Things I wish I knew while planning my first trip to Meghalaya

We took a morning flight from Delhi to reach Guwahati on first day. We planned to visit Kamakhya temple and Umiam lake on the way to Shillong. It took us around 45mins to reach Kamakhya temple.

Kamakhya temple: This is a must visit temple if you're visiting Guwahati. It normally takes upto 2hrs for darshan due to the long queue. However, we luckily found a shortcut through a mandir pujari who took us for darshan via another route where it took barely half an hour. This temple is crowded irrespective of weekend or weekday. There are two ways to do the darshan. One is where you can see the idol through the gate and the other where you can touch the holy water seeping through the idol and worship upclose. We were short of time so we chose the former.

Post our Darshan we left for Shillong. Since it was already quite late we stopped at a view point to watch the sunset over Umiam lake and the view was breathtaking. We had tea and maggie here and continued our journey towards Shillong. We didn't stop at Umian as we weren't interested in boating there. If you really wish to do both then you need to take an early morning flight if it is available.

We stayed at an army guest house and post breakfast we left for Double dekker root bridge in Cherrapunji. On the way we visited Garden of the caves which is a must visit for it beautiful caves and waterfalls. We spent close to 2hrs here and then left for living root bridge. Now living root bridge is quite a long trekk on foot and by the time we reached here it was already 4pm and people suggested us not to go however coming all the way here we didn't want to go back without seeing anything so we proceeded on foot. Good part is there are 2 bridges at this site. The first one is a 2hr trek and is the longest root bridge in Meghalaya. There was hardly anyone in site here so we spent around 20-25mins here and then proceeded back. It was getting dark and the path was lonely hence being on the safer side we returned.

Left very early morning around 7am to visit Mawlynnong village supposedly the cleanest village of India. I haven't clicked much pictures here as I didn't find anything fascinating about this place. I feel this can be avoided and you should spend more time at Krangshuri. From here we left for Dawki river which was not very far. We spent sometime in boating here. There are too many tourists at this site and although the place is beautiful the tourists from Bangladesh were mood spoilers due to their rowdy and loud behaviour.
From here we left for Krangshuri waterfalls. If you're a nature lover I suggest you skip both Dawki and Mawlynnong from your trip and head straight to Krangshuri. This was the most epic part of our day. This place is a short trekk away from the nearest parking site. It took about 15-20mins down the path to this beautiful waterfalls. We took a dip here and almost forgot how tired we had been from the heat at Dawki. The cool and crystal clear waters here were unforgettable.

Visit Elephant waterfalls and nearby sightseeing. Departure at night by train towards Baghdogra from where we catch our flight to Gangtok.

Tips: Meghalaya is one of the most cleanest and beautiful places I have ever been to in India. There are toilets located at very frequent stops and those are very well maintained. Our trip was short and hectic and I would suggest you to spend more time here. Visit Krangshuri and Wei Sawdong which are offbeat with very few tourists at those spots. Living root bridges are a must visit.