Shillong – The Hill Station and Capital City of Meghalaya, is known as the Scotland of East India.
After horrifying scenes from second – wave of Covid-19 pandemic which hit India badly in the months on April to June 2021, everything seemed stopped and with positive cases increasing rapidly and GDP going down , travel and tourism was badly hit. It was start of October when everything started to fall back in place Thanks to Indian government constant push to get people vaccinated and creating records in vaccination.
In all this chaos there was one state in the east that was not much impacted by Covid-19, the cases here were less, and people were still happy to stay in their villages. So it struck me to explore what exactly is the life style over here.
So finally I planned to visit my first exploration in the North east, a bit curious a bit nervous ( about how familiar/friendly the localities will be to tourist). All plans were set before The travel Day arrived
We were ready with our packing and we had a late night flight on 23rd of November from Goa. We had booked a driver to drop us at airport, but with me things never go smoothly. As he was coming to pick us he met with accident and we had to arrange another. The place where I come from doesn’t have much cabs available and my Dad recently had an eye operation so driving for him was a bit risky. But with no option left and hardly 2 hours left for flight, Dad decided to drop us. We quickly had mom – made veg Pulao and let our ways out.
We reached just on time to complete our check-ins and security and reached the gate when boarding had just started.
We were just excited to what were going to explore and were just talking about some fun stuff and we landed Bengaluru around 11:30 pm and we had a very long lay-over of around 7 hours for our next flight to Guwahati. We were not allowed for domestic transfer (as it is for connecting flight less than 4 hours).
But strangely there was no crowd at the airport. The scenes were different when at late nights I ever reached the Kempegowda airport. Even the eateries were getting closed. We were quite hungry as we didn’t had heavy dinner. Ate one Chicken tikka sandwich at Puro Gusto which costed around 500 bucks. (Would recommend to pack your food ).
We just took some rest over nearby resting chairs. couldn’t sleep properly as boarding was at around 6 am and didn’t wanted to fall completely asleep.
As the sun came above the horizon and from dark it started going brighter , the visibility was still not there and this time due to heavy fogging. Our boarding started on time, but were thinking how in this heavy fog the flight would take off. And as thought due to this fog the flight just kept moving on the track for at least an hour due to increase in traffic congestion due to heavy fog. But we were hardly concerned about it, as we needed sleep and as we sat were sleeping all along our way. Not sure when the flight took off.
It was three and half hour flight and all along we just slept. We landed around 10:55 am.
We quickly took our baggage and got fresh at the airport itself. We had booked a self drive car from Fufu gadi. The car representative was waiting for us outside. Had read good reviews about them in Google so had booked it ( Alto ).
Alto on Rent For Self Drive Costed us Rs. 1300 per day without fuel
And once out of airport the representative got the car and to our surprise it was again the same k10 engine machine and black grey color (the same model and color with which we travelled across Gujarat)
Our first stop was just outside the Guwahati airport at hotel named Hotel Manikanta . Here they provide south and north Indian dishes. Its a small hotel and I think strategically well placed , as I could see all tourist having their first stop here to fill in their tummies.
We had Masala Dosa and the first sip the very known Assam Tea. It was good.
Now it was start of our itinerary, we quickly took our stop at nearest petrol pump to make the blinking indicator to full. (Petrol price was 93.4 , 1 rupee cheaper from Goa).
On maps we set our destination as Umiam Lake and made ourselves towards our first destiny. As we were driving the first 10-15 kms. it didn’t give any feel of North east vibes. Normal traffic , people switching lanes weirdly, all was similar as in other part of the country. Till we reached a Toll plaza and scenes changed drastically.
Since our car’s fast tag was not active, we had to pay 160 Rs. (Toll was 80 Rs.)
Make sure when you rent a car to check the fast tag or else you will have to pay double amount.
