Diary Pages: A trip to the adobe of clouds….

7th Oct: Morning 7:00, we boarded the Kolkata Dibrugarh flight. Reached Mohanbari Airport of Dibrugarh at 8:30. Took a cab to Dibrugarh town. We went to the Brahmaputra Ferryghat to catch a glimpse of the river. It was majestic as I saw from flight minutes ago. It had many islands. Initially when we were making plan to visit Arunachal Pradesh, we had planned to cross Brahmaputra. But this time standing on the bank we merely tried to gauge the might of Brahmaputra. The river was calm. Nearly still water and long vista did not portray us the dangerous character as we heard it usually has in monsoon. Near the ferryghat, all of a sudden we saw the Durga Puja organised by “India Club for Theater” which is one of the oldest clubs in Dibrugarh. In the year 1888, it was established. Puja rituals and other things were same as in West Bengal. We stayed there for long time, came to railway station as we had Kamrup Express at night to Guwahati. Nothing much after that, just now had a good meal; courtesy Indian Railways Catering. Thinking what awaits next. The train is being driven by diesel engine. These parts are yet to be converted to electric line.

8th Oct: Opened my eyes at 4:30 - 5:00 in the morning once, then again collapsed for some forty minutes. Looked outside from train and the view instantly caught my eyes. A vast land where they are doing cultivation. That land is rich in green. Just after that starts hill. The land is partly filled by water and the farmers are using boats to cross those parts. Water - Crops - Surrounding hills; it was looking beautiful. Morning at around 7:00, we reached Guwahati. Went straight to Paltan Bazaar and took a cab to Shillong. The view changed instantly as we stepped into Meghalaya. Road was pretty good. It took around 3 hours to reach. Stopped midway at Nongpah only to have some quick coffee. Shillong during puja is heavily crowded. We had a real tough time to get accommodation. And it seemed to me that a chunk of Kolkata had been shifted to this place; so many bengalis! On the way to Shillong, we got Lake Umium which is locally called as Barapani. It is a huge and picturesque lake. Though I thought that I might come here again at the time of Sunset. Evening we spent leisurely at Police Bazaar, had a late lunch with Chole Batora and Paneer Dosas. Could not afford to search for local food joints; my legs are paining. Afterwards we went to Ward’s lake and I tried some frames in front of the fountains. It was a musical one. Booked a cab for Cherrapunjee for the next day. Just now had an early lunch with chilly chicken and fried rice. This is probably one of last few sentences before going to bed. Shillong what I felt is pretty much like other hill towns like Gangtok or Darjeeling. Only difference that I found is that the city is very much alive at 10 in the night. People are still walking down the streets to visit pandals. All shops are still struggling to manage the inflow of customers. I do not know if this is because of the festive season; but the city is very much vibrant at this time of night.

9th Oct: Sharp at 8 in the morning, we started for Sohra or Cherrapunjee. The distance is around 80 kms. As we are getting nearer to Cherrapunjee, clouds and mists are becoming more and more dense. At some places, cloud is so thick that maximum ten foot are visible before the vehicle. The Shillong-Cherrapunjee road is the prime attraction. While going, we could guess that but could not make out properly as it was full misty; prayed to Sun god and went on till the last point.It is a park with beautiful view of the distant hills. My parents as always are behaving like teenagers. This happens every time we are out on a trip. Rain started as soon as we finished seeing the park. Next, we stopped to see the Seven Sisters falls. It was at much distance but looking mysterious in the clouds. I missed some frames as I could not afford to get my camera out in the rain. After seeing a couple of view points we headed towards Mawsamai caves and then to Noh Kalikai falls. It was a nice long stream of water with color of melting silver. Rain had stopped completely and I continued shooting. Ramakrishna Mission is just adjacent and it was looking fantastic. Against the hilly backdrop, the safron colour of mission was looking serene. Had a great lunch and at around 4:30 we started for Shillong. At that point of time Sun came out and became prominent. The valleys surrounding us were coming out of the mist slowly. So many different shades of green, it was very soothing to eyes. Meghalaya means the adobe of clouds, it is so true. Clouds are dancing and floating in every directions. Dense white clouds and lush green hills; wonderful combination it was. Within half an hour the sky and the clouds became magical as Sun was going to leave for the day. We came back just after sunset to Shillong. Checked out about some places at the Tourism office and had an early dinner. Food was awesome. The name of the restaurant was Unicorn, it is near hotel Embassy. Had a nice warm coffee with some steamed momos followed by a fantastic dinner. The beautiful ambiance and the courteous waiters; it was a nice experience after a day long trip.

