Day9: Sunday - 16th December, 2012
Shillong-Guwahati-Mumbai
The last day of the trip. We were to reach Mumbai via Guwahati by the end of the day. We were gonna use this ay to just wean ourselves out from this trip. Two of us had the return flight at 1330hrs, other four at 1830hrs and the last two guys had a flight on the next day.
We had an early breakfast at the Hill Top Chateau. The pre-booked cab picked us up by 0830hrs and we were off. On the way we passed the Umiam (Barapani) Lake again. We had earlier passed the lake after dark and hence could not see anything then. The lake is truly splendid. The road from Shillong to Guwahati passes along the shores of the lake and is pretty much a fun ride.
We took a small break at Nongph for a snack and then continued to Guwahati. Te cab dropped us at Phaltan Bazar in Guwahati by 1030hrs. We took a room at the New Maitri Hotel nearby for a night. The hotel is new and one of the cleanest in the area. We dumped our luggage, freshened up and just relaxed for a while. Two other two guys had reached the airport by this time. We left for lunch at 1400hrs and then four of us promptly left for the airport. The other two guys just relaxed for the night.
The flight to Mumbai was a little late but uneventful. I reached my home by 0100hrs on Monday and left for work by 0730hrs. And already planning a retrip!
-x-x-x-
A Few Insights on Meghalaya:
Meghalaya is a beautiful place. One of the lesser known paradises of India. Even though some sections like Shillong and Cherrapunji are popular among the tourists, many more places are yet undeveloped in this aspect. There is a very high potential for adventure tourism here, yet it is largely untapped.
Meghalaya is culturally divided in three sections: Garos in the East, Khasis in the Centre and Jaintias out West. Our trip was largely in the central Khasi districts with some places of Jaintia districts checked out as well. The Jaintia districts have many huge cave systems as compared to the Khasi districts but the coal mining in the area poses a significant threat to their existence.
Before embarking on this trip we had read that Meghalaya observe a matriarchal society, i.e. a woman heads the household instead of a man. This may be true domestically, but there we hardly observed any traces of it out in the city or markets.
The scenery around Meghalaya is beautiful and distinct. However, some of the scenery looked an possible replica of what we observe along the Konkan coast - the arecanut plantations, portions of red soil on the Guwahati-Shillong highway, the quick slopes ...
Geographically, Meghalaya, like the Himalayas, owes its existence due to the pressure exerted by the Indian subcontinental plate on the mainland Asia. This portion of the earth was earlier a part of the sea, however, the pressure has resulted in formation of fold-mountain like landscape. This is also a reason why Meghalaya has a high percentage of pre-historic fossils. We saw a few in Krem Mawluh.
-x-x-x-
A Few Last Words
Overall we had an awesome experience in Meghalaya. As I've already stated earlier, I will be back here! There's a lot I've missed during this trip and found a lot of things that can be done: Thyrshi Falls, Nongirat to Nohkalikai trek, vertical caving (second hand experience is not good enough), Dian Thlen falls, lots of other caves around Meghalaya, David Scott trail, paragliding, maybe ...
This was the first time any of us had come to Meghalaya and hence we decide to stick to a well trampled path. Also, time is a critical factor. Many of us find it difficult to get leaves from their professional commitments for such a trip. Such leaves are usually reserved for planned family outings or the annual vacation. We took around 2 months to plan the trip, 4 more fine-tuning it, and yet faced a few hiccups. The tentativeness was present right till the point we returned to Mumbai: the what-if-the-next-thing-doesn't-workout thought process was constantly nagging our minds.
The people that we met made the trip even more memorable: Mr. Dean and Ms. Aishwarya at the Hill Top Chateau, Men and MAT team in Cherrapunji, David, Jason and PAT team in Dawki ... Our sincere thanks for making this trip memorable.
The next trip that we will plan in Meghalaya may take some time coming but planning it will surely be simpler than planning this trip was.
Basically: Ek aur trip to banta hai boss!!!
Khublei!
