Our Trip to Meghalaya - the Home of clouds - Part 1

Mee, Sanjiv and my wife Neelam had the tour of Assam and Meghalaya during last week of May, 2018. It was beginning of rainy season and the showers were sporadic and did not disturb our schedule. Here is our trip report and photographs.

We landed at Guwahati airport at 1.20 in the afternoon and greeted by smiling Mr. Bikramjeetsing, who was in Indian Air Force earlier and now runs a business of hiring tourist vehicles. We had prearranged over telephone as his name was recommended to us by our friend Rahuljee from Guwahati.  He was really good. His regular driver was absent for some reason, so to fulfil the committment made to us, he came himself as driver with us. We were very lucky. 

 If anyone wants his number here it is Mr. Bikramjeetsingh Mobile 8471905751, 9101766490 add country code 91 if calling from outside India.

 I am not making any advertisement for him but in my Kutch trip blog written three years before, I had written that our cab service was very good.  I had just mentioned the name and not the telephone number so I received dozens of requests to share the number, hence I am stating it now. The idea is that whoever wants to go, should get a reliable person at an unknown destination. 

We reached Shillong in 4 and half hours from Guwahati Airport. We were greeted by showers on the way and we had also halted for a cup of tea and snacks. On the way you can see Bara paani, a big lake created after building a dam on the river. It is very big but  the road alongside it is narrow and very busy and there is no proper place to park the vehicle. At one place Bikramjeet found a space to park and we got down to see it. It was a sunset time but there were clouds, so we could not see proper sunset as such. Here are the photos of Bara paani. 

 After that we reached in our Hotel Tranquil Cottage which was little away from the main bazar so it was away from good restaurants. The hotel does not have its own restaurant and the bell boy got us a parcel and the same was not tasty.

On Day 2 - we headed for some unknown place from the tourists point of view, called Wahrashi falls. Our Bikramjeetsingh also had not seen the place before. He finds out the route on his google map and we started. It is a 3 and half hours journey on a very rough road. Some part of the road was under repairs and some stretches were without tar surface. No wonder the spot is good but did not receive the tourists' attention.  This spot was recommended by my friend Rahuljee from Guwahati who had also recommended me cab services of Bikramjeetsing.

On the way we saw wonderful landscapes with lush green colours all over, tiny pictureque villages passing by. The actual fall is about 400 meters away from the parking place and there are steps built to go down right at the bottom of the falls. When we reached there was no one in the vicinity. Just a couple of stray dogs kept us company. It started raining and by the time we reached the viewing gallery, the whole scene was full of mist and clouds making it impossible for us to see the fall with its full grandeur. But whatever we could see, we realised that we are looking at a wide place from where several falls were there parallel to each other. We could count 6 but there must be many more. It must be a grand view when not covered by clouds and mists. 

When we came back to our car with heavy heart as we could not see the full grandeur due to mist and clouds, suddenly a gentleman appeared from nowhere waving a receipt in his hand asking us Rs. 50/- as entry fees for two and parking charges. We wondered how many tourists must be visiting the place as the driving on the rough roads is a nightmare. Here are the photos of Wahrashi falls and beautiful scenes on the way.

On the way back we went via Shillong peak where there is a deep valley and there are some villages in those remote places at the bottom of it. We found that this valley too was full of clouds and we could hardly see anything at the bottom.

I was told that these deep valleys have wind circling around at high speed which generate clouds and it also generates air pockets and the vacuum so created in dangerous for helicopters and small planes flying over it.   

Please note that on the way to Wahrashi falls,  there are only small villages and no restaurants etc. So please have heavy breakfast and carry some snacks and fruits with you. We had carried some snacks so we could do without lunch.

Day 3

We decided to do local Shillong city sight seeing and nearby Mawflawng.

First we headed to Wards lake and botanical garden. But it was closed. So had to satisfy ourselves by clicking photos from outside. Dark Purple flowers on the huge Jacaranda trees is the speciality of North east. We found most of the blossom of purple colour. The Ward's lake has boating facilities also. I saw couple of other tourists with kids who were upset to find the garden closed for its weekly off. 

