Meghalaya: abode of clouds
I embarked on my visit to Meghalaya and took a
flight to Guwahati from Bombay via Kolkata. I landed at Guwahati early morning
the heavy black clouds welcomed me. On the way to Shillong by road, we passed by a huge lake called Umiam or
Barapani Lake. The story goes by that one-day princess standing on the hill
mistakenly dropped her ring into the valley and her father, the king dug up the
whole valley thus forming the lake. After watching a beautiful sunrise at the
lake, I stopped over for lunch on roadside restaurant. I reached Shillong by
evening soaking into the pristine beauty on either side of the hilly terrain of
our fantastic drive through the winding roads. After getting fresh, I ventured
out for a stroll in the adjoining street and devoured the hot crispy Jalebis by
the roadside. It seems the shop owner has made to the Guinness book of world record
in making the largest Jalebi!!
After doing some street shopping, I woke up next morning to visit the
botanical garden at Shillong, it is full of beautiful flowers of all colours
and kinds. But surprisingly none of them had any kind of fragrance! Also we
visited the Wards lake and enjoyed the sight of pretty red lotuses and ducks in
the lake. Then I visited the museum, which was amazing; it had all the details
and information about Meghalayan tribes. After lunch the time came to visit
Cheerapunji, the wettest place I have ever visited. It had many waterfalls but
I managed to visit a few of them. The water was crystal clear and ice cold and
the heavy rains added to the cold weather. I got a chance to visit the school
set up by Shri Ramkrishna Paramhansa Mission, which provided education to all
the needy children of Shillong.
On the way back I also visited the Nohkalikai waterfall. It too has an
interesting story. Once a widow with her son lived with her second husband, the
husband used to hate his stepson and so he killed him and threw him down the
valley. Shaken by the sorrow of loss of her child the women too jumped down the
valley at the waterfall, thus the waterfall got its name from the deceased
lady. In spite of its uncomfortable
nomenclature the waterfall is a pleasure to the eyes. Then I had the chance to see India’s only
natural golf course too!
I also visited the interesting hidden caves which according to many
people are formed due to reaction of calcium oxide and rain water. It truly was
fun to climb through the caves almost like the pirates of Carribean. Food here
is greatly influenced by Chinese yet is memorable. The locals were quite sweet
and gave us a warm welcome at all the places I visited. Shopping here is
remarkably cheap. There is an underground building where as you go down the floors,
price of the goods decreases.
As a whole my short trip to
Shillong was lovely. When I was on my way back to Guwahati airport, part of
city was flooded due to continuous rains lashing for the last few days. My
heart was feeling sudden pang of guilt as my nice holiday was about to end. Yet
I really did fell in love with wet air of Meghalaya.