- Kapil Pilankar
Shillong-Guwahati-Mumbai
The last day of the trip. We were to reach Mumbai via Guwahati by the end of the day. We were gonna use this ay to just wean ourselves out from this trip. Two of us had the return flight at 1330hrs, other four at 1830hrs and the last two guys had a flight on the next day.
We had an early breakfast at the Hill Top Chateau. The pre-booked cab picked us up by 0830hrs and we were off. On the way we passed the Umiam (Barapani) Lake again. We had earlier passed the lake after dark and hence could not see anything then. The lake is truly splendid. The road from Shillong to Guwahati passes along the shores of the lake and is pretty much a fun ride.
We took a small break at Nongph for a snack and then continued to Guwahati. Te cab dropped us at Phaltan Bazar in Guwahati by 1030hrs. We took a room at the New Maitri Hotel nearby for a night. The hotel is new and one of the cleanest in the area. We dumped our luggage, freshened up and just relaxed for a while. Two other two guys had reached the airport by this time. We left for lunch at 1400hrs and then four of us promptly left for the airport. The other two guys just relaxed for the night.
The flight to Mumbai was a little late but uneventful. I reached my home by 0100hrs on Monday and left for work by 0730hrs. And already planning a retrip!
-x-x-x-
A Few Insights on Meghalaya:
Meghalaya is a beautiful place. One of the lesser known paradises of India. Even though some sections like Shillong and Cherrapunji are popular among the tourists, many more places are yet undeveloped in this aspect. There is a very high potential for adventure tourism here, yet it is largely untapped.
Meghalaya is culturally divided in three sections: Garos in the East, Khasis in the Centre and Jaintias out West. Our trip was largely in the central Khasi districts with some places of Jaintia districts checked out as well. The Jaintia districts have many huge cave systems as compared to the Khasi districts but the coal mining in the area poses a significant threat to their existence.
Before embarking on this trip we had read that Meghalaya observe a matriarchal society, i.e. a woman heads the household instead of a man. This may be true domestically, but there we hardly observed any traces of it out in the city or markets.
The scenery around Meghalaya is beautiful and distinct. However, some of the scenery looked an possible replica of what we observe along the Konkan coast - the arecanut plantations, portions of red soil on the Guwahati-Shillong highway, the quick slopes ...
Geographically, Meghalaya, like the Himalayas, owes its existence due to the pressure exerted by the Indian subcontinental plate on the mainland Asia. This portion of the earth was earlier a part of the sea, however, the pressure has resulted in formation of fold-mountain like landscape. This is also a reason why Meghalaya has a high percentage of pre-historic fossils. We saw a few in Krem Mawluh.
-x-x-x-
A Few Last Words
Overall we had an awesome experience in Meghalaya. As I've already stated earlier, I will be back here! There's a lot I've missed during this trip and found a lot of things that can be done: Thyrshi Falls, Nongirat to Nohkalikai trek, vertical caving (second hand experience is not good enough), Dian Thlen falls, lots of other caves around Meghalaya, David Scott trail, paragliding, maybe ...
This was the first time any of us had come to Meghalaya and hence we decide to stick to a well trampled path. Also, time is a critical factor. Many of us find it difficult to get leaves from their professional commitments for such a trip. Such leaves are usually reserved for planned family outings or the annual vacation. We took around 2 months to plan the trip, 4 more fine-tuning it, and yet faced a few hiccups. The tentativeness was present right till the point we returned to Mumbai: the what-if-the-next-thing-doesn't-workout thought process was constantly nagging our minds.
The people that we met made the trip even more memorable: Mr. Dean and Ms. Aishwarya at the Hill Top Chateau, Men and MAT team in Cherrapunji, David, Jason and PAT team in Dawki ... Our sincere thanks for making this trip memorable.
The next trip that we will plan in Meghalaya may take some time coming but planning it will surely be simpler than planning this trip was.
Basically: Ek aur trip to banta hai boss!!!
Khublei!
- Kapil Pilankar
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