From concrete houses to cute bamboo/mud houses. All the curvy roads with distant high hills dressed with greenery over it. Lots of betel nut plantation all along. And most importantly the way people were driving. All were driving at normal pace keeping enough distance between two vehicles and hardly anyone over takes. For a second I was confused whether is there a rule that gets this discipline in this driving here. But the driving disciple needs special mention and appreciation to Meghalaya 😊 ( ML 11 )
This needs a special mention as 90 % of the vehicles were either the Maruti Suzuki 800 or Maruti Alto. Hats off to this guys maintaining this cars. I could hardly see any luxurious SUVs or Sedan (except yellow plated sedan tourist vehicles)
At the borders we were made to stop for mandatory Covid-19 vaccination testing. The Meghalaya govt has a nice tourism app wherein you can pre enter all the details and add the itinerary details and create a ticket and same needs to be get barcode checked at the check station along with Covid-19 certificates. This definitely saved a lot of time.
Please use the Meghalaya Govt. App :
We were just moving ahead and it was hardly around 2 pm and seemed like sun is starting to set, we shut the AC and opened the windows and could feel the first cold wind. It was indeed breezy and felt like a cold evening just at around 2- 2:30 pm, we quickly rushed to our first destination.
Around 3:30 pm we reached the Umiam Lake and luckily we reached at the best time, as it was the golden hour and sun was about to set. The USP of this place was its calmness. You just feel like sitting for hours doing nothing, just watch the sun set and hear some music over cool winds blowing around.
We clicked some photos and made our head back to main city Shillong. As we started the car it had already started getting darker and for me for whom this was the first time exploring east, it was very unusual to see darkness so early as 4 pm.
We slowly moved ahead, having some ladoos and chaklis ( mom always packs them for the trip ) and we could see red lines on the google maps indicating traffic. But as appreciated earlier this was moving traffic and all were disciplined enough to keep their vehicles in one lane and not create any congestion.
Slowly and Steadily we reached Shillong. We had booked our home stay 5 km away from city over the hill. We reached the stay (Dew Drop In) at around 5:30pm wherein it looked like 8:30-9 pm at night.
This was our first interaction and stay with Meghalaya localities. The lady sanitized the bags and seemed a bit rude at start ( later found may be she was a bit introvert enough to communicate with the guests )
As we entered the floors were all cold and to someone staying in Goa the 10 degree cold in the hills is definitely going to give a shivering experience. We quickly got fresh and wanted a cup of tea. But the owner had kept the tea dips and milk powder. I am not a fan of tea dips and so decided to go back to city and explore a few market area as well.
Interesting Fact : The people here usually have Red Tea and not Milk Tea.
We headed back to the city market. The famous market here is named as Police Bazar. After some searching we parked the car at car parking building which is just at the center of the bazar. First we entered inside small hotel to get a sip of tea.
"Interesting story (You can skip this para) : When we landed in Guwahati, we saw a family in the flight bus taking us to the departure gates. They were just standing in front of us and were unique enough to make us remember them. We saw the same family again in Umiam Lake, but that wasn't a much surprise as its a first stop for every traveler. But the same family at the tea shop in Police Bazar at same time, that needs to be said as a huge coincidence 😊 "
We had tea and wandered around street market. The street was full of woolen sweaters, hats, soft shoes and other woolen stuffs. It was around 7:30 pm and we got to know that the Bazar stops at around 8 pm. So we quickly bought one woolen poncho and than headed to get some hat and souvenir, but to our surprise here time is more important than business, when the guy was just packing up, he just said he cant sell as time is up , Its closed. That was strange.
We than walked around the opposite street , it was basically a vegetable and fruit market. And the vegetables looked so fresh and clean, that we couldn’t resist to buy some carrots and red radish.
Finally we got some water bottle and headed back to the stay.
It was chilling at the stay as it was at higher height than usual city. Before leaving to market we had asked the owner to prepare the food. The different among this was the Khasi food.
“Khasi is one the the tribe community in Meghalaya. The tribe names are based on the hill names where they belong to viz : the Khasi , Jaintia etc. There may be other tribes based on different names, the above two is what I got to know 😊”
As we were having our dinner , we met the main owner of the property Grant. He was a very lovely guy and gave us good information about their culture, food and what places worth explore. It was nice to and fro conversation as we had our dinner. The dinner mostly lacked spices, but when you travel you need to explore and not force yourself to eat how its prepared at home 😊
Post dinner , we were a bit tired but, I wanted to see the city peak point from terrace at night, but as stepped out the cold was unbearable. Hardly stood for 1 minute before rushing in (The shaky photo explains it all). Didnt waste much time and went to sleep.
