Cherrapunji – The place which receives highest rainfall ( this was what taught to me in my geography ). Until I reach here only to find that it is second and Māwsynrām is first 😊
So from Dawki our next destination was to reach Sohra ( Please refer previous blogs of how we reached Dawki ).
As we moved ahead through the Dawki river bridge and viewing the Dawki from the heights, it was nice view to have while driving. The owner of the resto in Dawki where we had our lunch had mentioned us that the Asia’s cleanest village was just an hour journey from Dawki. But our problem was our mobile network was still showing Bangladesh network and we had no range at all.
Dawki Bridge 
Watch(India) & Mobile (Bangladesh) ? 😜
Luckily we could read a sign board saying take a left to Mawlynnong, as we took it ahead of us was a traveler tempo filled with tourist ( As we headed ahead we could see several traveler tempos mostly having tourists from Maharashtra) . Now we thought of taking risk by just following the bus as definitely it will take them to all viewing spots. (After some time got to know one bad and one good news , good was that they were going towards clean village and bad was that even the driver of the tempo was unaware about the road 😜)
Going through curvy narrow roads with fencing of left side separating India and Bangladesh and village life and bamboo houses all over. The drive was fun and views were good. With the help of sign we kept moving ahead.
Around 3 pm we reached a spot where many tourist vehicles were parked, so following the herd we did park the car and asked the nearby what exactly is the spot here, the localities mentioned that in 20-30 mins walk there is living root bridge.
At first we decided to get back into car and leave to our real destination, as we had planned for the famous Nongriat living root bridge. But than just spared a second to have second thought to just quickly explore it , as sometimes you may miss some unknown locations.
The name of the village was Riwai and it was just 3 km before Mawlynnong village. It was a decent track of 15-20 mins and we could view the single living root bridge. This place is for those who cant trek the Nongriat double decker bridge and also the senior citizens can easily walk and visit this place.
Clicking some pictures we started the climb up back. We cant say it as trek as proper stairs are there that we need to climb. After some breathe losing climb we reached back to top where there are small shops.
For souvenir we took a miniature Koh( basket that people put of their back to go to work, or like the one used for plucking tea leaves) and also one wind chime.
We quickly got into the car as it was almost close to 4 pm and we had to see the cleanest village yet.
Those 3 kms towards reaching to the cleanest village I was just thinking and talking about what can be more clean in this village. As through out the state wherever we steeped it was clean.
The entry fee is Rs 100 per car
As we entered, one thing I could understand was its a commercialized hub to show the villages in Meghalaya. There was nothing unique of this village, as I mentioned earlier wherever we went across Meghalaya it was clean.
We just walked across the village and clicked some pictures. Finally had to do something and hence had a cup of tea here in one of bamboo house. ( Tea was average ). When I say commercialization, it meant almost all houses had home stay or were providing tea and snacks. But one positive was , its a good strategy to bring tourist to villages in Meghalaya and thereby helping them connect and also have some economy flowing in this part of the country.
After evening walk through village, it was time to get back to Sohra. We made quick call at home and started the journey. On way we found people from Bhoi community making fish and vegetable in authentic way using bamboo shoot.
As we started moving up, the network was back. It was dark as usual around 5 pm and on maps it showed us 3 hour to reach Cherrapunji. Going through curvy roads and music, we couldn’t witness much on the other side of the valley , but could differentiate the high dark hills.
Without anymore breaks we made ourselves towards Sohra. We reached Sohra around 8 pm, but city seemed quite calm. It didn’t seemed to be hush hush city but a normal village which is developing into a city.
We didn’t had any booking so just stopped by big apartment where it was written as Homestay available. Enquired with uncle and his family but it seemed all rooms in his property were full, but he helped us with one nearby property which belonged to his friend. he contacted and guided us to the place.
At first it seemed a bit weird as the property was new and in the entire property no one was staying. It was empty , and only we were going to stay. But the property owner assured us that its completely safe. Also he told his younger child to stay in the property itself and help us with whatever needed.
Got this property at very reasonable price of Rs 1400
Kindness in Meghalaya never ends. It was around 8:30 pm and they told us due to Covid-19 restrictions, all restaurants close by 9 pm. so we quickly got fresh and went to nearby restaurant.
I will specially mention the name of the resto, “Halari”. It was a very basic normal restaurant , no ambience nothing, but food was really good. We ordered parathas and jeera rice/ daal. All awesome. And at end we had 2 cups of coffee, that too was perfect. The temperature was showing as 7 degrees but didn’t feel the cold, or may be now we were slowly getting used to climate.
We came back to room and quickly got fresh and did re-packing to arrange things back as we had a huge day of trekking coming up the next day.
Next day early morning (6 :30 am), we woke up and it was the day to explore the all famous double decker bridge.
