Day 1 – The Road to Champhai
This was the first of the five day drive in Mizoram. Our first destination to tick off was the drive into Myanmar to Rih Dil. We planned to stay in Champhai (a town about 30kms from Rih Dil) Except for Aizawl, there are no hotels in Mizoram, only Tourist Lodges in almost every town – most of which are located in pretty locations.
Champhai was around 190kms, the idea was to visit Rih Dil by early evening (3pm in these areas) and get back to the Tourist Lodge in Champhai by sunset. We were able to reach Champhai only by 630pm (10 hrs for 190kms) – because of the road conditions as well as the delay caused by lazy staffs in Hotel David Clover, Aizawl. And hence, the visit to Rih Dil had to be pushed to the next day.
We had asked the hotel to have the breakfast and Car (valet parking) ready so that we would be able to leave by 730-8am (late start because of 4 long days of drive from Chennai). We were able to start at 8:35am – peak hour traffic was on, but we managed to cross the town and hit Bawngkawn in 12 minutes. The “World Bank” Road to Zemabawk was in rough shape and dusty – well, this was just the Beginning!
At Pushpak, we stopped to capture the landscape of this City perched across the hills. A local suggested us “head to Khatla, you will get better views” (that was noted for the return).
We turned off from the World Bank Road at Zemabawk at 9:08am and the road started to deteriorate. It was a mixed bag – decent road, potholed road, rough road, no road, slush road. The 16kms to Tuirial Bridge took 46 minutes.
The road improved somewhat after that, and we reached Thauma IOC Filling Station at Phaibawk (5kms before Seling) in 23 mins (10 kms) from Tuirial Bridge. 
There were many roadside shops selling Rice Beer
Yup, some stretches had really good road surface as well. This was between Phaibawk and Seling.
We crossed Seling at 10:37am (2hrs for 39kms) where we turned off the Serchhip/Lunglei “NH” and headed towards Keifang.
Road condition remained the same though. 
Just 3kms from Seling, we crossed a Quarry area which had a slushy stretch. The bags you see in this picture are the rocks from the quarry. 
The slushy stretch.
Some more good stretches. 
12kms from Seling – we crossed a River Bridge – after which the road had new tarmac. 
4kms after the bridge – we were stopped for 40 minutes – road tarring was going on (in the manual way). There were about 4-5 vehicles waiting ahead of us. 
After losing some valuable time, we moved quickly towards Keifang – road was all good. We stopped in 2 places where the landscape view was wonderful. 
“Cross” at the second view point. 
The views were like this almost all the way – but only at a few places did we get a clear spot. 
This is the view of Keifang town once you cross it towards Kawlkulh.
We crossed Keifang at 12:40pm. That was 72kms in 4:05hrs (of which 40 mins lost due to road work). So that was about 20kmph average (this was the standard average in the most parts of Mizoram). Immediately after we turned right at Keifang Bazzar towards Kawlkulh, the road surface drastically changed. 
There were some under construction stretches. 
The road was still okay in some stretches. 
We crossed a bridge & entered Champhai District (1 hr for 21kms from Keifang). What we saw so far, was just a trailer! 
This is how we were welcomed into Champhai District. 
It was lunch time, we had snacks, fruits and juices in car – on the move. 
There were some stretches – where the road surprised us with tarmac. 
About 35kms & 1:45hrs from Keifang, we reached Dulte. We made a quick 5 mins stop to buy more fruits.After we crossed into Champhai district, the average had come down to 15kmph.
Although, the views continued to mesmerize…
…and we made sure we stopped whenever there was an opportunity
About 10kms and half an hour from Dulte – at the stroke of 3pm, we crossed Kawlkulh – the approach to the town was narrow and dusty, again, the views were wonderful. After 20kms from Kawlkulh, we crossed Tuichang River Bridge. The road got a bit treacherous after this – the next 10kms to Khawzawl was narrow, rocky, no tarmac, dusty. etc
Dusty last mile stretch into Khawzawl.
It was 4:05pm when we reached Khawzawl (the last big town before Champhai) and it was time for Sunset. We captured the sunset hues from a balcony. We also stopped for Tea (got them after communicating in sign language) in a restaurant/tea shop. 
We resumed the drive at 4:37pm after the break (it was 8 hrs so far since we started from Aizawl and 150kms – the drive time, averaging <20kmph). We were just 30kms away from our destination, but it was already dark.
The road was mostly okay throughout barring few patches – although it was pretty narrow, which caused a 15mins jam because two trucks couldn’t cross each other at one place. 
Truck traffic was pretty high compared to the journey so far – especially from the opposite direction, maybe after picking/dropping load from the Myanmar Border. In between, we realized that XUV’s engine guard had come off and was hanging on one side and scrapping the road. We had crossed Tuipui at 5:21pm – there were a couple of bad stretches around the Tuipui Bridge.
We entered Champhai at 6:20pm and stopped at the first garage to fix the engine guard with thin metal wires. After the 25 mins pit stop, we traversed through Champhai Village and reached the Tourist Lodge at 06:58pm. The village – as expected, was fast asleep.
Tourist Lodge, Champhai – 03831-23866
The cottage room – with a balcony view of the valley towards Zotlang. Was WOW, especially for the price.
The night was pretty cold – around 5 degrees. Dinner was a standard fare of Rice, Dal, Veg & Chicken gravy. After gazing at the stars, we called it a night early, so that we would be able to start around 5:00am to Myanmar.
TIP : Remember to book the Tourist Lodge < 3 weeks, call them on the day you are reaching. Call by lunch time and place the order for dinner if you are reaching post 6pm.
Timing Stats :
8:35am – Chanmari, Aizawl (0.0km)
8:47am – Bawngkawn (3km)
8:55am – 8:59am – Pushpak, Photobreak (4.4km)
9:08am – Zembawk (7.3km)
9:54am – Tuirial Bridge (23.5km)
10:17am – 10:28am – Refuel, IOC, Phaibawk (33.9km)
10:37am – Seling (29.1km)
11:07am – 11:47am – Road Tarring (55km)
12:40pm – Keifang (72.5 km) (two view point breaks in between ~10mins)
01:39pm – Champhai District Bridge (93.8km)
02:22pm – 02:28pm – Dulte (107km)
02:49pm – Kawlkulh (117.8km)
03:24pm – Bridge (treacherous road after this) (137.3km)
04:06pm – 04:37pm – Tea+Photo stop, Khawzawl (148.3/151.6km)
05:21pm – Tuipui Bridge (168.2km)
06:24pm – 06:49pm – Workshop, Champhai (187.3km)
06:58pm – Tourist Lodge, Champhai (190.4km)