10th Oct: At first I was thinking about going to Dawki which is a village near border. Then we thought of checking out the different places in Shillong city itself. Meanwhile I quickly browsed through some of the internet pages which I saved earlier. I saw Anita’s article about her Mawlynnong trip. This is a village near Dawki; this fact was not known to me earlier. It is said to be Asia’s cleanest village. There are some uncommon places in and around Mawlynnong. We finalized on Dawki, skipped breakfast to save time and hit the road. Dawki is a diversion from Shillong Cherrapunjee road. First we stopped at a tea stall in Laitlyngkot village which is 22 km from Shillong. It took about 45 minutes to 1 hour to reach Laitlyngkot. Only food available was puri sabji; but it was very tasty. When we almost finished, one old gentleman came to the shop and asked us about our destination. This part of Meghalaya is not a much advertised tourist destination and local people are curious if anybody from outside world comes in their territory. Local village people are very much friendly and jovial. I have seen everywhere that the hill people are by nature very good. I shot couple of portraits of the old man.

He asked when he would get the photo and I noted down his address. Though the address does not contain any house numbers. I noted down enough of landmarks with it. I suppose that I need to write a detailed letter along with the photograph to make the job for the postman easy. Next we crossed a beautiful stretch of flat valley and reached Pynursla which is 48 km from Shillong. This place is big and has taxi stand and other necessary things needed. Nearby places including Dawki depends on Pynursla for food and other stuffs. Little after this we crossed a sharp bend called Devil’s Elbow and reached Pongtung which is the crossing of Mawlynnong and Dawki. Mawlynnong is 18 km from the place and Dawki is 35 km. We thought of going to Mawlynnong first. While going to the village the weather became warm and warmer. Finally when we reached, it was really hot. A school boy came on seeing our cab and acted as our guide for the next 2 hours. The place has many things to see. Most places I thought would need much more than 2 hours. We first saw the tree guest house which is fantastic creation. I must appreciate this one, it would be really nice to stay there for at least one night. The main house has two machans which are connected by narrow bamboo bridges. the second and the last machan can handle the weight of two persons, but it looked pretty strong. The place is really lovely and I would definitely come back to stay. Next thing we saw was a balancing rock. It was really managing very well in spite of these storms and rains. Next we saw the living root bridge. This was something very unique in nature. I think I can not describe it fully, one has to see it. The creators of this are two huge trees. A wide stream under the bridge is making its presence felt with loud noise. The bridge actually connects two villages. People from both these villages come to the stream for washing clothes. Boys were angling in that turbulent water. Old women were sitting idle and watching the water passing by. It was full of life. We came up and proceeded towards another waterfalls. This one was completely hidden and not possible to find out without a guide. The path was little slippery because it is not maintained for tourists. The waterfalls was nice and moreover there were hundreds of yellow butterflies flying everywhere. Our cab driver Boy Sharma Singh was enjoying every bits of the journey. He came once near Dawki, for excursion during school days. He was very happy to come to the new place; not many tourists opt for it. After this we headed towards Dawki. From the junction point Pongtung, we got a place called Mawshum just after 10 - 15 minutes. Dawki is 20 minutes drive from that point. We crossed beautiful Umgot river bridge to reach Dawki. There were many fishermen on boats on the lovely blue river. Dawki is a little town from where Tamabil border is just 1 km. We visited the place, had a very good lunch at Dawki. After couple of hours, we started coming back. On the way back, after crossing Pynursla whole road became full of clouds. Visibility became very poor. I stretched my neck out of the car window and ate some cloud, maybe one litre! We drove the rest part of our journey through the clouds. It was a different experience altogether!!! Next couple of days we spent leisurely. Checked out the Shillong city a bit. Cathedral is one of the places I liked most.