Quickly packed all the luggage back into car. Shaan the care taker of property was kind enough to make red tea 😊
We skipped our breakfast and directly made ourselves towards Tyrna village which is the base village for the Trek to start. The road towards village is picturesque with valley on one side. Roads are narrow though
We reached the car parking point around 8 am and 8:15 am sharp we started our descent taking a bamboo stick (for climbing back 😜, it does help). It was dense forest but very steep steps. As we were moving down it was all fun but after 10 mins looking at steepness and height of steps we were worried about coming back up.
Just after 20 -25 mins descent there is a way to view the single root bridge. We were initially planning to skip it, as we had seen one before a day earlier, but my sister looking at stairs decided to explore it and she made up her mind not to go any more ahead.
So we decided to explore it again. It was really awesome. The roots making up the bridge , this natural built beautiful bridge is one to add in your bucket list. We waited for 30 mins and in meantime looking at other people my sister also decided to make it to double decker. We decided to go slowly with various breaks.
We started for the double decker trek from there. It was more 400-500 steps descent through dense forest before we could cross the Nongriat bridge. We had experience of walking over hanging bridge in Dawki, so this time it was a bit easy, but the water as in Dawki all clean and beautiful, as if some one has added a blue coloring agent to it.
And than starts a bit difficult ascend for the last 1000 steps, but if you are fit its very easy. Having various stops we finally witnessed the beautiful double decker bridge. We had seen a lot of images so while witnessing we didn’t feel it different from what seen in photos over Google, but reaching here, trekking till here is a memory in itself.
We just took a long break and various trials to have photos with no one on the bridge. It was a bit hard as it was a bit crowded and every time a new group used to come.
We sat along the rocks and ordered two veg Maggi. ( costed us Rs 50 and water bottle costed 40 ). From here people usually go ahead to Rainbow waterfalls, but we didn’t go there and decided to return back .
After walking over the double decker bridge various times and trying to click the best pics we started the ascend at around 11 :15 am.
The cameras went inside the bags and concentration was to make it back to the parking. We considered a deadline of 12:30 pm to reach top at start of trek and went with same deadline. Slowly and steadily we started, but it was getting difficult as we were moving up. We took breaks every 20-30 steps. Due to steep and heighted steps, the ascend was becoming difficult. For our accompany we had two elderly ladies ( 60 + aged), they were struggling but were better than our pace.
Talking to them and sharing the thoughts, slowly and steadily we reached the first half ( single root bridge ), we took a break for some sting (energy juice). Took a 5 min break and started the last 1000 + steps. With time it was getting difficult and we were just counting down the remaining steps.
With multiple stoppages and pain in knees we finally made it back to top. There were struggles in completing it, but accomplishing something definitely makes you happy.
At around 1:15 pm, We just took back the bamboo as souvenir and made ourselves on further journey.
I was a bit hungry but we decided to stop by at our next site seeing and have our lunch over there. We munched upon some chaklis and ladoos on way.
Our next destination was Mawsmai caves. I have visited various caves in Goa and Maharashtra before , but never entered inside the cave, so was anxious about it.
We reached the cave site around 2 pm, all hungry, but at first decided to quickly explore it and than have lunch, but just as we entered, we could see the steps again that we needed to climb. We had gone phobic about this stairs and didn’t wanted to walk anymore, but it was just 1 min walk.
We entered the cave, and it was all calm, cold and very clean. Usually there are bats and bad smell inside the cave, but here the rocks were very smooth and clean.
The curvatures were mostly like lion legs, but we couldn’t understand much on the structure, but it was worth one time visit.
We clicked our pictures and came out. and as we started walking towards the parking, we could see a shop renting out local Khasi culture traditional clothes. My sister has interest in trying out the clothes and is photoholic ( a new word from me 😊) . Dressed up and clicked a few pics.
It was time to get some energy and fill up the tummies. We just entered a local resto before the parking and ordered momos. Coming to North East and not trying momos is a shame.
We also had parathas and tea to accompany . We quickly wrapped up the food and started our journey. It was almost 3:30 pm and our plan was to reach Guwahati that day which showed almost 6 hours, also I wanted to see the view of Sohra, the valleys around.
So we decided to skip the Nohkalikai falls (anyways its best viewed in monsoons) and quickly started towards Shillong. We took full speed enjoying the cool views of valley. We thought of not stopping but the sunset and valley view forced us to stop.
We were close to Shillong as early as 4:45 pm itself and from there it was only 3 hours journey more, so now our planned changed to witness the cherry blossom festival at night (Heard Naseeruddin shah had come).
We called Grant (the property care taker of Dew Drop In where we stayed the first night) and took the location of the Polo ground where it was held, but to our anguish just 5 mins later we were stuck in traffic. The traffic was so bad that it took us 2 hours just for 5 kms. Not sure it was due to festival or usually over weekends this traffic exits.
But one thing we noticed was the discipline, no one overtook or made a third lane and created more congestion. Instead everyone used to stop the car completely and wait.
Around 7 pm we reached Shillong, but it was of no use of waiting, as we had more distance to cover and lots of time was lost. We quickly changed the destination over maps to Pobitora wildlife Sanctuary and took a left road towards Guwahati.
Please like if you read till here and see you in next blog.
Travel Diary 