Meghalaya

20-24Nov’19

Shillong is a three hours drive from Guwahati airport .Enroute there is a beautiful restaurant,Jiva Veg.The food at the restro is brilliant and is a must stop for everyone.Our hotel was located in the main market of the city,Police Bazaar.Places we saw in Shillong city:

1.Wards Lake-It is a beautiful water body situated in a public park in the city.The park has flowers of all colours and the place is an ideal place for relaxation for locals.

2.Polica Bazaar market-The market place is very congested just like any old market of a city.The bazaar has everything from local vegetable market,restarants,hotels,garment shops etc.Vegertables like radish,lauki,brinjal were very different in size and shape than the ones avail here in Rajasthan.Meghalaya also has huge cultivation of chillies.Pickles of chilli varieties like Ghost pepper and Bird’s eye were sold by the vendors.

3.Golf maiden-Huge expanses of green space was remarkable.A part of the maidan was used to play golf and the rest was used by locals to relax, running and playing football.There is a huge football craze among the locals here.

4.Umiam Lake-A MTDC property just overlooking the Umiam lake is situated some 20 km away from the city towards Guwahati.A day can be spend boating in the lake followed by stay at the orchid resort.

5.Shillong point-This view point is located in an Army Cantt.The place offers view of the Garo Khasi jantia hills surrounding Shillong.Several tea and snack shops are situated at this point.One can grab some snacks and enjoy the beauty of the hills sitting on the benches laid in the small garden at the point

Food places-At the police bazaar circle there are vendors selling food items like chicken rice, fish rice,Chowmein,tikkas etc.It is fun savouring these dishes in the cold weather.Jiva South was an amazing South Indian retro we discovered.It had some 50+varities of dosa.The taste of the food was amazing and I was so thankful to have found this place.Ml05 was another cafe in Shillong which is a must visit.The cafe has cool interiors and the food served is good too.The funniest dish we had was the ice cream sandwich which they served with ice cream between pav buns!It was totally unexpected.

Shopping place-The shops selling woollen clothes are worth visiting in Shillong.Not only are the sweaters cheap but the quality is amazing.I compared the quality and price of these sweaters with the ones I have back at home from brand like US polo And LP,and to my surprise Shillong local brands fared well.

After spending two days in Shillong we made our way to Cherrpunjee.On the way was a very cute property,Cafe Cherrapunjee, with beautiful architecture.I strongly recommend anyone travelling to Cherrpunjee to spend a night this lovely place. We learnt that the best time to visit Cherrpunjee is during the monsoons when there are innumerable water falls emerging from the hills surrounding Cherrapunjee.The view as they say there is magical during that time.In November the water flow in the falls is less. However the highest waterfall of the country ,Nokhalkai, still made us happy. Enroute cherrapunjee is a restro, Orange roots, which serves amazing food and should be a must food break for all travellers.

Our stay at Holiday resort

The place is located some 16 km away from cherrapunjee. The route to this place is very isolated and the road is broken at places.The drive inthe hills and is sure to give you some chills.I was initially skeptical of this place but after reaching the place all my fears washed away.It was located in the beautiful Laitkskew village and from the terrace one could see Bangladesh.The resort was surround by thick forest and hills .The villages at this place were so neat and clean and people built such cute beautiful houses.It was blissful to walk in these villages and observe the lifestyle of the people. Even in the villages small football fields were made for the kids to play in the evening.There are many trekking options at this place.Our resort had a small booklet describing each trek in detail.The most remarkable natural spot of Meghalaya is the root bridge.These bridges are natural formations made from the roots of rubber tree.The locals have been working effortlessly since years to give shape to these natural bridges by guiding the direction of the growing roots of the tree.

Places to see:

1.View point-It offers views of green valleys and thick forests.The plains of Bangladesh are clearly seen from here

2.Root bridges:Living root bridge, single root bridge and double decker root bridge.We decided to go for the challenging double decker root bridge trek.

Double decker root bridge and nokhalikai fall trek:A trek to remember