Meghalaya is termed the Scotland of the East, and rightly so….with its lush green surroundings, hilly terrain, and tribal history. I have always been fascinated by East India, we have already visited Sikkim and Meghalaya was next on the list.
We decided to take a direct flight to Guwahati, Assam rather than taking a flight to Shillong, Meghalaya, the reason being there were no non-stop flights to Shillong. We took a 3-hour non-stop flight to Guwahati. Later we came to know that it seems the weather in Shillong keeps changing quickly and the flights tend to get canceled frequently, so I think we made a good choice. As our flight was reaching past midnight it was a good idea to stay the night at Guwahati.
Beautiful Meghalaya Road Trip
Day 1 – Guwahati (Assam)
We decided to visit Guwahati Zoo and Peacock Island – Umananda Temple. You need to take a 10-minute boat ride across the Brahmaputra River to reach the temple on Peacock Island. There is a ferry every hour. The last ferry returns from peacock island at 4.30 pm.
Due to the pandemic situation, all ticket bookings were online which we came to know after reaching the place. If you are planning to visit please book the tickets online before going it will save you a lot of time and hassle.
Zoo: https://assamstatezoo.in/proceedbooking
Ferry Ticket Booking: https://asiwt.in/
Guwahati Zoo has a good system for preventing plastic littering – At the entrance, your bags are checked for plastic. You are asked to deposit Rs 10/- per plastic item, you carry into the zoo. For example, if you have a plastic water bottle and a packet of chips you will be required to deposit Rs. 20/-. You will get back your deposit on your return if you bring back the plastic items you took with you. I think more places should implement this system to prevent the littering of plastic. You can check our Instagram account @learn_and_excel for the clips from the zoo.
The temple is clean, peaceful, and feels divine. You will need to climb stairs to reach the temple after disembarking from the ferry. There are some fruit stalls and some other vendors. About 45 min is enough to visit the whole place.
Beware as you enter each of the idols a priest will make you do puja and expect Dakshina (over and above what you might put in the donation box or offer to the idol/Lord). Choose wisely.
The sunset view from peacock island was very beautiful.
After spending another night at Guwahati we left for Shillong the next day.
Day 2 – Shillong (Meghalaya)
On the way to Shillong, we visited Umami Lake. It has a beautiful open area around the lake. Not just the tourists but a lot of local families come here for picnics and to spend the day at this place. A special attraction to this place is the boating facility. I also hired the local Khasi costume and got some pictures clicked.
We also did zip lining across the valley close to one of the viewpoints on the way to Shillong. It was an awesome experience….though we have done zip lining earlier this was one of the longest ones.
On reaching Shillong we checked into our hotel, changed into warmer clothing, and went to see the “Cathedral of Mary Help of Christians” church. It is supposed to be the Biggest and Oldest church in Shillong. It is a beautiful divine place. A must-visit while in Shillong.
Day 3 – Shillong to Sohra (Meghalaya)
We started our journey from Shillong to Sohra (Cheerapunjee).
En route visit the Elephant Waterfalls. You would need to climb down around 150 steps/stairs to get to the falls. It is a very beautiful 3-stage waterfall and quite popular among tourists.
Our next stop was Wah Kaba Waterfalls. You need to climb down close to 500 steps to get close to the fall. It was a magical experience of floating among the clouds. As you climb down towards the falls you are surrounded by mist. At one particular spot, I closed my eyes and stood with wide arms…..as the mist and wind flew by me, I felt as if I am flying in the air. Another special thing about these falls is that you can actually reach the source of the falls. I would highly recommend visiting this fall.
We stopped for lunch at a place called “Orange Roots”. The specialty of this place is that it has all-women staff.
Our final stop for the day was Arwah Caves. Don’t miss it! We were lucky that we found a local guy named ‘Jobi” who helped us explore the cave. He took us to the unlit portions of the cave and showed us the fossils that we would have otherwise missed as we didn’t know where to look for them. My 10-year-old was very excited about the cave.
