Guwahati, Shillong, Dawki & Cherrapunjee

Day 1 - Guwahati to Shillong

Our trip began when we landed at Guwahati airport from Mumbai by noon. Guwahati - one of India’s ancient cities and one of the fastest growing cities in India today is an embodiment of the botched up growth of Indian urbanisation. ‘Pragjyotishpura’ as it was once called is the largest city of Assam and north eastern India and is strategically very important as it connects the rest of India to the north eastern region. It is rightly called the gateway to the north east India. Guwahati derives its current name from the Assamese words “Guwa” meaning areca nut and “Haat” meaning market. 

Located within Guwahati is the ancient Shakti temple of Goddess Kamakhya in NIlachal hill made by Ahoms (An important seat of Tantric and Vajrayana Buddhism). While I had been to this temple before, we made it our first and only stop in Guwahati before heading off to Shillong. This temple is one of the oldest and the most important of the 51 Shakti Peethas in Hinduism. According to legend it is believed that the ‘Yoni’ of Sati fell here after Shiva danced with her corpse. The main temple in a complex of small temples house 10 female deities with 3 of them housed in the main temple in what is referred to as a ‘Garbhagriha’ 

It is one of those sites, where active sacrifices of animals and tantric rituals are carried out till date and in the mornings you will see devotees carrying goats for sacrifice. I personally abhor this practice and hence we paid a short visit to the temple and quickly dashed out. 

Travel Tips - Kamakhya Temple:

• Be mindful of the temple timings. It opens for visitors at 8 am and shuts at 1 pm for lunch being served to the deity. The temple reopens at 2:30 pm until 6:15 pm for the visitors
• Be careful of the pandas (priests) who may fleece you of money by luring you into getting a pooja done / preferential darshan
• Do not miss checking out the resplendent carvings on the walls of the main temple and the shrines of the other deities within the temple compound

For more details on Kamakhya Temple visit - www.maakamkhya.org

Beautiful carvings at Kamakhya Temple

After just in time darshan at Kamakhya before it shuts for the afternoon, we stopped at a local ‘Whistling Woods’ dhaba on the Guwahati - Shillong highway. These are family run establishments which normally offer scrumptious non-veg meals with a limited but doable vegetarian fare. 

Post lunch it was a smooth ride of 3 hrs (~100 kms) directly to Shillong with the solitary break at The Umiam Lake viewpoint en route for an awesome cup of chai & some amazing views of the lake.

Hot Chai & Awesome Views - Umiam Lake

We landed straight at Hotel Polo Towers in Shillong. Our home for the next 2 days. It is a very good 4 star property with all basic amenities provided for. There’s a nice open air lounge on the terrace where they serve drinks and finger food along with an in-house pub and a nice multi cuisine fine dining restaurant. The rooms were good and the service excellent and the wholesome and hearty breakfast was the one we enjoyed the most. I would surely recommend the place to anyone looking for a good experience which is also easy on the pocket in Shillong.  

Hotel Polo Towers Website - http://www.hotelpolotowersshillong.com

After checking in and checking out the whole property, for the dinner we headed straight to the famous ‘City Hut Family Dhaba’ which was just a 5 mins walk away from our hotel. We had some of the best vegetarian food of our trip there. The portions were huge and there was ample of variety. The place served lip smacking Mughlai, continental and Chinese food. When travelling, one of the yardsticks I use in judging a food establishment is the number of locals eating there, and this place was literally full of locals and visitors. Thankfully we reached early by 7:45 pm and got the table, else would’ve had to wait. In case like us you’re a veggie - This is a must visit place in Shillong and has been consistently rated as one of the top restaurants in Shillong. 

Also, try some of these other joints in Shillong which I would strongly recommend:

• Cafe Shillong (Chill out spot with live music)
• Munchies (Awesome juicy burgers)
• Dylan’s Cafe (For breakfast)
• Dejavu - (Laid back ambience - Chinese cuisine)

Travel Tips:

• Book stay through any of the travel portals and not directly through the hotel. Portals are cheaper. We got a damn good rate through Make My Trip
• Take the halt at Umiam Lake View Point just before you enter Shillong - You get some fabulous tea from the lady vendors - both with and without milk variants are amazing. 

