We all need a change from our daily routine and wish that we could spend some time enjoying natures beauty. I always wanted to go to Shillong, having heard so much from so many people that I really felt that being from Northeast India and not visiting Shillong...I am missing out something. My trip to Shillong happened just by chance, a fren of mine"E" wanted to see Northeast and I was more than happy to find a person to go to Shillong.I made a 6 day trip covering Tripura, Meghalaya and Guwahati, I called my frens in Shillong and Guwahati taking suggestions on "Must see places", accomodation and local travel.
We started with Tripura and visited few villages in and around Agartala, clusters I am working currently. We also visited South Tripura and Neer Mahal...the Tajmahal of Tripura. I was visiting Neermahal after abt a year, last time I visited was with my younger sis....the best part about toursit places in Tripura is...its not crowded. The boat ride from the ghat to Neermahal was awesome and the breeze which flows through the whole palace....was so refreshing and a great respite from the heat and humid weather in Tripura. The Tripura trip ended with a visit to the Lakechoumuni market.
The next destination was Shillong, we went to Guwahati first from Agartala and hired a cab till Shillong. From Guwahati airport shared cabs are available @ Rs 400/- per person till Shillong, which worked very fine with us...the temp. @ Guwahati was slightly higher then Agartala but in less then an hr...we reached Meghalaya/Assam border and it started getting pleasent...it felt so good. I had asked my fren to book us at a decent hotel and she has booked us a@ "Hotel Broadway", it was located at a very prime area, Police Bazar. The food was good, price was reasonable, bathrooms were thankfully clean and I will recommend it to everyone travelling to Shillong. Next day we went on a Shillong City tour and I was really amazed with facilities offered by the MTTDC, guided city tour bus and most tourist places was well maintained, we visited Wards Lake, Elephant Fall, Shillong Peak, Barapani and other tourist destinations in and around Shillong. The best part about the trip was the annual dance festival of the Khasi's, we were lucky to be in Shillong on that day as it was an annual festival....me and "E" also went to the local markets..which was full of betal nuts.
Shillong I am sure has much more to offer then the places we visited on the organised city tour, the city is cleaner compared to many other cities in the country and weather of course is awesome...I think I should go to Shillong every summer.
While planning this trip I had read alot on Meghalaya and places to visit, we wanted to visit Mawysaram but Cheerapunjee was a more popular destination it seems. The way to Cheerapunjee from Shillong was breathtakingly beautiful...it reminded me so much of Switzerland...the waterfalls..the clouds..mountains...the clouds & fog were so heavy that it merged with the sky...it seemed the sky has extended till earth.... ohhhh...I can't find words to express the beauty of Cherrapunjee. Some of the really nice places we visited were Nongkalekai fall...Asia's 2nd highest and World's 4th highest water fall, it was breathtakingly beautiful. Cherrapunjee was full of water falls and each waterfall was different from another, I had never seen so many waterfalls in a day. Our trip to Cherrapunjee ended with a visit to Mawsmai Cave...I was super excited to go inside a cave for the first time....I learned to go through a real narrow passage...but I will not recommend anyone else to go inside the cave. The flash light inside the cave was not done properly and I could see wires all over the cave and since water continously drips into the cave from the mountain above. The chances of electrocution is very high, I was surprised how MTTDC or whoever is in charge of the maintaince of the cave can be so careless. The trip to Cherrapunjee ended with a nice lunch at "Nanglai Krysoi restaurant", it was a very crowded restaurant, but all thanks to the tourist guide "B"....she used her personal connections with the restaurant Manager, who happened to a betal nut chewing professional Khasi women to get our food on time.
I will sure visit Meghalaya again and next time I will stay at Cherrapunjee...it has so much to offer and a day trip is just not fair to Cherrapunjee.
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