We then went to Shillong View point which is inside the Military area. There was big queue of tourists vehicle as one is required to follow proper procedure of depositing identity cards like Adhar card, election card etc. at the gate before entering the area. Inside one has to pay some fees for parking and also for binoculars etc.

One can see a panoramic view of Shillong city. We saw many tourists were wearing the fancy dresses of Khasi community and were having a photo session. We also saw a queue for binoculars, so opted out of it also. We just passed some time looking around at beautiful flowers planted over there.. Here are the photos.

Then we moved to Elephant falls. The fall is in three stages. We saw just two stages as our knees are really not in a condition to climb all the way up the steps. There was a garden also beyond but it was necessary to climb down to third level and then climb the other side to enter in the garden. It was not our cup of tea. Here are the photographs.

Our last point was Mawflang, the sacred forest which took us about 45 minutes to reach. You have to take a guide to move in the forest as it is sacred and few years ago no outsiders were allowed to enter in it. Even today, one cannot break a twig or leaves or branches, fruits etc. or carry it outside. It is strictly forbidden. 

We chose just half the round. He took us in the forest which was not very dense and showed us the place where animal sacrifice used to take place. The guide was a local boy who had appeared for 12th standard in Commerce and wanted to complete his degree. There were many students who opted for working as a guide where they get exposure to outsiders, speak English and Hindi with them. 

The guide was nice.  He took our photographs also.  We saw some colourful mushrooms around the tree trunks. The guide was young and energetic and he took my camera and took photographs of colourful mushrooms grown on the trunk of tree in remote corner. It was not really that great or extraordinary, one can skip it in my opinion. 

In the Shillong main Bazar we had our evening snacks of Dosa in Madras Cafe and it turned out to be a very tasty one. I will recommend the place for good food. We also saw a old model of city bus with wooden body. There are just two such buses left in Shillong. We saw one and also took snaps of busy street and vegetable vendors.

Day 4 - We left our hotel in Shillong and headed for Dawki/Tamabil zero point. It takes about 3 hours and we started at 7.00 a.m. from Shillong with 30 minutes pit stop for breakfast on the way. The breakfast items are very limited at all places in Meghalaya - Plain paratha and subjeee for veg and Omlette and bread, boiled eggs etc. On the way there is only one small restaurant and for the rest of the journey, no such place. Hence it was crowded and getting a dish was causing time. The efficiency of the cooking and serving staff was remarkable.

The part of the road remains full of clouds and mists with very low visibility.

We first headed for Tamabil zero point  which is just 2 km from Dawki boating point. There are hundred trucks waiting for custom clearance, occupying the road in three or four lanes leaving hardly any place for other traffic. As more and more tourist vehicles come, it becomes difficult to take the car up to last point. So if you are late, you may have to leave the car and walk the last few hundred meters on the dirty road with potholes full of muddy water.

The road is called Indo Bangladesh friendship road and our Bikramjeetsing added with grin on his face as usual that the the quality of road does not necessarily represent quality of friendship between the two nations. I wondered what these trucks carry? These trucks carry stones to Bangladesh which has no stones only fertile land.

On the boundary there is customs check post and army check post too. One can walk into no man's land and take photographs with the Indian soldiers. We also took photographs.

We negotiated our way back to Dawki boat point through the thick traffic and luckily we escaped in 20 minutes ( just 1 km. distance) through truck lines and we could see several tourists were leaving their cars and buses and walking on the road full of muck due to rain.

At Dawki boat point we climbed down (it is about 3/4 floors height) from road to boating point on Umngot river which divides India and Bangladesh. The Indian and Bangla Desh boat points are diagonally opposite each other and are about 300/400 meters away The boats have their restrictions and boats from both the countries have to observe these restrictions meticulously. Here are the photos -

The above photo is boat point at Bangladesh side.

After boating in Umngot river we headed towards Mowlynnong and to see living root bridge in Riwai village. Both the villages are quite nearby.  On the way we saw 5 waterfalls and couple of them were quite big.  Here are the photograph of 

                                                       END OF PART 1