Cherrapunjee - a paradise in the north-east

[Jan 9-10, 2009]

Fact file:

Place: Cherrapunjee (Meghalaya)

Famous for: Rains, natural beauty, deep valleys, numerous waterfalls, trekking, cave explorations, living root bridges and several other adventure activities.

How to reach:

One can reach Cherrapunjee from Shillong Nearest air and rail head for Shillong is Guwahati. Guwahati-Shillong distance is around 150 kms and it takes around 3 hours. Cherrapunjee is around 50 kms from Shillong and its a one and a half hour drive. A round trip taxi fare from Shillong to Cherrapunjee would come to around Rs. 2400.00 (upto Cherrapunjee Resorts).

What to do there:

Don't miss the living root bridge and the double decker bridge. Visit the Mawsmai cave and if you have time, go for cave explorations. Visit all the waterfalls around Cherrapunjee. Go for trekking. It is best to spend at least 3 days out there to have real fun and enjoy the place.

Best time to visit: During rains. Go around with a rain coat and have fun.

Place to stay: Cherrapunjee Holiday Resort is the best place (www.cherrapunjee.com)
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Although I belong to Assam, a state in the north-eastern part of India, I have never visited places in the entire north-east. And there are many of my friends from Bangalore who have made a trip to the north-east and are all ga-ga over the natural beauty of the entire region. Whenever I used to go home, I used to make plans for visiting few places, but due to the scarcity of company and also for many other unknown reasons, my trips never materialized. So, when I was at home in Guwahati during the first weekend of January 2009, I got another opportunity to plan a trip. Few of my friends were coming down to Guwahati for attending a conference and it was my job to see that they are entertained. We had a weekend at our disposal and the only place where I could take them was to Cherrapunjee. I have heard a lot about Cherrapunjee, but never got a chance to make a trip there and this I found was the best opportunity I could get. I did a quick browsing and made the action plan as to what to do after going there. Our plan was to reach Shillong from Guwahati in the evening, visit some of the places of interest around Shillong, stay there for the night and visit Cherrapunjee the next day for a full day tour.

Cherrapunjee is a small town in the north-eastern state of Meghalaya and is well-known as the wettest place on earth, but it seems that the record is taken over by another place called Mawsynram, which is around 16 kms west of Cherrapunjee. Cherrapunjee is around 50 kms from Shillong and it takes around an hour and a half to reach there by taxi. Locally, Cherrapunjee is also known as Sohra. Since we had only a day for the trip, I planned for two things - trek to the living root bridge and also visit the Mawsmai caves.

We started for Shillong on Friday evening from Guwahati in a hired Tata Sumo. Shillong is around 140 kms from Guwahati and the travel time is around 3 hours. Our planned starting time got delayed due to unheralded delays and by the time we were on our way, it was already 4:30pm. By the time we reached Shillong it was around 8:30pm, already late to visit some of the places inside the city. It was decently cold in Shillong during that time of the year and we had a tough time negotiating the cold in the hotel where I had booked (poor choice on my side in trying to make it economical). For the Cherrapunjee trip, the hotel had promised to arrange a vehicle and we found out that it was a Maruti 800 and we were 5 people. The owner of the vehicle was an employee at the hotel only and he assured that we could all sit in the vehicle. As the time was already late to search for a different vehicle, we decided to go for it.

We were all awake early in the morning the next day and we hit the road in the Maruti 800 around 7:00AM. Our first destination was to reach Cherrapunjee Holiday Resorts (http://www.cherrapunjee.com/) at Laitkynsew village in Cherrapunjee. The owner of the resort was the one person who made the root bridges popular. A brief history of the root bridges can be read here (http://www.cherrapunjee.com/rootbridges.php). The drive to Cherrapunjee passes through beautiful winding terrain with deep valleys all around. Cherrapunjee comes to life during the rainy season when the surroundings become fully green and all the waterfalls are in full flow. January, being a dry period, most of the waterfalls didn't have enough water and few of the major waterfalls were fully dry. Still, the valleys provided an enchanting view. It took us around around 3 hours to reach the resort as the last road stretch of 15 kms was pathetic. But, the moment we reached the resort, all of us were energized to see the beauty of the surroundings. There were several deep valleys all around the resort which I believe would look great during the rainy season when several waterfalls will form on the steep and straight side walls. After a quick round of snacks and with the help of a young guide, we set out for the living root bridge. We were told that it will take around one and half to two hours to reach the place which was deep down in a valley. The path was rocky and through a thick forest and the descent was very steep. A couple of my friends were first time trekkers, but they were enjoying the trek through the forest. We didn't know how the time passed by and we were there at the entry point of the bridge. The bridge can be termed as a unique and natural bio-engineering concept and is used by the villagers for crossing the river which flows below it. We were all awestruck at the natural formation in front of our eyes. During the rainy season, we were told that the river is in full flow and one has to cross to the other side using the bridge only. We spent around an hour around that place taking snaps on the bridge and also eating some of the packed stuff which we had brought. There's another bridge in a nearby village where the bridge is mainly in two tiers and its known as the double decker bridge. We didn't have enough time on our hands, so we were not lucky enough to see the double decker bridge. Now, the tough part of the trek starts. We have to climb back up the same steep way. The enthusiasm amongst my friends were still strong, so there was no major problem as such in climbing back. We realized that the trek path would be dangerous during rains mainly due to the formation of moss which will make the stones slippery. We were slow no doubt and we took around 2 hours to reach our resort. All of us were tired and hungry and we had a good sumptuous lunch. We were getting late since we have to visit the caves also and then get back to Guwahati by night. Quickly we were off from the resort with the promise that we will be back again sometimes soon the enjoy the place fully.













The Mawsmai caves were around an hours distance from the resort and we reached there soon enough. This was the first time I was visiting a cave. Meghalaya is known for its huge network of caves and it seems there are several caves which are not fully explored as yet. This particular cave was a smaller one and the Meghalaya govt. has put lights inside the caves for the tourists to have a good view of the rock formations. The inside of the cave was just awesome and at some places, one has to go through very narrow openings. It was a unique experience for all of us. I decided that I would again visit Meghalaya on a caving expedition. Here too, we spent about an hour and by the time we finished our exploration, the sun was about to set. We hurried towards our taxi and started our way back to Shillong. Thats the end of our short but wonderful and exciting trip to Cherrapunjee. We have just covered the bare minimum places during this trip. For all adventure lovers, Cherrapunjee is the place to show your guts. By the time we got back to Guwahati, it was 11:00 pm and we were all dead tired. The only satisfaction was that we had a successful and unique trip.