Guwahati/Meghalaya.. Accentuating facts and bursting myths 

We booked a car from Guwahati for the entire 5 days of our stay Guwahati - Shillong is a 2½ hour journey on usual days. The greater span of the travel is through a 4 lane highway GS Road,only the last 10 kilometers get narrow . Just 20 kms ahead of Shillong comes the majestic Umiam Lake at Barapani which serves as a halt and a fantastic picture spot . We went ahead and reached Shillong by lunch time . Since we reached at a peak tourist season Shillong was bustling with life . Frankly the centre point Police Bazaar, the locals call it PB is so crowded you will at times have to run for a breathing space . Since I'm not a crowd person I booked a place in Lower Laban a little far from the maddening crowd .We had to come down to PB for lunch and it was a chaos out there . Our car dropped us around 500 meters off the centre point. PB I should say is just like any centre point of a hill station but I'd rather like it a bit well managed , for instance Darjeeling has made its Mall area a no vehicle zone .Similarly Shillong should adopt similar tactics . 

  I'm a huge fan of rock music and so all said and done I couldn't afford to miss the music scene of Shillong so leaving my parents to rest , 3 of us went to a pub called The evening club , it was a Friday and we had to almost coax our way in but we were hearty disappointed as the live band was taking its own time and it was around 9:30 and they had no intentions to leave their drinks and start playing some songs. Since we were putting up a few miles away from the market place we had to discard the allurement of the music and leave at 10:30 pm since the live band hadn't started .

The next morning we woke up early amidst the lanky conifers and decided to take a walk . Shillong had a good number of Bengali families still who celebrate Durga Puja so we went pandal hopping and prayed to the goddess. We were offered prasad at every pandal we went and were accepted heartily thanks to the jolly people. Today's day was booked for a trip to Mawlynnong Village, which in the cleanest village in Asia and Dawki lake, the mesmerizing pictures of which has flooded social media lately sparking interest amongst people so after a long trip through undulating roads we reached Mawlynnong, an honest opinion about which is this village is a rela treat to the eyes, the locals have really kept this place in such a way to be proud of, depicting their heritage and culture in the most beautiful way, the striking difference I saw was amongst the kids who still are engaged in their simple games like pulling toy carts and football away from social media allurement. The most appreciable thing was children picking up garbage and dumping it in the dustbin as if they have been entrusted with the duty to uphold the name of the village. The village has beautiful thatched homes laden with flowers and orchids of different colors brimming with the village lifestyle . Post that we went to the Living root Bridge, we had to take a trek down the steps to the bridge and we spent some time watching how the roots of trees were  intertwined to make way for human movement .
After this wonderful experience we treaded towards Dawki but we were disappointed to be received by a few kilometers long jam, we had to park our cars and take a walk, my parents avoided the long trek down but we still had the enthusiasm to walk down to the lake, eventually we had to give up our quest seeing the swarm of tourists on the lake which was completely averse from the serenity depicted in the photographs and, the crystal clear waters had already been muddled making it look like any other lake anywhere else in the country, our enthusiasm thereby dampened but we were turned back and made our way back to shillong for the night

It was the day to travel to Cherrapunji so we left early. Passing through meandering roads we came across beautiful landscapes which we couldn't ignore and had to stop to imbibe the beauty. There were places offering zip rides which had become a crowd puller . We stopped over to watch the screaming adventure junkies take the long zip rides through the hills which also acted as a coffee break mid way. We then reached the Mosmai caves which still carry their haunting charm, these limestone caves have slimy and slippery paths so kindly carry gripping boots and slightly overweight people should be more careful since the caves get extremely narrow at certain points.  Though a bit creepy ,the cave walk was a nice experience,  and finally we reached the abode of clouds, Cherrapunji.
  Cherrapunji as we know is a place which gets record rainfall every year, a hamlet located between the Khasi hills, this place is a beauty to behold.  We luckily were booked in a hotel named "Hotel Cordial" located extremely near to the 7 sister falls and had a stream running just behind the hotel, the moon light on the waters of the stream made the water glitter and we were awestruck by the charm, the evening, Eepsa and I took the road and kept walking through the dark streets of Cherrapunji where humanity looks way more relaxed than the city cacophony,  for long stretches of time we didn't meet any humans on the road and stuck in a corner beyond the stream, we could hear the church choir sing, the wonderful hymns sounded even mesmerizing in the silence of the night so we took slower strides so that we could enjoy the music for a longer period of time .

Sunrise over the seven sister falls carries its own charm, there were a swarm of photographers from all over India and abroad decked with their cameras to take clicks of the beautiful sunrise scenes amidst the clouds, we too stood in awe of the wonderful scenes,  another chance finding was the beautiful garden opposite our hotel which gave us a surprise of exotic butterflies and birds, we were awestruck by the dash of colors all around us, finally it was time to head home after 4 days and we packed and left for shillong.
The tiring day came to an end with us settling down at our hotel in shillong.
 

Day 5 was left for relaxation and the mandatory shopping of souvenirs to take back home, we searched the net for offbeat places in Shillong and settled down with a few places, first up we went to see the lake followed by the Shillong Cathedral, we then went ahead to have lunch at an authentic Manipur restaurant which boasted of Priyanka Chopra and Zubeen Garg as guests who have tasted their cuisine.
Post lunch we went to the Don Bosco Museum which has a collection of North Eastern heritage neatly tucked in a multiple stories, it was a great experience to know the people and their heritage,  the icing on the cake was the Skywalk over the museum which gave awe inspiring views of Shillong city.

The next morning we left for guwahati Airport and the same roads gave us another opportunity to say goodbye so we kept clicking pics we could reminisce later, on the arunachal Assam border we stopped for lunch and what a parting gift we got, bamboo chicken is an integral dish of North East and we had missed that but we were treated with the delicacy and everyone ate their stomachs full. Finally we reached Guwahati and headed back home after this memorable trip .