(This story is part of my North-East travel series. For travel itinerary & tips, Meghalaya guide is coming soon.)
The Tale of an Epic Road Trip
Cherrapunji, along with the Root Bridge trek, ideally cannot be completed in a day, but we planned to try our level best by having an early start. We woke up at 5 and got ready by 6 AM. We checked out of our hotel, put luggage in the car, and left by 6.30. On our way, we had tea at a beautiful place 30 km away from Shillong. The road trip to Cherrapunji, as I’ve previously mentioned, is amazing. Every time I’ve been to Cherrapunji, I find myself at a loss for words to describe the scenic beauty around. While on one hand you pass through the valleys with hundreds of acres of barren land, with no building in sight and a straight road; on the other hand you also pass through spiral roads with one side blocked by the hill and one side open to look at the hill passes with clouds on top.
We, spellbound, stopped for some time at a random place amid the valley. On our left there were hills completely covered by clouds. After some time, when the clouds suddenly cleared only for a minute or so, I realized we were standing in front of Wah Kabah Waterfalls, which we couldn’t see due to clouds covering our vision. Last time I visited Cherrapunji 2 years back, the weather was quite clear and I could enjoy the beauty even better than I did this time, I realized.
The Tale of a Trek That Had Everything
Our next destination was the famous Double Decker Living Root Bridge. Situated 15 km ahead of Cherrapunji, the road to this natural wonder is a perfect way to sum up your visit to Meghalaya. From hanging bridges to clear water lakes, from heavenly trail to the living root bridges, one will find everything on the trek. After 3 hours, we reached the beginning of the Root Bridge trek. This is a reverse trek, since we first have to climb down to reach the destination, and then climb up on our way back. There are well defined plastered steps till the end of the trek, since there are villages with people living in and around the final destination. Hence you don’t need a guide, since you won’t be lost on the way. In one or two places, where the road diverges, one can generally find a signboard pointing you towards the right direction.
We started the trek at around 9.40 and first passed through a couple of villages and a giant rock. We could see beautiful flowers, different kinds of butterflies, plants that we couldn’t identify and constant voices of crickets throughout the trail, and then stood before us the first hanging bridge of the trek. The bridge, along with the river flowing below, was extremely beautiful. We could see crystal clear water below. It was quite frightening to cross the bridge, since it was oscillating whenever we tried to cross it. All of us were having fun while crossing it.
After 10 minutes of walking through the jungle again, we came across the second hanging bridge. The flow of this river was stronger than the previous one, and the clear green water looked extremely beautiful. We passed a Single Decker root bridge and a couple of more houses to arrive at the Double Decker root bridge by 10.45 AM, within an hour of starting the trek. It was the second time I was doing this trek, and it still was as amazing as the first time.
The Tale of Natural Fish Massage
We spent quite some time sitting near the stones, or under the small waterfall. Right around the waterfall, there were small fishes roaming around. We stepped into the water and stood still, and after a few seconds they started coming near our feet and tried eating or biting, whatever you want to call it. The whole process is very ticklish and you have to control yourself not to take your foot out of water and frighten them. However, it is quite fun and one should definitely get some natural fish massage here.
Nirav and I could also see different kinds of insects flying around. Once one of them sat on my elbow and refused to fly. Since I didn’t know what kind of flying insect it is and whether it stings, it was quite frightening, but the amazing slow motion video we made of it flying away from my elbow was worth the risk I took.
Please note, reaching the Double Decker root bridge is not the end of the trek. After trekking for another hour or so, 2 KM ahead of the root bridge, there’s another waterfall known as Rainbow Waterfall. That is supposedly beautiful and recommended if you’re up for a full day trek, but due to lack of time I did the trek only till the root bridge both times. If one wishes to do the trek in the afternoon and stay overnight, there are homestays around the Double Decker root bridge as well, though I don’t have much idea about the price or how to book.
I took a bath under the waterfall on my last visit and we wanted to do it this time as well, but since we had time constraint, we left the place at around 11.30. It took us about two hours to climb up to the top where the trek began. Nirav got lost on his way up and climbed more than he needed to, and then climbed back down.
The Tale of Failed Plans
Once we left from the place at 1.30, it took us an hour to reach Mawsmai Caves. We had our lunch there, which was sumptuous after a hectic trek, and then went in. It is an ancient natural cave made of limestone, and the formation hasn’t stopped. One can still see water droplets coming down and the gradual process of limestone being formed. Though we didn’t know much about the stone formation, we could see the difference between stones formed thousands of years back and some formed centuries back. Some of the passageway, however, is very narrow and one literally has to crouch and crawl to pass through it. The entrance of the cave is one way and you have to pass through the whole cave to reach the exit, therefore one can’t skip the narrow passageway. Therefore, it is not recommended for someone who is claustrophobic. But for us, the 15-20 minutes spent inside the cave was amazing.
We left from Mawsmai Caves for Shillong at 3.30 PM, since we were in a hurry to reach Shillong by 6 and then Guwahati by 9. Therefore we had to miss many other amazing places to visit in Cherrapunji, including Nohkalikai Falls (the tallest plunge waterfall in India), Seven Sisters Falls, Kwa-Ram Hah, Ramkrishna Mission and ancient cemetaries with stone monoliths. I have visited all of them in my earlier visits to Cherrapunji and can vouch for all these places. (There is nothing to see in Botanical Garden, however.)
We reached Shillong on time as planned. However, it was a Friday evening and people from Guwahati who work in Shillong were going back to their homes for the weekend. The prices, therefore, were skyrocketing and we learnt that it happens almost every Friday evening. We found a Tata Sumo after half an hour, who agreed to drop us at Rs.250-Rs.300 per seat, 1.5 times the regular fare.
The daredevils in us woke up the previous night when we decided to move up our itinerary to Kaziranga National Park instead of going back to Guwahati. Accordingly, we had already booked bus tickets to go to Kaziranga at night. However, the weather was not in our favour and it started raining again on our way back. When I called my contacts in Kaziranga, they advised us not to go there that night since the weather that week had been quite bad and we wouldn’t have been able to see many animals in the safari. We decided to let go of the bus, stay overnight in Guwahati and take a rest day as per our original plan, which we definitely needed after waking up by 5.30 every day for past 3 days. We reached our respective places by 10 PM, had dinner and slept.
How Much Did I Spend?
Here’s the rough estimate for the day:
Stay Rs.400 (Room on twin sharing)
Commute Rs.650 (Rs.3200 for a car for 8 + travel to Guwahati)
Sightseeing Rs.100
Food & Drinks Rs.250
Total Rs.1400
(To read about how we got stuck in a blizzard and how we crashed an Arunachali family picnic, please click here for the next story.)