[//M]

The land of torrential rainfall and the abode of the clouds, Meghalaya, is a dramatic combination of rolling hills, dense forests, living root bridges, turquoise water-bodies, unexplored valleys, mysterious caves and myriads of stunning waterfalls.

Tucked away nicely between the vast plains of Bangladesh and Assam, the entire state is essentially hilly, with massive cliffs that stand guard bordering India from its neighbouring country, Bangladesh. The state's geographical positioning surrounded by mountains, valleys and rivers is a treasure house of a breathtaking array of flowers and a bounty of flora and fauna.

Here is a snapshot of our trip to this beautiful state called Meghalaya.

[//M]

THE PLAN

Circa 2017 : Myself and a few friends decided to undertake our annual pilgrimage (read annual reunion) trip to some place closer to home as most of us stayed in different parts of the country and getting leaves from work was still a luxury. So in order to do away with video calls, we typically go on a 4-5 day trip to some place which doesn't requires much planning. This annual pilgrimage is essentially to re-connect with friends, relax a bit and share a laugh with the squad.

Meghalaya, in this case, was not exactly a place to relax as the state is full of fun activities and unexplored trails. However, since some of us had already been to Meghalaya and explored the state to an extent, we thought we can relax a bit and while we are at it, maybe do some hiking or swimming as well.

To keep it simple and sweet, we decided to reach Guwahati on a particular date, hire a ZoomCar and head towards Meghalaya, spend 5-6 days with each other, drive back to Guwahati and finally fly back to our respective cities.

[//M]

Fast Forward to Dec 2017

On reaching Guwahati, we straight away headed to the ZoomCar pickup point off the GS Road. Back in 2017, this was the only ZoomCar pickup/drop point in Guwahati. I am told that now there is a ZoomCar pickup/drop point at the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport in Guwahati so this will eliminate hunting down the GS road pickup point, which was situated in one of those narrow bylanes back then and was hence difficult to locate.

We were seven of us and had booked a Ford Aspire and a Ford Ecosport through the ZoomCar app. However, on reaching Guwahati we realised that our Ecosport booking has been upgraded to Creta and the Aspire that was assigned to our booking had met with a crash the previous night so they had allocated a Ford Figo against our booking and had refunded the additional amount spent on the Aspire booking to our ZoomCar account. The cars were in fine shape, surprisingly clean inside out.

We grabbed lunch from a nearby Subway outlet in GS Road and gunned down the road to Shillong. The road from Guwahati to Shillong goes via the very picturesque Umiam Lake. We had a delayed start from Guwahati so we chose not to stop at Umiam Lake as the sun sets at 4:30 PM in the North-Eastern states during the winter months so we had only limited time to enjoy daylight driving. The road was fantastic though - wide corners, flat surface, serpentine sections and beautiful landscapes. The Guwahati to Umiam Lake stretch will most definitely put a wide grin on the face of every petrolhead. The Figo TDCI that I was driving was a wonderful tool to enjoy such roads. While I was enjoying at the helm of this wonderful hatchback, my co-passengers were a little perplexed about my maniac driving skills on public roads, so I had to calm down a little from my boy-racer driving mode to a more subtle Buddha mode.

Umiam Lake at dusk



We reached Shillong by 9 PM and headed straight to our Airbnb, Ken & Twill, in Shillong. The Airbnb was managed by a young and friendly chap named Ashley. The weather in Shillong was pretty chilly so we had to resort to room heaters immediately.

Ken & Twill is a nice homestay, situated close to the main market, yet feels far off from the hustle bustle of the city. It is a beautifully done up bungalow with enough space for a 15 people group and enough parking for upto 7-8 cars. Personally, I would definitely recommend it. We stayed there for two nights and had almost the entire bungalow to ourselves so we actually enjoyed singing and dancing around the property while we were there.

Few clicks of the Ken & Twill Airbnb

[//M]

Our only agenda for the next day was to spend time at Krang Suri waterfalls so we headed towards Jowai after breakfast and then towards Krang Suri Falls. When we reached there, we couldn't find any other vehicle in the parking lot so we were a little glad that the place is not as touristy as we had thought it to be. We trekked down to the falls, it took us almost 20-25 minutes through well marked trails to reach the falls. What we saw left us spellbound - beautiful, pristine turquoise waters and not a soul around. We tipped a villager in exchange for three life-vests and jumped off into the inviting serene turquoise waters of the waterfalls. The water was cold, rather bone-chilling but it was a quite an experience for us.

