The new Amazing Arunachal site

It may take a while for Arunachal Pradesh to become a tourism hot-spot or for tourism sector to become a sustainable revenue earner for the state. The reasons are many; some attributable to government’s lackadaisical attitude in promoting the true tourism potential of the state, lack of infrastructure, tedious and cumbersome entry formalities, misinformation about the region etc., to name a few. But then, there are some who are so enamored by the beauty of the state: the landscape, the people, their custom and culture, their cuisine etc., that they think Arunachal Pradesh could become a tourism hot-spot and are hell bent on showcasing the charm of Arunachal Pradesh to the outside world through whatever possible ways and means they can; notwithstanding the governments' attitude and the bottlenecks that prevents Arunachal Pradesh to become a tourism hot-spot. One such person is Arif Siddiqui, who mailed in to tell me that the Amazing Arunachal site has been re-done, which earlier, if I am not mistaken, was started to showcase the Pangsau Pass Winter Festival and which mainly concentrated around this particular festival. Having known Arif for a while (though not personally but through net), I couldn't help myself from visiting the Amazing Arunachal site which the site says is an endeavor by a group comprising Tom Simai, Arif Siddiqui and Kamlesh Mehta to expose the beauty of Arunachal Pradesh, which has so far been eluding the contemporary world, through words and through pictures. In their words:

It is a petite attempt to exhibit the beauty and reveal the enigma of Arunachal Pradesh to the contemporary world through camera lenses.

And true to their words, you are greeted with breathtaking photographs on the front page. Having accessed the site on a slow net connection, I only wished the page could load faster (even though the photographs are eye candy when fully loaded) or there was an option to skip the flash content and enter the site. But I could find none and I had to wait for ages to let the page load fully and to enter the main page.

The home page contains brief on Arunachal Pradesh, from where one can navigate to various other sections like pages on how to reach Arunachal Pradesh, entry formalities, brief on 16 districts of the state, culture and traditions etc. However, the most anticipated section i.e., the photo section is yet to be updated, which Arif says is in the stage of finalization.

Juxtaposing Arunachal Tourism official site and Amazing Arunachal, I found the contents more or less similar. However, I must admit that some sections had more information than the official tourism site of Government of Arunachal Pradesh and some sections needed more information to be added. And with the launch of this new site, I guess it has given those interested on Arunachal Pradesh an another option to look for information on Arunachal Pradesh.

Having almost similar contents, I'm looking forward to the photo section to be updated which would exhibit the beauty and reveal the enigma of Arunachal Pradesh to the contemporary world through camera lenses and which would make this site stand apart from the official site of Tourism Department of Government of Arunachal Pradesh.