Nagaland: Kohima – The dog: pet or meal?

8. + 9. November 2025

 

 

In my last blog post, I felt like something was missing — and then I realized there were still some photos from Wokha! So here’s a little add-on. There were plenty of food stalls, but Nagaland’s cuisine is, unfortunately, quite heavy on meat. In these greens things there seemed to be something pickled, but it looked a bit too suspicious for me to try. Instead, I went for a dish from that big pot — it got dressed up with a few extra bits — and it turned out to be really tasty!

 

 

 

Someone asked me if I came from the land of James Bond. No, unfortunately not. But look — here’s our very own James Bond from Nagaland! Photo? Of course — but only if there’s a woman in it too! After all, James Bond without a woman just wouldn’t do.

 

 

By then it was already dark. People were having fun at the tin-throwing game (though the “tins” were actually paper cups), wading through the mud, and browsing the beautiful balloons for sale.

 

 

 

 

 

After that, it was time for me to rest. After all the excitement, running around, and keeping the car window open in the cold to stop the windshield from  fogging up, I ended up getting sick — a cold, sore throat, bronchitis, and a mild fever. Or maybe I’d caught a coronavirus earlier after all. In any case, I stayed in Kohima for two days and only went out for short walks. The days sometimes began with a coffee in bed and always with a nicely arranged breakfast.

 

 

Kohima lies at around 1,300 m altitude and does get a bit chilly in the evenings. My accommodation was located a little way down a hillside. The surroundings looked like this:

 

 

 

 

There aren’t that many sights in Kohima — the war cemetery is the one most often mentioned. I visited it. In 1944, Japanese forces fought against the British-Indian army in this region, trying to halt the Allied advance. They even planned an invasion of all of India, claiming they wanted to support India’s decolonization. To me, it’s all a bit too tangled with these overlapping battle narratives. In the end, countless people died, and the Japanese were defeated. If you want to dive into the details, you can find it all on Wikipedia.

 

In Kohima, there once stood the Deputy Commissioner’s bungalow with tennis court on a hill surrounded by terraced gardens. Fierce fighting took place right there — and today, over 1,400 British soldiers are buried on that very spot, with memorials honoring more than 900 Indian soldiers who were cremated. I visited the site:

 

 

 

 

Kohima stretches along a ridge, sloping down on both sides. There’s no real city center, but rather a kind of main street lined with shops and small stalls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are very few stray dogs in Nagaland. It’s said that they are either kept as house or herding dogs — or eaten.

 

 

 

 

In general, there were quite a few kinds of animal-based foods that I would really prefer never to try.

 

 

 

I thought it was time for a new experience again: leg hair removal with cold wax. Because with my three-quarter-length trousers, the hairs were peeking out too much. I had to wait a bit and was still looking quite cheerful.

 

 

And then the ladies got to work on my leg hair – and I very quickly realized that this was an experience I would never repeat! Woman, that hurts like hell! I had tears in my eyes. Never again!

 

 

The next day was Sunday – and, as I had feared, the first wave of Christian insistence came: I was urged several times to attend a church service. I politely declined three times, and three times they tried again to persuade me. Honestly, the Christians here are far too pushy for my taste.

 

 

I then took a walk through the lanes running down the slope near my accommodation. People there live almost rurally, just in a more crowded way. It was peaceful and made for a lovely walk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’d say those two sayings contradict each other:

 

 

Then I wandered around the main street again, also looking for something to eat, and snapped a few more pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Those were two restful days that did me good. By the way: still no news regarding the PAP — four days after applying, neither approval nor rejection….