The road from Imphal to Moreh — now designated NH102 — follows a route that was critical during the Second World War. It was along this road that Allied forces pushed to supply the Burma Campaign, and the surrounding hills were contested territory during the 1944 Battle of Imphal. Driving it today, through forest and high passes, past tribal villages and army checkpoints, you are covering the same ground over which some of the war's most decisive fighting took place.
The 100 km journey from Imphal to Moreh is slow — expect three to four hours — but that is part of the experience. The road climbs steeply out of the valley, passes through Tengnoupal at its highest point, then descends through forests to the flat border plain. Along the way you pass through a string of Kuki-Zo villages, each with its church and its hillside fields. Moreh, at the end, is a scrappy border town with a busy market where Indian and Burmese goods trade freely.