In Meghalaya, it starts to get dark at around 5 p.m. So most days we tried to reach the hotel around 5-6 pm. We checked into our hotel at Sohra for the night.
Day 4 – Sohra -Trekking (Meghalaya)
It was our big day today. We were going to trek to the double-decker living root bridge at Nongriat.
We left our hotel at around 7.15 am. It took about half an hour for us to drive to Tyrna village, from where the trek started. The cars are to be parked in this village and the rest of the way one is on go foot. One doesn’t need a guide for this trek. There are young boys selling bamboo sticks for Rs. 20/-. You might want to take one of those, it helps on the way up. We started our trek around 8 am.
Reaching the midpoint
After about 1500 steps, we reached a place called Nongthymmai. This is the midpoint of the Nongriat trek. There is a diversion here for the single living root bridge There is an Rs. 10-20 per head ticket to visit the root bridge. It is better to visit this on your way down rather than leave it for later. You might be too tired on your way up to want to walk a little extra to go and see the bridge.
Within a few minutes, we reached this living root bridge. We went over the bridge, took pictures, sat down a bit and had oranges and some nuts, and then got back to our trail for the Nongriat trek.
Very soon, we reached an iron suspension bridge. The bridge is built over a blue-green water body. Because of the blue-green color of the waters, this place is called the blue lagoon. Some people stop here to take a dip. We decided to move on.
After a few minutes of trekking, comes another suspension bridge and then a flight of steep stairs.
Keep up the climb until you come across a small root bridge. This one is at the entrance of a village. Keep going as the stairs go up and down until you reach a small ticket counter. This ticket is to enter the area of the double-decker root bridges. We got the tickets and went inside the small gate.
We reached the Double Decker Bridge in Nongriat at about 10.00 am. It was a sight to behold…..
We went back and forth on both bridges a couple of times. I sat down with my feet in the cool refreshing water to rejuvenate. There are fishes in this pool of water and they kind of give you a pedicure.
There were a couple of small stalls near the Double Decker root bridge. We ordered Maggi and tea from one of them and had them at peace while relaxing with our feet in the water. Some people swim here too. It’s a good idea to carry your costume or a change of clothing if you want to swim.
Though I did not find any changing rooms here.
The Climb Up
People who want to proceed with the trek to Rainbow Falls don’t spend too much time and continue with their trek as it would take them 1.5-2 hours more to reach the falls. We decided to skip the further trek as this not being the monsoon season the falls didn’t have too much water, that is what we had heard. Plus we wanted to save energy for our climb back.
We started our climb back around 11.30 am. As you approach the halfway mark you will find a few stalls serving cucumber, cold drinks, Maggi, local lemon water, etc. These stalls weren’t open when we trekked down early in the morning. The climb after the halfway mark is a bit difficult as the steps are steep.
We reached back Tyrna village around 1.45 pm taking breaks every now and then. In all, it took us around 6 hours to complete the trek. Our 10-year-old was way faster……He had to wait for us to catch up to him throughout. It was a feeling of exhilaration to complete the trek.
We went to Jiva Resort for our lunch and then back to the hotel. The Jiva Resort has only 8 rooms but it is a beautiful property. If you are planning to stay at Sohra I would recommend this property.
Day 5 – Dawki/Shnongpdeng (Meghalaya) – Border with Bangladesh
We started our journey to Shnongpdeng from Cheerapunjee / Sohra. We skipped the visit to Mawlynnong (the cleanest village in Asia) as our son wasn’t feeling too well as it saved us travel of about 3 hours. En route stopped at a viewpoint and then reached Dawki.
We did a boat ride on the Umngot River at Dawki. It was a 45 min boat ride through the turquoise waters of the river. The name of our boatman was ‘Starway’, named after his boat. We asked him what his real name was and he smiled and replied that was his real name. In places, the water is crystal clear and you can see the rocks at the bottom. You will spot quite a few fishermen and fisherwomen in their boats towards the sides of the river where the waters are less disturbed.
