"the Scotland of the East" - and only a visit would justify the reason. Most tourists tend to visit Shillong (the capital of
to see the landscape and few waterfalls. But that is not how you could get the complete taste of this mesmerizing place. You need to stay there - at least for a couple of days, if not more. You need to venture around on the narrow winding routes over the hills. You need to lose yourself inside the clouds. You need to walk in the rain and look at the silver drops of water hanging on the fern leaves just after a shower. Only then you would be able to "see"
- otherwise it would remain as just another trip to some remote place, nothing more than that.
3rd June, 2010Waking up in the middle of the night was a pain as always. But to catch the flight at 6.10AM, we had to reach the airport by 5.00AM, and for that we had to start from home at 4.00AM. The flight was uneventful and we reached
Guwahati at around half-past eight in the morning. We took a taxi to Shillong. Usually it takes about three and half hours for the 120km distance, but some ongoing roadwork before
Jorabat (at Assam-
Meghalaya border) created a huge traffic snarl and it was raining as well. The road beyond
Jorabat (Shillong Road, NH-40) was beautiful - winding between the smooth green hills of
Meghalaya. We stopped at
Bara Pani (a reservoir) just before Shillong - there isn't much water though, but still it's worth a stop. We reached Shillong at around 1PM and took another taxi towards
Cherrapunjee.
This stretch of the Shillong Road was spellbinding - and I can only compare it with the Highlands (of Scotland) - waves of green vacant land on both sides, hills, free-flowing water creating picturesque waterfalls alongside the road. We crossed a small bridge (named after a king of
Cherrapunjee) and we were in front of the
Dympep Valley - a lush green gorge lying for miles after miles on the left side of the road, with chunks of white clouds hanging down in the valley, sometimes climbing up the hills...Beyond this valley and the green canyon lies
Cherrapunjee (
Sohra) Town.
We were going to the
Cherrapunjee Holiday Resort at
Laitkeynsiew village - another 15 km beyond the
Sohra town, almost in the middle of nowhere. This stretch of the road, though narrow and winding between steep hills and valley, was stunning, as if we became a part of an immense picture. And it was almost no-man's land - you won't see any people till you reach the resort. And the resort? A picturesque lodge surrounded by the clouds on the top of the last hills of India beyond which you can clearly see the flooded plains of
Sylhet (Bangladesh). It rained just a while ago, and little droplets of water were falling off the lush green fern leaves on the side of the road, few bottle-brushes were blooming inside a small cemetery, and water was flowing by the side of the village road like a tiny river...
4th June, 2010I woke up at the sound of the alarm at 5AM in the morning hoping to see the sun coming out of the clouds. Unfortunately, it was too cloudy. At other places (say
Lolegaon or
Rishap) this would have been annoying - but not here. We've come here to lose ourselves in the clouds, and discover the romancing rain. It started to rain soon - first drizzles, then slowly heavier, and then like a white curtain all around us. We put on our raincoats and went out to the village below the resort - on a narrow road winding through the village with only a handful people in and out of the small houses. Water flowed over the road, Rik and
Riti started splashing over the water and Rik named the flow "
Chhota Pani" (or Small River, an opposite of
Bara Pani). After a while we came back inside the
resort with our so-called "weatherproof" walking shoes completely soaked...
The owner of the resort, Mr. Denis P.
Rayen (a
Tamilian who married a local lady and settled here, and helped the local economy) said that the rain will stop at around noon, and we decided that we'd trek to the nearest
Living Root Bridge (approximately two and half kilometres and takes 4 hours) after lunch. We started at 1PM, and soon after crossing the tiny villages, the path turned towards the forest and downwards along the hill (technically, a mountain - nearly 1000m above the
MSL). The path was actually a set of steep, narrow and non-uniform lichen-covered stone stairs with a dense forest on both sides laid out by the local people. And the recent rains made them even more slippery. My shoes started slipping soon and I wasn't able to step fully on the stairs as they were quite narrow. And we soon discovered that whatever Woodlands say, those "walking boots" were not all-terrain at all. I slipped few times, and was having trouble going down those steep steps because of my torn knee ligaments. And possibly, my confidence level wasn't as high as it used to be because of the recent remarks made by the doctor treating my knee. I fell over a couple of times - extremely lucky to escape fatality. It was drizzling when we started - so we had our raincoats on, but they were becoming more and more uncomfortable. We took the raincoats off and I was amazed to find that my shirt was completely soaked with sweat as if it was just washed in water. All the raincoats were packed inside my rucksack, and we started to walk. But it became impossible to step properly on the slippery stones with those shoes on - and so the shoes came off too, increasing the weight of my rucksack. Walking was easier with just the socks on, but the feet started hurting as we were moving on a very uneven surface. Rik though, didn't face any problem what-so-ever - may be because of his less weight, or may be because of his flexible shoes, and
Riti was so tired that she fell asleep on our
guide's shoulder. And watching him walk down that path with
Riti on his shoulders was scary. We lost count of the number of steps and kept on going down and down - our legs tiring, and there was less and less light because of the dense forest and the clouds...Ultimately, after almost two and half thousand steps (yes, that's right - almost equivalent to climbing down the Empire State Building, could be even more as the steps were steeper) we reached the "Living Root Bridge".
