Meghalaya; the name itself provides hints on what to expect. The names means “the abode of clouds” in Sanskrit. It is a place not to be missed.

We had done a 5-day trip to Meghalaya, one of the north-eastern states of India, in Oct 2019. What a place it was! I am going to cover, in a 7-part series, the highlights of the places that we visited. Be sure to read all of them; the places we went to are not to be missed. I will also make an additional post giving my recommended itinerary for Meghalaya to help any others when planning

With only 5 days available to us, we wanted to make sure we chose the right places and activities that would leave a lasting impression on us. So my wife and I had spent a good amount of time scurrying the internet as well as speaking to friends, to decide our itinerary. As with any place, there are tons of places to visit and things to do. We meticulously identified the spots we wanted to visit and the days on which we expected to visit them. Phew! Planning part done.

The weather was going to play a big role of course. Our trip was done in the first week of October. So rainy season would usually come to an end by then. But then the weather had been topsy turvy for most parts of the year. Moreover, places in Meghalaya are considered some of the wettest places in the world. So you can imagine that it was only natural for us to be a bit apprehensive. Hence we made sure that we were prepared for it; mentally as well as with the necessary gear.

Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya, does have an airport. But commercial flights to it are very infrequent. So the closest airport is that in Guwahati in the neighbouring state of Assam. That was our entry point (so to speak).

Our flight from Bangalore landed in Guwahati on time. We were all excited to begin our road trip. Baggage collected and we decided to take a photo in front of an interesting art installation within the airport, before heading out.

We had booked a car that would stay with us for the complete 5 days of the trip. We would be travelling on the road quite a bit. So we wanted to make sure the ride was comfortable. Therefore we had chosen a large-size car; a decision that we were happy we had made.

Satish, our driver, came around with the car once we exited from the arrival lounge. Soon we had left Guwahati far behind and entered the state of Meghalaya. Yes, we were finally here 😀 .

The plan for the first day was to drive all the way to Sohra; erstwhile called Cherrapunjee. We would however, stop at a number of sights to visits enroute. The scenery that we were passing through started to “open up”; and it was getting lush green. Well, rain does have that affect 🙂 .

The rain clouds had been holding off their downpour for the first two hours of our journey. But they soon refused to do so. And we got our first feel of the rains of Meghalaya. It was a strong downpour. “Hmm, was this a sign of the weather for the days to come?” I wondered. You can see the rain hazing out the hills, in the below picture that I took when we had stopped at a restaurant.

Our next planned stop was the Elephant Falls. For this we would need to cross Shillong. As we neared Shillong, we suddenly saw the vast expanse of a waterbody; Umiam Lake. We were going to spend the last night of our holiday at the lake and hence had not planned for us to spend time at it during our journey to Sohra. But seeing it’s beauty as we passed it, we just could not resist stopping to admire. Here is a photo of what we were seeing:

You can read more on the lake in a dedicated post for it.

Elephant Falls

This is a three step waterfalls; essentially it consists of three falls in succession. It was aptly called “Ka Kshaid Lai Pateng Khohsiew” by the local Khasi people. It was seemingly named Elephant Falls by the British during their rule, owing to the presence of an elephant-shaped rock on one side of the fall. This stone, however, disintegrated and was washed away in an earthquake in 1897. But the name stuck.

It was beautiful, especially given that it was in full force as we were visiting just after the monsoon. Here is the first level:

Here is the second level:

And below is the third and final level. This is the most impressive as it seems to be the tallest. But also because it allows one to get a view from the base.

The waterfalls seemed like a popular destination. There were plenty of visitors when we reached it. I guess it’s proximity to Shillong (roughly 12kms away) makes it so. One does have to go on steps to reach the different levels. Some of them are steep. They will be wet as well, especially when you in the rainy season. So walk carefully. There are rails for most part of the steps though.

Mawkdok Dympep Valley

The Mawkdok Dympep Valley is a must stop for people travelling on towards Sohra. It gives one very good views of the Khasi Hills. There is a viewpoint that has been built adjacent to the Duwan Sing Syiem Bridge. It cannot be missed as it has a well marked signboard. You have to walk down steps to the reach the view point. There are multiple levels of the viewing platform. We still had quite a long way to go before we reached the place of stay for the night. So we chose to go down only to the first one. Here is a photo of us there:

Here is a view of the valley from the view point. Thankfully we got good sunlight when we visited.

They say, from this viewpoint, the view of the valley extends all the way to to Sohra. However, getting a clear view is really a matter of chance. The view is most often obscured by clouds. We too faced this 😦 .

As we drove towards Sohra, we got to see different “shades” of the valley; the clouds started to roll into the valley.

Here is another picture taken some distance away:

We were starting to understand how the state got it’s name, an apt one at that 😀 . They say that first impressions matter a lot. Well, we were already in love with Meghalaya!

Video

I put together a short video of the scenes from the drive from Guwahati till Sohra. You should definitely watch it to admire the beauty we went through.

My next post is on our visit to the famous Double Decker Living Root Bridge; an unforgettable experience of hiking to it. You can read about it here.