You also get to see the borderless border with Bangladesh. One can easily interact with people across the border. Some hawkers and vendors from across the border try to sell their wares to tourists. We bought the ‘Meethe ber’ (sweetened jujube fruit) from them.
There are not many hotels both at Dawki and Shnongpdeng. At most, you will find some basic homestays. We traveled to Shnongpdeng about 7kms from Dawki and checked into a hotel called ‘Betelnut’. True to its name there are a lot of Betelnut trees at the property and the view from the room was fabulous. The approach to this place had a bad road stretch for a few kilometers but it was absolutely worth it.
After lunch, we went to the water sports activity point about a kilometer from the hotel. It was early evening around 4 pm when we went there and the activities closed at 5 pm. So we did kayaking and skipped the boating as we had already done that earlier in the day. There are other activities available there too like cliff jumping etc.
Day 6 – Shnongpdeng to Shillong (Meghalaya)
Shnongpdeng to Shillong is about 90kms and if you go non-stop it should take about 3 hours. Usually, people take stops for sightseeing and hence almost the entire day is spent moving from one place to another.
On our way from Shnongpdeng to Shillong, we stopped at Krang Suri falls. It takes about 15-20 min to go down to the falls. I found these falls to be the most scenic and amazing among the ones we visited. Enjoy a swim in the turquoise blue waters with a life jacket. There is an entrance fee to the falls and you need to hire a life jacket if you plan to swim. The life jackets are available for hire @ Rs. 50/-each.
After a stopover for lunch, we traveled to the Laitlum Canyon. We were lucky to get a great view of the sunset. It seems the weather at this place changes very quickly and only one out of 10 gets to see a sunset.
It took us around an hour to reach our hotel. We stayed at the ‘The Heritage Club – Tripura Castle’ hotel. It is a beautiful property, considered to be one of the best in Shillong.
Day 7 – Shillong (Meghalaya)
We had a forest-view cottage and we opened our eyes to a beautiful view….the cherry blossoms and more. We found Cherry Blossoms everywhere in Shillong.
This was our day for local sightseeing at Shillong. We started with the Don Bosco Museum. It is a 7-floor museum so it will take time to go through all the floors even if you just walk through the displays. It took us around 2 hours at the Museum. On the topmost floor, you get to see an 8-min musical documentary on North East. Then there is a skywalk area which gives a birds-eye view of the entire city. There is a small cafe too at the Museum. It definitely is a must-visit in Shillong.
Then we went for lunch to the ‘city hut dhaba’, which came highly recommended for the quality of food by our driver cum guide.
After lunch, we traveled to the Sacred Forest. Here too there is an entry fee. You need to hire a guide to take you inside the forest. We took a 45-min tour. One is not allowed to take anything out of the forest, not even a twig. It seems till about 700 hundred years ago there were rituals performed here and hence this forest is considered Scared. We were shown the Rudraksha tree, the site where rituals were first practiced before they could be finally performed at the actual ritual performance site. You are allowed to take pictures till the practice site, but once you enter the actual ritual area, no pictures are allowed.
Day 8 – Shillong to Guwahati – End of our trip
To catch our flight to Mumbai scheduled for 4 pm, we checked out at 10 am from the hotel and started our travel back from Shillong to Guwahati. The traffic condition in Shillong is very bad. It took us over an hour to just get out of the city. I would recommend that one stays outside of Shillong so that the traffic to and fro from the hotel properties is avoided.
Came across another borderless border on the highway from Shillong to Guwahati. Assam and Meghalaya are separated by the divider on the highway. One side is Meghalaya and the other is Assam. The Petrol (Gas) rates on either side of the divider differ due to the taxes of each state.
We reached Guwahati Airport at around 2.40 pm, and we took a lunch break on the way to the airport.
It was time to say goodbye to Meghalaya and a big Thank you!
Khublei (God Bless in Khasi) Meghalaya!
The Khasi people are an ethnic group of Meghalaya. Around a million people speak the Khasi language. Post your queries in the comments below and we will try and address them.