(This story is part of my North-East travel series. For travel itinerary & tips, Meghalaya guide is coming soon.)
Meghalaya, literally translated to ‘adobe of the hills’, stands by its name. Shillong, the capital, is at the center of the state and can be used as a base to visit the other destinations in the state. It is just 2-3 hours by road from Guwahati, the gateway to North-East, which has direct connectivity from all Tier 1 cities and quite a few Tier 2 ones.
The Tale of Hotel Nightmare
We reached Guwahati at night on Day 0, 7th March 2017. Guwahati is also my hometown. Since a couple of us planned for an extremely long trip, we decided to keep Guwahati as base, keep the extra luggage at my home, and take a hotel near Khanapara, from where one takes rental vehicles to reach Shillong. However, the only good hotel in the locality got sold out, it was past 10 at night, and there was no other good hotel nearby. Instead of booking another cab and going on a hotel hunt, we rather decided to book a sub-par place just to spend the night, since we were leaving at 6 in the morning anyway. It was not an ideal choice and not the most comfortable start to the journey, but it was manageable, or so my friends said.
Before you frown, a gentle reminder that in North-East India, sun rises and sets 1 hour earlier than in central India and 2 hours earlier than in western India. Therefore it’s better to start your day at 6-7 AM, (wherever applicable) and finish sightseeing by 5, since it becomes pitch-dark after that.
We left for Khanapara at 6.30 the next morning. To reach Shillong, 10 seater Tata Sumos are available here 6 AM onward, that charge you Rs.200 per seat or Rs.2000 for the whole car. Since it was only a two hour journey, we rented it on per seat basis, and started in no time. One can see the beautiful and huge Umiam Lake, 20km before reaching Shillong, but since we didn’t reserve the car, we did not stop there, planning to come back later. We reached Shillong by 9.30. Meghalaya is a relatively costlier place for budget backpackers, and since we did not have any prior booking, we took time to find places to stay. We finally decided upon a hotel in Police Bazar, the center point of Shillong, quickly freshened up and went to my usual place – a Bengali hotel – for breakfast.
The Tale of the Blue Cathedral
Just like any other hill station in North India, you will find numerous cab-cum-tourist guides in the city center. The 4-seater yellow taxicabs in Police Bazar will provide a set itinerary for the whole day at prices ranging up to Rs.1000-1200 (depending on your negotiation power), which is a steal deal. However, since this was my nth visit to Shillong, I knew which places to exclude from the itinerary and which additional places to include. Finally after negotiation, we finalized two cabs for the day.
It was already 11 by the time we started, which is almost half the day. Without further delay, we started for Elephant Falls . This is a beautiful short fall, with 3 parts, each part hardly 10-15 metres tall. One can go near the lowermost part. It is a picturesque location, except which there is nothing much to do here . The female folks can also rent the traditional Khasi costumes and take pictures, which is what Neha and Priyanka did.
We then headed for the Air Force Museum, which was on the way to Shillong peak, so we didn’t have to take a detour. It was lunch time and the museum was closed, but Neha being a master negotiator, pleaded the guards that we have come a long way from across the country. The in-charge was sweet enough to let us in. For those who are not interested in aviation, this is a nice place to take pictures, but for those who are (which Nirav was), this is pure gold. From Sukhoy to MIG-21, replicas of different fighter planes, helicopters and RADAR systems, mostly life-size, are on display. We got inside some of them as well.
Our next stop was Shillong Peak, which is a military area but civilians are allowed to go inside with pass. From the gate it takes about 15 minutes by car. Though not too high, this is probably the highest point of Shillong and we got bird’s eye view of the whole city from this place. We also found starfruit, among other things, being sold in some of the food shops there and wanted to try. This takes the word ‘sour’ to a whole new level, but we found it very tasty with salt.
These 3 sites are away from the city and hence took us 3 hours to complete. We reached St. Mary’s Cathedral by 3 PM. The enormous blue themed campus, in the heart of the city, is very beautiful and one can chill here for a long time. The church at the entrance of the compound has numerous works of art, stained-glass windows & sculptures, which we admired in silence. We then walked up the stairs to reach the top of the church, from where the huge cathedral area starts, comprising of the cathedral, a school and various other buildings, all painted in blue. The school got over by then and we could see the cute schoolchildren making their way downstairs, and interacted with a couple of them. The cathedral itself was huge and very peaceful. We sat there for some time before leaving for the Shillong Golf Course.
The Tale of Football Break
Shillong Golf Course is one of the oldest and most famous golf courses of the country. This 18-hole huge golf course, surrounded by pine trees, is a nice picnic spot as well. During my last visit, I saw small groups of local people sitting there and having lunch. This time, since we reached in the afternoon, we could find children playing football on one side of the course. We asked them if we could join them and they readily agreed. We played with them for some time, with a plastic football. It was quite refreshing, to play in the open field with fresh air.
We reached the Don Bosco Museum by 4.30 PM. This 7-storey private museum, largest in North-East, displays the arts, culture and lifestyle of all the North-Eastern states, especially the 7 sisters. The entry fee is Rs.100 per head, but we paid only Rs.50 since we had valid student ID cards. Camera charge was Rs.100, but we happily paid since it is totally worth it. We easily took 1-1.5 hours to roam around the museum, read and understand the lifestyle of different tribes from North-East, and take photographs. We reached the top floor by the closing time of 5.30. There’s a sky-walk on the terrace of the museum, from which the view at the time of sunset was splendid, since you also get a 360 degree view of the city.
It was already dark by the time we came out of the museum, as I’ve previously mentioned that sunset happens between 5-5.30 in North-East. Therefore, there was no point going to Umiam Lake. We went to the viewpoint from where you can get a bird’s eye view of the lake, but even from there we could hardly see anything. We chilled for a while before returning to Police Bazar by 7.30 PM. The center point of Shillong gets livelier by evening. We looked around the local shops and eateries and did some shopping. After having a lot of street food as dinner, we came back to our room by 9.30. We gossiped, played cards and slept by 12, which was pretty late given the fact that we had to wake up by 5.30 the next day for a long day of sightseeing.
How Much Did I Spend?
Here’s the rough estimate for the day:
Stay Rs.500 (Room on twin sharing)
Commute Rs.250 (Rs.1000 for a cab for 4 people)
Sightseeing Rs.150
Food & Drinks Rs.300
Total Rs.1200
(For our visit to the unbelievable river in Dawki and to Asia’s cleanliest village, please click here for the next story.)