Shillong

Our Itinerary:
Day1: Delhi-Guwahati-Cherrapunjee
Day2: Cherrapunjee & Cherrapunjee - Mawlynnong

Day3: Mawlynnong & Mawlynnong - Shillong

Day4- Shillong + Day 5: Shillong-Guwahati-Delhi

We reached Shillong again at around 6.30 PM, by now it has become our official checking-in time for any city. As it was 26^th January (Republic Day) the entire market was closed, my first task at hand was took look for some open bakery to purchase a cake for 12’o Clock Birthday celebrations. The each and every shop in the market was closed, all the passages were empty as if, there is some curfew, but we kept on driving here and there. Finally out of nowhere I found one very nice looking bakery, while walking my eyes got glued on bakery only and I fell into a Deep (around 2 feet) drain kind of thing. Never the less I immediately got up and completed the task to purchase an awesome and expensive cake!!

Mawphlong Dam @ Shillong

**Interesting Fact # 7: Awesome Non-Veg Food

Shillong is a hub for Non-Veg food, and some really awesome non-veg food is prepared and served here, we had to rely on other tourist feedback for that. While deciding for dinner options our driver told that around 300 Pigs are consumed every-day in Shillong itself!!

Shop Selling Raw Meat

Our booking was with Aerodene Cottage, a homestay run by two ladies with a purpose to serve this heritage cottage. As soon as we looked at our room, we simply fell in love with it. The entire room decorated with whites and all items placed in a tasteful manner. Icing on the cake was a private sit-out to spend the evening having beautiful plants all around.

A cup of tea, some cookies and endless calmness, what else one need to complete your evening!! The dinner was being served at common dining area at 8.30 PM. At the dinner table we met a girl who had quit her job and was on indefinite vacation spend some time with herself. I envy such people so much, who have a courage to quit everything to follow their heart!!By the time we were finishing dinner met we met Amit he was there for work. He does exactly the same job (to earn bread and butter) as I do. So we got a common topic to discuss and got some tips for Shillong as he knew that region pretty-well.

For morning we had plans to go to the Scared Forest in Mawphlong. We took a guide named Bond and he told us some stories associated with the forest and while doing so he was also collecting each and every food/beverages wrappers littered in the jungle. An idea just floated through my mind, instead of cribbing about the litter, if we also do the way Bond did, who knows Delhi also might become cleanest capital city!!

Bond was kind enough to invite to his home for some refreshment, we had a good discussion with his father who seemed to be a respected man in their village. After that Nanu parked the car in an open complex kind of thing and took us to climb few stairs by the side of a huge wall. Suddenly out of nowhere we reached a beautiful Mawphlong Dam, and there was nobody not a single living soul to admire the deep blue river surrounded by the mountains and imprisoned by the Dam.

Mawphlong Dam

**Interesting Fact # 8: Land of Waterfalls

Meghalaya has several waterfalls in each and every corner of the state. There are numerous waterfalls in and around Shillong, the famous ones are:  Bishop Falls, Elephant Falls, Spread Eagle Falls, Sweet Falls, Crinoline Falls and Beadon Falls. In Cherrapunjee (Sohra) also, the heavy rainfall has sculpted beautiful rock formations and waterfalls namely: Nohkalikai falls, Dainthlen falls, Khoh Ramhah, Kynrem Falls, Nohsngithiang Falls.

Sweet Falls @ Shillong

We skipped to go to the most famous tourist destinations as we just has half a day remaining with us, we shortlisted few of then began with our little touristy stuff like visiting Shillong View Point (entire city can be seen from here), Sweet falls (Distant View of Falls with no-one around, Some locals say that these are haunted falls) & Cultural museum (Museum showcasing the culture and tribes of Seven Sisters, very informative), roam around in the market (nice small market with quite a few good cafes) to do some souvenir shopping and finally headed towards the Dinner at Tripura Castle.

Next day morning we got up early, had our morning tea at the sit-out, got ready and headed for dinner. At breakfast again I met one of my old colleague, we did some general catch-up as again Rahul got bored listening to our office talks. While chit-chatting we also got delayed by 30-45 mins so we had to skip Watch Lake and directly head towards Guwahati to catch our Flight back to Delhi.

We bade our final good-bye to this Fairy Land with heavy-heart and the feeling that, we could have spent some more time here..