Day 2 - Dawki - Mawlynnong 

After a relaxed night of sleep and scrumptious breakfast later, we were all charged up for the first day trip. We headed straight to the Indo - Bangladesh border check post at Tamabil. Located in the Jaintia Hills this friendly border post is used to ferry both people and a lot of cargo. As you cross the picturesque road from Shillong (85 Kms to Dawki)  and approach slightly closer you will see truck full of cargo, especially, coal being transported to Bangladesh. The town of Sylhet in Bangladesh is just 55 kms from here. The new Guwahati - Shillong - Dhaka bus route that was flagged off by PM Narendra Modi & his Bangladeshi peer Sheikh Hasina uses this border route. I’ve been to Wagah border earlier, but this was just a small trench, a nullah and a stone milestone pillar and some border security personnel strolling around on both sides. That was it. It is a great example of what a friendly border can be like, rather than the tense show of machismo we are used to at Wagah!

Indeed a friendly border!

Last milestone on the Indian side

Indo-Bangla Border Crossing at Tamabil

After clicking a few pictures here, we headed straight to the picturesque Umngot River in Dawki. The river runs from the Indian to the Bangladeshi side of the border. It makes the whole border irrelevant as we could literally see people on both sides walking about and inter mingling freely. Raises few pertinent questions about undocumented illegal migration. That apart, we indulged ourselves in the magnificent and tranquil boat ride in the river in a wooden boat with a Khasi boatman. The famous crystal clear green waters of the Umngot River was indeed pristine. There were locals and tourists both frolicking, clicking photos, some even rafting, others including kids trying out different types of summersaults from the perched up rocks. This was the perfect setting, not too crowded but enough to permeate a happy yet peaceful vibe about the place. We thoroughly enjoyed the boat ride. The boatman takes you to the far end of the river and waits for you for a short halt to take pictures amidst the pebble filled river bed before he brings you back to the starting point. The ride lasted about 25-30 mins and costed Rs. 700/- but was absolutely worth it!

Enjoying the crystal clear waters

The tranquil boatride...

Boatmen at the short halt at the rear end of Umngot

Panoramic view of Umngot River

We finished off our day with a visit to the famous Mawlynnong which was adjudged the cleanest village in Asia in 2003. Coming from a concrete jungle like Mumbai, we were really waiting in anticipation to see this beautiful village located in the east Khasi Hills. This village is 35 kms from Dawki and is best done as a circular day trip from Shillong - Dawki - Mawlynnong - Shillong. Some others who are nature lovers also prefer to opt for a homestay here and cover the famous Living Root Bridges and the surrounding village areas through an overnight halt. Honestly, we didn't find anything unusual about the place. It is a quaint and a remote little village with almost the same scenes you’d experience of locals sitting around trees, pets strolling around and the mirthful children playing around trying to tug at each other to make fun of the alien looking visitors in their blissful abode. The place is nice, but nothing special and the famed cleanliness also seems to be waning away. The award was won way back in 2003, it’s been 15 years now - principles of depreciation have applied here as well!!

More details on Mawlynnong - http://www.mawlynnong.com

Travel Tips:

• Unless you have serious budget constraint, avoid the public transport. Best to rent your own vehicle for the day trip. 
• Boat ride at the Umngot is a must do. Unique experience. Pre-book your ride before entering the boat at a tent which is perched up above the river bed

Kids at Mawlynnong - Always happy to pose!

Day 3 - Cherrapunjee & Back to Guwahati

We started the day early and checked out post breakfast. We visited the famous Ward’s Lake and Elephant Falls in Shillong on our way to Cherrapunjee. The plan was to cover Cherrapunjee as a day trip and get dropped back to Guwahati since we had rented out the car. I had been to Cherrapunjee in November 2005 during my earlier trip and had enjoyed the natural beauty of the place to the hilt. The wonderful waterfalls like the Nohkalikai &  7 sisters waterfall, the hills covered in green, the eco-park and the limestone covered Mawsmai caves all made for an awesome day trip then and hence was keen to go again. 

Elephant Falls, Shillong

Khasi Hills en route to Cherrapunjee

Eco Park, Cherrapunjee

Cherrapunjee was once famous being the ‘Wettest place on earth” receiving the highest density of rainfall anywhere in the world, but let me break the bad news to you, barring a couple of months of monsoon (July-Sep), the region has turned completely dry. Most of the tourists spots were in real bad shape when we went there, lying nondescript without much maintenance, attention or care. We visited the Eco Park, 7 Sisters Waterfall and the Mawsmai Cave - which was my favourite little 20 min adventure. After covering these spots, we headed straight to Guwahati in time for a late evening check in and called it a night after an early dinner. We wanted to rest well for the night so that we were fresh to take the next morning flight to Bagdogra from where our journey to the verdant hills of Sikkim and the 2nd leg of our journey was to begin!!

Travel Tips:

• Unless you are going during or just after the monsoon season upto early November, you can actually skip Cherrapunjee from your itinarary. The waterfalls are all dry for the rest of the year.