Adventure in Land of Clouds - Meghalaya

I recently went to the state of Meghalaya for a holiday. It's called the “Land of Clouds”

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Firstly, I would like to explain how I arrived at choosing Meghalaya. I had 3 days of leave in my schedule and wanted a quick getaway for something not regular stuff I  encounter in my regular work travels. So I was contemplating going to Sri Lanka/Vietnam/Thailand/Himachal Pradesh/Uttarakhand/NE States of India. As it was a short trip, I narrowed down to Sri Lanka or NE states. I visited Sikkim and Assam before so wanted to cover other states especially Meghalaya. Given the weather in month of March, I finalized on Meghalaya.

I neither had time to plan my trip nor came across people who could guide me what all places to cover. I initially checked the official tourism website of Meghalaya govt and relied on chatGPT for an itinerary. Then I realized for a short solo trip better to approach a tour operator and then made multiple calls. I specified my requirements of stay at a campsite and home stay and cover maximum adventure places.  After couple of iterations, I quickly narrowed down to 1 operator and finalized the itinerary- which was 10 days before my trip day. The tour operator I choose for my trip was GoSomewhere.in who crafted an itinerary as per my requirements.

Started my Trip Day1 early morning from Hyderabad on flight to Guwahati. As soon as I reached Guwahati airport, my personal guide was ready for pick up. My guide - Richborn Jana - was a local Meghalayan who was a graduate in Tourism. There is a unique story behind his name but I am not going to write about it here but rather prefer you have a conversation with him to know about it. I was very lucky that instantly we connected and synced with each other well on how we were going to go about our trip.

So we started from Guwahati to go first towards West Jaintia Hills to cover Krang Shuri waterfalls. We  entered Meghalaya and had breakfast on route and later we passed by Shillong airport where I stopped by to check out the place and met a colleague who validated my itinerary as a good one. Then first stop was Krang Shuri Waterfalls and boy what a sight it was! It gave me the confidence of good start. Next we went to Dawki river for boating. Though the water was not high and as pristine as claimdue to bridge construction works, the boat ride was excellent. The ride stopped upstream at a point where we had an option of having a snack and beverage to chill by the river with water flowing on your feet.  It was an excellent stop which allowed me to have a random conversation with other travelers and we all had a good time before returning back. Finally went to my night halt location of Mawlynnong village for my home stay. “Delphi and Risa homestay” offered me a chance to live like a proper local person in a village setting helping me to wake up to the rustic sounds and natural environment of the region.

My day2 started with a trip to Mawlynnong village -"Asia's cleanest village ". It was indeed clean and fabulous place and made me wonder why more villages cannot be like it. There were many in village homestays as well. Later proceeded for the trek to Nongriat. For this trek,  I was accompanied by another guide- Japeth who was fabulous throughout the trek. It was a steep descent initially almost 3500 steps to reach  Living Double Decker Living root bridge. It's a wonderful nature's gift which was really heart warming. A further trek crossing a difficult terrain with wooden ladder stairs and further walk towards the blue lagoon. Almost close to the destination,  I almost gave up. A pep talk by the local vendor made me take few more steps and the sight of blue lagoon itself made me wanting to swim there. It was a breathtaking place and a perfect reward for the grueling hard trek to reach the place. I took a dive into the blue lagoon which helped me cool down and get ready for the trek back. The trek up was so tough but with positive encouragement from other trekkers helped a great way in reaching back. I would like to acknowledge a good Samaritan couple (other visitors from Bengaluru) who were friendly and offered electrolyte water at a very critical time for me. Once the trek completed,  went to the campsite in Sohra which was my night stay.

The campsite was located within Sa-i-Mika Resort in Sohra region of Meghalaya in Khasi Hills. It was a brilliant setup for tourists which housed cottages,  camping,  restaurant,  bar and play are for kids. I highly recommend this place! The campsite had campfire, music speakers and bonfire for all to sit and relax. Met other campers there and one fellow camper and me hit the bar within the resort to try the  local gin. Overall a fantastic stay.

Day3 started early and quickly visited Wei-Saw Dong waterfalls which was a three layered waterfalls followed by Noh Ka Likai waterfalls which is India's third highest waterfall. Next visit was “Garden of Caves ”. This was a wonderful place for all tourists to visit as for me it was Meghalaya in a nutshell tour for adventure enthusiasts.  The place had Caves,  waterfalls,  rocks, wooden bridge treks. The place itself narrates what is there and why. Next stopped by mawkdok valley briefly and headed towards Mawphlang Sacred forest which was a holy place for the local population. It had great natural trees which were well preserved. The Sacred forest was guided by a local tour guide (Vish Roy) and there too I met wonderful co tourists. The tour guide took fabulous pictures of us which i never had got clicked that way! Next was to rush back to Guwahati airport for my return to Hyderabad.

My Click by my guide in Sacred Forest

My views on my holiday:

Fabulous place to visit for sure and it needs a long duration or multiple visits. Great for adventure enthusiasts,  calm  explorers, waterfalls and water thrill seekers,  nature lovers etc.

Got to experience local food (Khasi and Jaintia meals). It was simple yet tasty - completely organic and rich in nutrients. Loved the beetle nut ending. Even Lime juice I had during my trek tasted different as it was a natural hill grown limes. So being a foodie,  it definitely clicked with me.

Beetelnut Tree

Listened to Khraw Umdor songs - Arijit Singh of Meghalaya.  Liked them - good for karaoke fun 🎤

One aspect which disturbed me on my trip was my stay near Mawlynnong village. It was outside the main village and next morning when I visited the actual village and found homestays within,  I  was furious with my tour organizer. However,  on reflection I feel, it was better to stay outside and appreciate the beauty of the village which was by the villagers and too many visitors staying within would  encourage commercialization and the place might loose its sanctity.

Besides Memories, friendships, I took home Tangerines which were fabulous and would not like to open a debate here on if they were better than Nagpur Oranges 😝, Pineapple - more fibrous than what I tasted, Strawberries - definitely yummy, a bottle of Khasi Red Wine 🍷 and wild cinnamon which is punchy!

P.S: My independent views and no commercial interests involved or influenced by anyone.

For imagine, please check out my Instagram profile [https://www.instagram.com/karangeddam?igsh=Y3RxaTRhNHl0cDRz](https://www.instagram.com/karangeddam?igsh=Y3RxaTRhNHl0cDRz)​

Please watch the reel in full to understand how difficult or easy as per your trekking level experience it was of the Nongriat Living root bridge  - https\://www\.instagram.com/reel/DVtNRTtE\_XF/?igsh=bmZnNDA3Mjg2dmY2

Meghalaya Tourism - https://www.meghalayatourism.in