A quick trip to Shillong and Cherrapunjee

Known as Scotland of the east, Shillong is one of the most beautiful and happening hill-stations in north-east India.

I had crossed Shillong many times on my way home to Silchar (A glimpse of north-east India) but had never got a chance to actually visit this beautiful hill-station.However, that changed sometime back when I finally managed to do a quick trip to the capital of the land of clouds, Meghalaya.As this was a quick trip to Meghalaya, I could not visit all the places in Shillong I would have to loved to but then again, we always need a reason to re-visit a beautiful place, don’t we?

The main plan this time was to visit Cherrapunjee and leave Shillong for the next time.After an overnight stay in Shillong but away from the hustling & bustling city-center, as we drove to the wettest place on earth, Cherrapunjee, the views got better and better with every turn.Winding roads with green pine trees on both the sides, big cottages with even larger and greener lawns, built in classic British style every few kilometers and frequent army installations kept us company as we moved towards Sohra (local name for Cherrapunjee).There were two not-so-good things about this trip. One, I somehow forgot to take my camera’s tripod with me (photos in this post are from my Samsung Galaxy Grand or hand-held from the camera) and two, it was not the season when I could see the waterfalls in all their glory.

The waterfalls were all dried-up but the weather was amazing which actually made-up for the dried-up falls.The Mawsmai caves are one of the main attractions in Cherrapunjee and we made sure we don’t miss it. The cave turned out to be much bigger that what I had expected.Formed naturally over a period spanning thousands of years, these caves are nothing less than a natural wonder. The entry to the caves is small but once inside, it is way bigger than most of us would imagine.There are areas inside the cave where you actually need to squeeze yourself between limestone formations hanging from top in order to proceed ahead, which actually makes it pretty interesting.

On our way back from Cherrapunjee, the setting sun made the surroundings look even more magical.