Beautiful roads from Shillong to Jowai
















Krang Suri Waterfalls
































Monolith structures near the parking lot



No other vehicles in the parking lot




After spending almost 3-3.5 hours at Krang Suri, we headed towards Dawki. It was already dark by the time we reached Dawki so boating on the Umngot river was out of question. We however went till the Tamabil border and then returned back towards Shillong to our homestay, where Ashley had a barbeque and bonfire setup ready for us.

Tamabil Border at Sylhet






Bonfire at Ken & Twill

[//M]

The next day we drove down to Cherapunjee (or Sohra) from Shillong. The roads were excellent all throughout and the valleys gave way to rocky cliffs and waterfalls as we descended down towards Cherapunjee. We were put up at the Polo Orchid Hotel in Cherrapunjee which was located right next to the famous Seven Sisters waterfalls on one side and the vast plains of Bangladesh down below on the other side.

A final goodbye to Ashley and Ken & Twill at Shillong




Our steeds - Hyundai Creta 1.4 CRDi and Ford Figo 1.5 TDCI






Valleys alongside the road to Sohra














Seven Sisters Waterfalls




Plains of Bangladesh as seen from the balcony of our room at Polo Orchid Resort, Cherrapunjee








After a brief stopover at the hotel, we went to witness the splendour of the magical Nohkalikai Waterfalls and positioned ourselves at a nice vantage point away from the crowd to see the torrents of the majestic Nohkalikai falls cascade down a mighty crag into a plunge pool before disappearing in the dense foliage down below.

Few clicks of the stunning Nohkalikai Waterfalls










Due to short days and longer nights in this part of the country, it was already dark by the time we reached the Mawsmai Caves. Since there was no other tourist around, we made a quick dash inside the cave and came out in no time.

Mawsmai Caves

[//M]

The next day was dedicated to Nongriat so we woke up very early and drove down to Tyrna till the last motorable point. We started descending on foot towards Nongriat but it was a never-ending flight of stairs through the woods. The views and landscapes, were nothing but spectacular though.

The forest trail was well-marked and paved in most of the stretches, specially around laidback villages near Nongriat. There were too many suspended bridges and living root bridges around. Add to that some spectacular mountain scenery that begged us to stop and admire the beauty of the place every now and then.

[//M]

After a 2-2.5 hour walk, we reached Nongriat. It is a small laidback beautiful village amidst the dense forests with one stunning double-decker living root bridge that was over 250 years old and still growing !










The water in the streams and plunge pools were as clear as ever. We had spent an hour at Nongriat, post which we decided to hike a little further till the Rainbow Falls. While we had met a few tourists on our way to Nongriat, the Rainbow Falls trail had nobody but us. Again, the trail went through spectacular root bridges and the forest was even more dense than before.














Finally after a 1.5 hour walk from Nongriat, we were at Rainbow waterfalls. The place was absolutely serene, the water was clear and turquoise blue which looked straight out of a fairytale. There was another plunge pool near Rainbow Falls with extremely clear waters. We really enjoyed a swim there however due to constant drizzle, I avoided taking out the camera to click pictures.










The Rainbow Falls to Tyrna parking lot was a long 4-4.5 hour trek and daylight was limited so we started walking back towards Nongriat and did not stop anywhere midway. We stopped for a late lunch at Nongriat, simple maggi and chai. Thereafter, we started climbing back to Tyrna and by the time we reached the parking lot, it was dark and quiet and scary. So we jumped into the cars, tired and exhausted, and drove back towards the resort. Needless to say, we slept like a log that night !

[//M]

As part of the last leg of the trip, we drove back to Shillong and further to Guwahati. It drizzled throughout the day but the weather was extremely pleasing.

We drove through Shillong and could witness cherry blossom trees (or lookalike, pardon my lack of knowledge on the subject ) along the road.








After spending some time in the state capital (also known as the Scotland of the East), we stopped at Umiam Lake which looked stunning with the dense canopy of trees bordering the vast waterbody and dark clouds looming overhead.
































The finally stretch from Umiam Lake to Guwahati was again through a fantastic patch of mountain road, tailor-made for petrolheads. We dropped off the cars at the ZoomCar drop-off point off GS Road. The cars had performed well, there were no hiccups with either of the cars throughout the journey.

The eventful trip to Meghalaya had come to an end. We headed back to the airport bidding good-bye to this beautiful state. As the flight took off, we could see the vast forestland beneath which looked surreal covered in clouds. Finally the forests gave way to valleys and plains and in no time we had the Bay of Bengal in sight.

