We travelled to Shillong on 20 Feb 2023 to 26 Feb 2023 , but
in reality we had been planning this trip from December 2021 .
After 2 years of Covid, we had finally decided that the
entire extended family, including all cousins, aunts , uncles would travel to
Shillong, Meghalaya and Kaziranga on Feb 2022. But as life would have it,
another wave of Omicron came crashing into us on January 2022, with everyone
getting ill, we feared another lockdown and cancelled our tickets. That year,
Shreysht had a lesson called ‘trip to Shillong ‘ in his second standard text
book, and all of 2022, I kept thinking of the missed trip to Shillong, even
though we travelled to Dehradun, Mussourie, Rishikesh, Haridwar, Benaras, Pune,
Imagicaa, Spain in 2022.
So exactly a year later, same travel dates,in 2023, we three of us,
planned a small family trip to Shillong. It felt like meeting a friend. A
friend who we had planned to meet, many times, but plans never go through, and
then we meet many other people, but the friend is always at the back of our
mind, and then finally one day – we meet the friend.
Here is the travel itinerary of Meghalaya
20 Feb -Reach Guwahati at noon, have lunch and drive to
Cherapunjee ( 5 hour journey) . Stop at Umiam lake on the route for a boat
ride.
21 Feb- Do a 7 hour trek to the double decker root bridge,
blue lagoon, and rainbow waterfalls in Cherapunjee. Stay over night in Cherapunjee.
22 Feb- checkout from Cherapunjee, do a day trip to Mawsmai
caves, Arwah Caves, Wei Sawdong waterfalls, and then drive to Shillong.
23 Feb- travel to visit Dawki river, visit cleanest village
Mawlynnong , single root bridge in Riwai. Drive back to Shillong.
24 Feb- Shillong city tour, we visited Lady hydari zoo and
park, Ward lake, Don Bosco Museum, Cathedral of Mary help of Christians.
25 Feb- Shillong peak, elephant waterfalls, sacred forest,
Laitlum view point . back to Shillong.
26 Feb – drive from Shillong to Guwahati, some shopping at
market, caught afternoon flight back.
Things that I would change:
We should have stayed overnight in Cherapunjee on 22 , and
gone to Dawki from cherapunjee itself, it is closer, rather than travel from
Shillong. We should have not over extended ourselves to visit Laitlum on the
last day, it was a very long journey since we got a lot of traffic on the way
back. The re3ason why we did cherapunjee before Shillong was because we did not
want an overnight stay in Guwahati, but if you want to stay in Guwahati you can
do the other way around, Shillong first, then cherapunjee, then stay in
Guwahati. We could have easily avoided the 25 Feb itinerary, and maybe tried to
get Kaziranga in.
Things we loved the most :
The day trip in Cherapunjee when we saw the caves. They are
the most magnificent caves in India. Truly proper caves, with so many inroads
and walking , it was amazing, plus the wei sawdong waterfall that day was
fabulous.. The day trip to Shillong day when we went to ward lake and zoo, it
was a much needed respite from continuously on the road, a very restful fun
day, even the don bosco museum was intresting. The 7 hour trek to Rainbow
falls, it was a trek of a lifetime. I really enjoyed the sacred forest aswell, reminded me of the movie Kantara.
A few notes on doing the 7 hour trek :
Definitely attempt it if you are physically able.It takes 1
hour to climb down to the double decker bridge, you can see that, and return
too, return will take you 2 hours of steep climb. It takes 45minutes from the
root bridge to the blue lagoon, and another 45 minutes to the rainbow falls.
Both are stunning. Pace yourself. Leave early at 8 am for the trek. You don’t
necessarily need a guide, it’s a straight route. You can stay in local homes at
the rainbow falls, or at root bridge overnight, if you feel unable to climb
back. If you can’t then the best option is the single root bridge in riwai,
near mawlynnong, beautiful and accessible.
A few notes on cafes of Shillong :
We went to them all, as a foodie it was on my bucket list.
-
Café Shillong : try the thukpa, the chilly pork
, the burgers.The best Thukpa I have had anywhere, everything from the noodles
to the broth. They have live music on some nights. It is a really small place
for such a popular destination.
-
Café Dylan : such a cool place, amazing décor,
and the burgers and fried chicken and the chilli hot chocolate are great. There
is a all in one chocolate dessert with 4 desserts if you have compny for that,
try it. Everything from the ceiling made of painted canvases, to the walls made
of a dancefloor tiles, everything is art and history here.
-
Café ML 05: This is also owned by the same
company that owns café Dylan, and this one is a bike and car themed café. The
food is a little more finger food, like maggi and momos, highway bike crowd.
But a very cool seating cum lounge area, especially for people traveling on the
highway to Shillong and cherapunjee. The chilli hot chocolate, the pizza, and
the barbeque pork were our favourites.
-
Dejavu: This Chinese Asian food restaurant is
the most popular restaurant in all of Shillong, we had to make it here on day 1
in Shillong, and we were not disappointed, there was live music, there was good
fried rice, and fried chicken. But all the pork dishes unfortunately were
disappointing. We had seen rave reviews of the pork dishes, but all of them
were too fatty.
Our stays
We stayed in San Naela in Cherapunjee, basic enough, the
food was not so great, we preferred having Maggi honestly, the breakfasts were
nice. The only great point is that they have a play area and park so its great
for kids. Other wise nothing great. Our Shillong hotel was terrible, another
sad recommendation by MMT, this was the second time Make my trip let us down in
hotel bookings after Spain. I need to learn from my mistakes ! Shillong has so
many really nice, centrally located places, choose something near ward lake, or
near
Travel :
We had a driver and car that picked us up at Guwahati
airport, and after 7 days dropped us at the airport, that was extremely
convenient. Travel was not an issue, considering we had so much time on the
road. Booking a car for the entire trip was a good suggestion by MMT. There are
ways to book this at the Guwahati airport itself, but here is our drivers
number aswell, Jitumoni Das +918486719017 , +918402909254 .
Travel to Meghalaya in February:
The best time to travel is undoubtedly November, since it
has just finished raining, the waterfalls are full, it’s not raining, and thee
cherry blossoms are in bloom. The advantages of February is lesser crowds,
clearer waters, we had rainfall on 2 days which was great because then there
was a little water in the waterfalls, and the trees looked verdant green, but
because of the rainfall the river Dawki was not as clear. Don’t travel from Mid
March to October, apparently , because it rains a lot, and many places are
either covered in clouds so you can’t see the view points or are too wet and
slippery to trek in.
Hope this post helps you plan your own trip to Shillong ,
Meghalaya . do follow my instagraam hashtag #thefoodietrailstomeghalaya for
more reels and posts.