Next day early morning we woke up around 7 am. As we were planning for this trip we thought of waking up at 5:30 daily 😜.
7 am was like 9-10 am in the west side of India, but still it was very cold. I just kept the geyser on and was reluctant to come out, as that was the only place were could breathe easily. Finally made mind to get ready as delays would mess up further plans. Had some photos in the terrace , seeing the Shillong peak . This property had a very nice terrace garden. Various flowers blooming. And finally we said good bye to this nice home stay.
As we moved ahead we could see many trees with pink and white flowers. We had a bit reading done of this pink trees before travelling , but Till that time we didn’t knew its Cherry blossom . And to a new knowledge the date was 25th Nov 2021 and it was the inaugural day of International Cherry Blossom Festival of India, which is hosted by Shillong every year during the month on November.
We were lucky to witness this beautiful trees as we moving ahead. Definitely waited to click a couple of photos (Knew will witness some kind of pink blooming trees so had planned to wear pink😊).
And without more delay we started making way to our first site seeing of the day, the Laitlum Canyon. But by mistake took a wrong road for 100 meters and for our luck may be we were forced to take wrong road to witness the Cathedral Catholic Church of Shillong.
And again coming on right path we started back to Canyon. As we were driving we started getting the feel of Meghalaya culture, It was completely different, the houses the cleanliness the curvy roads and scenic mountains. We took a short break for tea and reached the Laitlum canyon.
For Information , Asia’s cleanest river Umngot river originates from Laitlum Canyon.
Clicked some pictures and walked along to explore this place. It wasn’t something special that I didn’t see before, so it was all average. But the red radish which we bought last night (I had seen it first time in life). Was hungry and I tasted it, It was very spicy and couldn’t eat it. Than tried the carrots, It was really fresh.
As we planned to exit from this place , the mandatory try f Maggi over the hills is must. And we didn’t had anything from morning (excepts carrots :P). The veg Maggi was very delicious and when we asked them to make it spicy. The only spice that you will get here added is black pepper powder 🙂
After having breakfast , we started moving towards our next destination. On our way back we saw various bamboo and houses of village. We stopped to interact with family who had corns hanging all outside their house. They were warm and kind enough to give us information. It was for the pigs.
Our plan was to reach Dawki at the end of day, but we decided to go via Jowai (The west Jaintia Hills ), which had its own pros and cons.
As we started the roads were really good and on both sides huge mountains and pine tress and cherry blossom trees .We could also hear stone crushing sites.
All was good until at around 12 noon we got stuck for 30 mins due to some road construction work, but from there on the drive was not enjoyable. (By means of road condition as it was all muddy/ off road ). But I had some interesting stories going around from my sisters company to accompany 😊.
We didn’t stop for any breaks and reached our destination around 2 pm. I had not seen much about this waterfall named Krangsuri, but seen photos and thought its all photo shopped photos for insta.
The road way till parking was very off-road, but our alto could manage anything. It had already changed its color from grey to mud brown. Thanks to all the off-roading.
From parking we had to walk a few steps downwards to reach the falls. For us coming from Goa and witnessing waterfall didn’t make us anxious enough.
There was ticket at entrance which said 50 Rs per person. and since we were not interested much to see the falls we at first thought “Seriously 100 Rs for this falls.??”
But all this non anxious movement and non interest shown to explore vanished just by first look to this falls (It was like love at first sight ). The color of water was completely different. It was turquoise colored and I have never seen such before. Also it was very very clean. I just got shell shocked seeing it for first 2 minutes. Clicked some pics and went down to dip inside the water.
Had fun in water and just had first happiness in this trip viewing this beauty, but now it was time to climb the steps (This was warm up for our upcoming Trek).We reached back the parking just talking about this mesmerizing view. At parking lot, had some water and sprite from nearby shop. Had ladoos and Chaklis and made move to a place which was on top list of exploration.
Lets see you there in next post. Until than signing off. Please do like this post 🙂
Travel Diary 