

Journal by Colin McAuliffe

Leaving Imphal with our escort, we began climbing the hills toward Nagaland, another completely untouristed area of India. As we crossed the border from Manipur to Nagaland, we picked up yet another military escort, who took us the final thirty or so miles to the city of Kohima, a rambling city sprawled across a huge valley, and the site of the spot where the English stopped the Japanese on their Indian advance. Nagaland is a fascinating area, inhabited, not by Indians, but by more than fifteen different tribal groups. Understandably, they want to break away from India, as they are definitely not Indians; they look more like Chinese people, and were one of the last groups of headhunters in the world. (They originally settled here from Mongolia.) I managed to pick up a sweet monkey skull headhunters necklace, which is probably the coolest thing I’ve purchased on this entire trip.

Our escort immediately took us to South Police Headquarters, where we were told by some very enthusiastic officers that we were “being detained.” At first we were a little confused, not really knowing what to do. All these interesting guys were asking us questions and waving guns around, but after about half an hour when they pulled Neil out of the car and taught him how to do a Naga tribal dance, we realized that they were great guys.

Over the next two days, we developed a great friendship with the officers of the South Police Headquarters, as they guided us around their area to a bunch of stuff we didn’t really want to see that much, but were forced to visit anyway, like the war cemetery, which actually turned out to be very moving. Most notable of the crew were Yap and Titi, the second and third in command. Titi was a hilarious guy, basically a clown, always dancing, singing, and goofing around. He spent basically the entire weekend with us and was an endless source of amusement for us all. Yap was also a great guy, although a little harder to read that Titi. Yap was one of those guys who when you first meet him, you think he wants to punch your lights out, but then after some time you realize he’s really a great guy. We spent two nights hanging out with the guys, with Yap and Todd alternating on Neil’s guitar, rocking out to Beatles’ songs. Leaving was sad, but as usual, it was a necessity, as Varanasi and Delhi called our name.

Help support our cause: The LONGITUDE Expedition is the longest journey ever attempted with a focus on Parkinson's Disease. The Drive Around the World team aims to raise money for Parkinson’s Disease research by driving four Certified, Pre-Owned Land Rover Discoverys around the globe following lines of longitude. Readers are encouraged to pledge small amounts of money per expedition-kilometer via a pledge form that can be found on our Parkinson’s page by clicking HERE. One hundred percent of donations received go directly to Parkinson's research, and all who donate $10 or more will be entered into a raffle to win an expedition-equipped Land Rover Discovery.