Trip to Shillong under 10k

We visited the famous ‘Cathedral Catholic Church’. The area of the church is huge. Honestly, I am not a follower of God. But the scenic beauty of this place and silence inside the church surely offers you peace of mind. You will not find any auto or rickshaw for public transport in Shillong as it is a hilly place. But, the yellow-black taxis are everywhere and they are cheap. You just need 10/- Rs to board them.

After the church, we went to the local market. And my long-awaited shopping in Shillong started. I couldn’t believe a strong, big, nice umbrella cost me only 200/- Rs. Damn yeah, Shillong is best for shopping. I also bought a dress for just 500/- Rs. But the only thing that might annoy you while shopping is that it is very difficult to bargain with the shopkeepers in Shillong. Most of the shopkeepers are local people. And surprisingly there is a very high Bengali population in Shillong. 30% of the shopkeepers were Bengali. Though Bengali shopkeepers were mostly male, the local Khasi shopkeepers were mostly female. The society in Meghalaya is matriarchal where the head of the family is not the father but the mother. The family wealth passes from the mother to daughter unlikely in any other states of India. The female head of the family earns for the family and takes care of everyone. Therefore, in most of the shops, there were only female keepers. Though the drivers of the taxis were mostly male.

For dinner, we went to the ‘City Hut’ Dhaba. There were many sections in the Dhaba. And it was decorated with flowers, fountains, and what not! One thing I have noticed in Shillong is that people in Shillong love to decorate their homes with plants and flowers. In front of every house, you will at least see 30-100 flower pots. Even in restaurants too, they like to decorate it with flowers. I bet people of Shillong have hearts as soft as flowers. This restaurant is awesome. The price is affordable too (we had a bill of 1600/- Rs. in total). You may try it while visiting Shillong.

We booked one cab for the next day’s travel. It was 2000/- Rs. for the entire day (1000/- Rs. per head). We decided not to visit Cherrapunji but to go to Dawki as it was difficult to cover all the locations in one day. So, we planned to visit Mawlynnong, Asia’s cleanest village, Dawki river, the India-Bangladesh border followed by the hanging bridge.

The next day, we started our trip at 7.30 am, because our driver Robin told us that it is better to start early.

The road to Mawlynnong reminded me of my journey to Ooty. It was so beautiful that we stopped our car on the roadside in the middle to click some photos. After, two and a half hours of the journey, we were finally there. Though to reach the root bridge, we had to walk approx. 500 steps down. It was not a problem while going down. It was a problem while coming up. First time in my life I saw a living root bridge. It was a single-decker one. The double-decker root-bridge is in Cherrapunji. I bet everyone should once in their life visit this place and have experience of this beautiful combined karishma of nature and humans.

One can also walk over the bridge and can go from one side to the other. But standing long on the bridge is not allowed as expected. After hanging out near the bridge for a while, we went roaming around the village. This was actually a very clean village. There was nothing dirty lying anywhere in the village. The houses were decorated with flowers. We also saw a bird-watching tower on top of a big tree. From that height of the tree-tower, the landscape seems even more beautiful.

From Mawlynnong we headed to Dawki, the river with the cleanest water in the North-East. Before visiting this place, I thought that the cleanliness of this water is exaggerated in articles and photos. My perception immediately changed when I reached there. The point of the Dawki river where boating is allowed is the India-Bangladesh border. It is fun to see people from India boating on one side of the river, whereas people from Bangladesh are swimming on the other side. We booked the full boat for an hour of boating and it cost us 1000/- Rs (500/- Rs. per head).

From Dawki, we went to the India-Bangladesh border check gate. Every day at least 1000 people visit this place from both sides. There were also a few options to have juice and packet food near this gate. One advice to whoever wants to have a trip like this is that please carry some food with you. There are not many options in these places to have street food unlike the other tourist places in India.

By the time we visited the border check gate, it was already 2 pm. We were very hungry. We asked Robin to take us to any hotel or restaurant where we could have lunch. But to our disappointment, there was no hotel nearby even after crossing many kilometers. As we were becoming hungrier, little did we know that the best surprise was waiting for us. Robin stopped the car in front of a new Dhaba where hardly 3-4 tables were there. The owner welcomed us with a bright smile. It was a local Khasi person who was running the Dhaba with his family. He said we can either have a ‘Chicken Thaali’ or a ‘Fish Thaali’. We opted for the ‘Fish Thaali’. It came with rice, fish curry, daal, and salad. The food was overall good. But that is not the best part. After we finished our meal, when we went to pay, the owner denied taking money. We were shocked and asked why. He said that it was the opening day of his Dhaba. So as a welcoming gesture, he is feeding all the guests for free. We were like ''What??'' I have never experienced anything like that in my life. I could realize that it is true that the North-East Indians have the best hearts in the world. We thanked them, wished them good luck and headed to our next destination the ‘Hanging Bridge’.

If you are from Delhi or any other big cities, and all your life you have only inhaled the polluted air, this place will be your sweet medicine. The air, the view everything was just perfect. Though the extreme height and shaking might scare you while you walk over the bridge, it is completely safe. We stayed for quite some time there. The Sun was setting and it was time to say goodbye to this beautiful place.

On the way, we could not resist stopping over by a road-side stall and click some sunset photos. But the cold was bitter and so we could not stay longer. We reached Shillong by 7.30 pm. Robin dropped us near ‘City Hut’ Dhaba. We had our dinner there and got home by 9 pm.

The next day, before coming back, we thought of visiting the Elephant Falls. So, we booked a cab for 1000/- Rs. (500/- Rs. per head) to take us to the Elephant Falls and from there to drop us near the cab-stand in Police Bazar. It was a quick short trip. You need to buy tickets to visit Elephant Falls. I do not remember the exact amount but it was not more than 50/- per person.

Our Shillong journey ended there. We could not visit many places due to the time constraint such as Cherrapunji, Mawsynram, Laitlum, Shillong viewpoint, Seven Sisters Falls, Mawsmai Cave, etc. But those are for another time because now that I am in love with Shillong, I have to come back.