As the flight made its way towards home, we promised to ourselves that we will return back to Meghalaya at the slightest pretext just to to hike up those unexplored yet inviting trails and to take a dip in those icy cold turquoise-blue clear waters.

Thank You for reading !

[Rudra Sen]

Mod note: Thread moved to Travelogues. Thanks for sharing.

[earthian]

Wow. That was a crisp and nice travelogue. This is the 3rd one i have read recently and shall definitely go to Meghalaya once things are back to normal. Thank you for sharing those beautiful photographs too.
A few questions, if i may.

What other cars are available with Zoom cars? Any other car hire agency?

Which month did you go in 2017?

Are the treks strenuous? 4.5 hours one way seems quite a lot!

How was the Polo Orchid Resort?

[Samfromindia]

Although i have seen teaser pics of this trip on whatsapp before here on computer they are looking as if you went to paradise ! Meghalaya is becoming popular with Indian tourists and people are finally appreciating the beauty of North East india. Rated ***** for the narration & photography.

Just curious, how much KM did you travel in total for Zoomcar and how much did it cost you ? I normally take them for nearby overnight trips but never for long distance tours where i find them pricey.

[//M]

Originally Posted by earthian

Wow. That was a crisp and nice travelogue. This is the 3rd one i have read recently and shall definitely go to Meghalaya once things are back to normal. Thank you for sharing those beautiful photographs too.

Thank you.

The reply to your queries is in bold and italics below.

Originally Posted by earthian

A few questions, if i may.

What other cars are available with Zoom cars? Any other car hire agency?

There is no presence of Myles / Revv / Voler in Guwahati. Apart from ZoomCar, there is another service provider named Awerides. Here is a link to their website - awerides


Which month did you go in 2017?

Our travel dates were 4th December 2017 to 9th December 2017


Are the treks strenuous? 4.5 hours one way seems quite a lot!

Most of the treks are enjoyable and marginally strenous. However, the Tyrna - Nongriat - Rainbow Falls and back to Tyrna in a single day can get very tiring as it may require 8+ hours of walking through stairs and trails. You may chose to stay at Nongriat but stay options are very limited and basic.


How was the Polo Orchid Resort?

The Polo Orchid Resort was the only decent resort we found available online at Cherrapunjee during our travel days. I am not sure about the current scenario, there might be alternate stay options around now.

Location-wise, Polo Orchid scores a lot of brownie points but for the tariff they charge, the service is not really up to the mark. Food is at best good, nothing great. We found smaller restaurants and eateries in Cherrapunjee which had quite a few local delicacies on offer. If you are a non-vegetarian, you will love the local pork preparations.

Originally Posted by Samfromindia

Although i have seen teaser pics of this trip on whatsapp before here on computer they are looking as if you went to paradise ! Meghalaya is becoming popular with Indian tourists and people are finally appreciating the beauty of North East india. Rated ***** for the narration & photography.

Just curious, how much KM did you travel in total for Zoomcar and how much did it cost you ? I normally take them for nearby overnight trips but never for long distance tours where i find them pricey.

Thank You. The whatsapp teasers were too much, I guess.

Although I do not remember the exact odo reading, but we had covered a little over 600 kms ex-Guwahati. ZoomCar costed us roughly 16 K for the Ecosport (which was later upgraded to Creta) and 12.5 K for the Aspire (out of which ZoomCar had returned 2.5 K as they had assigned us a Figo instead). The prices have however gone up since then, so expect around 20% higher rates now.

[Thermodynamics]

Dream land. Beautiful pictures.

Rating 5 stars, will bookmark this thread. I guess November/December would be a good season to visit ?

[//M]

Originally Posted by Thermodynamics

Dream land. Beautiful pictures.

Rating 5 stars, will bookmark this thread. I guess November/December would be a good season to visit ?

Many thanks Thermodynamics.

You are right about Nov/Dec being the right time to visit the state. Though these are the drier months, it is always better to keep rain gear handy in these places.

Despite favourable weather during Dec 2017, we encountered incessant rainfall on atleast couple of days.

[vnabhi]

Great TL @//M. I completed the Guwahati-Shillong-Dawki-Sohra trip end of Dec 2019, and have vivid memories. I too had thought of hiring a Zoom Ecosport, but chose to get my hotels and travel through a travel agency instead, based on a friend's advice. This is because it is very difficult to find parking in Shillong, and also tough to soak the views while driving. But in retrospect, I think I should have hired a self-drive car.

I did not even think of taking the Double Decker living root bridge owing to paucity of time and also due to the fact that I am no longer young or fit enough to take on such arduous treks.

Good to know you had a good time.