My first self-organised trip to a magnificent wonderland with waterfalls, hills, caves and jungle.
Preface
Meghalaya is one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen until this age. A place not so touched, it is still a marvel for nature lovers and undoubtedly bewitch wanderlusts who would go any extent to stay present in the moment. The near-transparent rivers, leg-straining hill-slopes, skyblue-coloured waterfalls and salt-formed caves are all added jewellery to this northeastern beauty.
Intro
A vague idea for a north east trip was formed in the winter 2017 with two of my friends Joseph (who later backed out) and Jothish. Then came the idea of making it a connected friends’ trip. Idea is that all of us won’t know each other. So we called whoever we could to join us. Finally we became a group of eight. We shortlisted a bunch of places we could include in the decided one week per of trip - Holi week, February end of 2018. The season was pretty dry in Meghalaya but the waterfalls and pools had ample water to take cold refreshing baths.
Plan
Meghalaya Tour Plan
After discussing with many friends and reading a few travel blogs, we decided to choose Meghalaya as our only destination. I had never done a self-organised trip so this was a pretty difficult task as we knew very little of this wonderland beyond the bottle neck separating the main land and the much praised North-East. Even after taking help of many people, it seemed really difficult to plan a 9-day trip that could assure a wholesome tour avoiding the cliched places. The week before the trip was the deadline to set a plan. So I decided to read some blogs to get a picture and a make a map of the selected places in order to get an idea of travel time. That turned out to be helpful to make a well-informed itinerary.
The initial plan
Day 0 - Travel to Kaziranga;
Day 1 - Jeep and Elephant Safari in Kaziranga. Leave to Shillong
Day 2 - Lailum Canyons and KrangShuri falls
Day 3 - David Scott Trail
Day 4 - Nohkalikai falls and trek down to Nongriat from Nohkalikai.
Day 5 - To Rainbow falls, Natural pool
Day 6 - Trek up to Tyrna and off to Shnongpedang and riverside camping
Day 7 - Explore Dawki and leave for Shillong
Day 8 - Back to Guwahati Airport
Because one of friends would join us later at Shillong, we had to re organise the trip to accommodate her.
The revised plan
Day 0 - To Shillong
Day 1 - Mawsynram cave and Jakrem hot springs
Day 2 - David Scott trail
Day 3 - Laitlum canyons and Krangshuri falls and leave to Shnongpedang for riverside camping
Day 4 - Explore Dawki and Shnongpedang and leave to Cherrapunjee
Day 5 - To Nohkalikai falls mouth and trek down to Nongriat
Day 6 - Rainbow falls and Natural pool and explore Nongriat
Day 7 - Trek up to Tyrna and leave to IIT Guwahati.
Day 8 - Chill-out in IITG and leave for airport.
The Team
In the end we turned out to be seven people as one of us (Sachu) couldn’t make it. Me from Bangalore, Arun and Nithin from Pune, Jothish from Bombay, Seethal and Nikitha from Delhi and Aswathy from Guwahati, there was representation from all over India. But, we were all mallus [That is the connecting factor]. Aswathy joined us only for the last 4 days as she had campus interviews at IITG. So we were six people for the initial few days.
The team before the trip
The full team after trip
The trip blog:
Click here to read next page: Journey around the green hills: Shillong, Mawsynram, Jakrem, David Scott trail
The preface to 'Mesmerising Meghalaya' promises a journey filled with wonder and enchantment. Eager to delve into the beauty of this captivating state through the eyes of the author, anticipating a mesmerizing exploration of Meghalaya's landscapes and culture.
Excellent coverage of trips. get going