It was fascinating - the bridge. The little stream below the bridge was even more so. We sat on a set of stones and watched that mesmerizing scene for a while, and then started climbing up the Empire State Building again...I don't know how I managed it, but I could feel the lack of strength and balance on my knee - my 85 kilos, plus the heavy rucksack, cloud, rain, lichen-covered steep steps, bare feet - all combined to create a fatal combination. But it was worth it. The experience was unforgettable - raw nature at its best - the scenery, the weather, the surroundings - it was something to remember for ever. It was
Lothlórien - almost, and we were the hobbits eagerly waiting to get a glimpse of
Lady Galadriel...
After-effect: After two days, even now, my legs are as heavy as lead. And I'm suffering from stairs-phobia. I'm still climbing stairs in an awkward way - but that's never going to stop me from going there again. May be some time not so far...
5th June, 2010Our condition became evident as soon as we got up in the morning. Both of us had legs as heavy as lead, and they simply refused to go for another walk in the morning. This was our last day at the resort and we booked a taxi which would take us for a sight-seeing around
Cherrapunjee and then drop us at our hotel in Shillong. Heavy rain had started by then and we were afraid that we might miss most of the views. But again the rain slowed down at around 10AM and we started on our journey back to Shillong.
I should write few lines about the resort at this point. It's a family-owned resort, run by Mr. Denis, his wife and their daughter. Few girls from the nearby villages work here as cooks and cleaners. Young men work as guides. The guide, who took us to the Living Root Bridge, studies in the 10
th Std. and works as a guide during his free time. The resort literally helps the nearby villages economically, as this is the only place where tourists can stay beyond
Cherrapunjee town. Some village youths take part in a cultural programme at the resort during the evenings - singing
Khasi (local dialect) songs, sometimes famous English and Hindi songs too - which helps them earn a little extra. Mr. Denis has been working with the Government of
Meghalaya to promote tourism at
Cherrapunjee - before that, most people used to come on a day-trip, and that too just to the town. The thing that we liked most was a personal touch - either Mr. Denis or his daughter would look after the guests personally, talk to them during lunch/dinner time, have a leisurely chats at other times, bid farewell to each individual guest - something that we don't see anymore in the corporate chain hotels. The cost of food may have been a bit on the higher side - but I wouldn't expect anything different at such a place "in the middle of no-where."
The taxi took us to several view points around
Cherrapunjee - and we had mesmerizing views of the hills, the greenery, the flowers, the rain, the majestic waterfalls, the flooded plains of
Sylhet and our all-around partner - the cloud. But even with the cloud, we didn't miss a single thing. Wherever we went, the rain and cloud soon cleared - just to unravel the beauty for us and us only - and then covered everything again when we left. The
Daithlen Falls was the only thing we couldn't go to - as the road was closed for vehicles. And at the
Nohkalikai Falls (the highest in India, 4
th highest in the world), we really thought that we won't be able to see anything and will have to leave with only the sound of the falls. But as we were coming out, the lady at the counter called us back - we rushed to the view point - and saw the cloud has started to lift. Soon it was clear again - and we could see the majestic
Nohkalikai jumping a thousand feet from the top of the cliff...
After
Nohkalikai, we started our journey back to Shillong. The cloud didn't allow us to get another glimpse of the
Dympep valley. But the tiny waterfalls on the side were even more beautiful after two days of rain. Just before entering Shillong, we took a small diversion to the Elephant Falls, one of the famous tourist attractions near Shillong. And then we went straight to the Pinewood Hotel. The hotel looked majestic, built by the British during the Raj, but a severe lack of maintenance is turning it into a mess - a little care would have turned it into a paradise.
6th June, 2010Nothing much to write about the day. We checked out of the hotel in the morning and went to the Shillong Peak - a famous tourist attraction, but after what we had seen at
Cherrapunjee, this looked pretty ordinary. The twin falls -
Beadon and Bishop - didn't impress as well. We would have visited the Don
Bosco Museum if we had time - but that particular thing was short - and we had to rush to
Guwahati airport (another four hour drive from Shillong) to catch our flight. Finally, we reached home at around 11PM in the night - tired, but satisfied.
Cherrapunjee didn't hide herself and showed us the raw beauty of nature...
