~March 2016

As I entered the hotel, it brought back memories of 2012. Same rooms, same hotel staff. The idea of meeting someone after a long time does fascinate. It lights up some unknown area of the neurological wonder called brain.
The hotel manager Hiranya recognized me instantly, as if it were only yesterday that I had left Guwahati.

Some people complain about the Residency Tourist Resort, about its variety of food, mosquitoes in some rooms. It has a lot room for improvement, but I still feel good in staying there.
Maybe it's the homely feeling, the ever courteous staff ,the newly opened bakery or proximity to office, I am not really sure. The bakery is worth special mention. It goes by the name The Sugar Butterfly  & the pretty owner happens to be a friend. She does wonders with fondant. You will never see a better looking cake anywhere in India ! And I can vouch for the taste too.

Celebrating a birthday at The Sugar Butterfly
Staying in hotels for prolonged periods can be bad for the digestive system. I discovered it the hard way. Anyway, the mood became festive with Holi celebrations.

Holi hai !
Holi has become a more quite affair in India, I believe, not everywhere but surely at some places. Fast paced life and long working hours don't leave the kind of energy to celebrate the enthusiastic festivals our culture has proudly bestowed upon us. It seems all we look forward to is a day off from office, be it through a festival or national holidays. Our grandparents were significantly more active.

Also, for many people celebration is synonymous only with getting inebriated. Be it at any party, festival or any other celebration.

Appears sad, isn't it ?

Anyway, after bouts of blaring music and washing the specks of colors from all parts of body, work resumed.

~ April 2016

"Why should I apologize ?" Dwipan retorted angrily.
It was a fine summer evening. Some argument got heated up and our most assertive team member refused to budge during a standoff with someone. It was not important whether he was right, what mattered was that 4 of us had decided to do a road trip that night to Shillong.

Going by the temperament, it seemed that we would have to postpone the plan. However, better sense prevailed soon and the decision to go was taken at around 8-30PM.
Shillong stay, vehicle, itinerary - all were arranged within a matter of minutes. We all changed clothes & the trip was on !

~ The trip

Assam Secratariat area, where we were staying, is quite close to the Assam-Meghalaya border. The fun part is that you get amazing Rajasthani food , right besides the highway, minutes away from my place. We filled ourselves with gatta, sekdi and laughter.

We piled up ale,
and moved hearty & hale.

Traveling by road on this Guwahati-Shillong route is one of the best experiences one can have. The stars have an orange tinge rendering them even more beauty.

I have been to Shillong previously in 2012, stayed at some place near Police Bazaar. It's a nice place, homes are quite different, in fact far more pretty than those in Delhi.

Between the loud music, and leg pulling of the highest order we ultimately entered Shillong. A typical city of the north east, Shillong's Lion's club and Umiam lake (Yes, that's the place where that Airtel 4G commercial was shot) welcome you - light from our car bounces back from the club gates. A military hospital is right after that.

I still don't know whether it was the failure of Darpan bhai's exaggerated sense of direction (yes, he believes he can guide better than GPS) or of our senses (especially after multiple rounds of ale ), but in the dead of the night, we came back to the spot right from where we had started upon entering.

Some curses later, we entered Laitumukrah and stopped besides the hotel.
The hotel staff presumably woke up to the noise we were creating and were peeping down from the hotel.

Hotel Yalana is an ordinary but nice hotel, perfect for backpackers and families alike. Breakfast timings are strict and the tea is sweet.
Anyway, we just needed a place to place our baggage for Cherrapunji was our main destination !!

Somewhere in Shillong

We took our cameras out and hopped in to the car. You know, there are some routes that apart from being breathtaking, touch your heart too. The Shillong- Cherrapunji route is one of them. With the eastern command of the Indian Air Force toward the left, the terrain and the beauty simply sets it apart.

We reached the Dympep Sohra district soon and stopped by the beautiful Wahkaba falls. A well constructed Duwan Sing Syiem view point leads a staircase down somewhere in the forest that surrounds the falls.


The falls are not visible to the passerby. You have to descend a lot of steps to see it. However, the cloud of mist is visible from a distance.
Mist arising from the falls & the stone way to the falls

On your way down, it's such a beauty to see water trickling down from the walls.

The mist !
Since my first visit to the beach, I have developed the habit of picking stones as memorabilia from all water bodies I have visited. I did the same from Wahkaba too These stones occupy a place of pride at my home :).

My friend Dwipan, who hails from the Andamans,  has a special place for the Ramakrishna mission in his heart. None of us in the group had visited a Ramakrishna school before, so we paid a visit to this school on our way.

It's a very peaceful place.

Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached !

New thing I got to know was that this place is rich is coal, mounds of which one can see en route.
I also heard that it's present in such abundance that people started taking away loads of it with them to sell it in markets. However, the government has now instituted a national company to regulate the affairs here. Lucky government officers, I must say !

 Also, there are small ponds where local folk keep the produce of supari or the Indian Betelnut.
It's a part of the process by which the nut matures.

With fresh, peaceful and joyous minds, we reached the Kynrem falls. We also passed the seven sister falls but Darpan bhai had some special place for us to see. So we eventually sped up. After all, we didn't have any plans to stay in Sohra !

 Regular tourists see waterfalls, click pictures and drive away. But the travelers we were, we climbed up to the top of a waterfall just to see how a waterfall originates. I can tell you that we were not disappointed !

Firstly, the water trickling down from nowhere collects into a small pond.

The pond from where the fall starts

Anndddd, it falls !! This is the point of origin of the fall

Then, by the sheer force of gravity, it falls, magnificently.


The Kynrem fall, is a tiered waterfall.
I also got to know that the huts with tin sheets that were visible were actually in Bangladesh.

I tried clicking a long shot and I was successful in capturing it. Can you see that hut ? I have marked it for visual convenience.
Read the post The North East Adventure - Part 5 - Shillong & Cherrapunjee (continued) for more !