23rd May 2009 I got my joining letter. That evening I went to Ronee's home to tell the good news. At that time Ronee and his friend were talking about Assam tour. Even I thought going somewhere else before joining Cognizant would be good, but at that time I was not interested to go to Assam. Later on we decided to go to Meghalaya. Specifically in the rainy season, that is July as Cherrapunji is famous for the Rain. With so many falls, it would be something.
1st Day:
So, 28th June we started our journey from Sealdah. Our team was a very small one consisting of only four members. Ronee(The macho man), Bubai(Future doctor), Mrinmoy(An expert in bargaining) and me. We did our reservation in Kanchanzongha express which is famous for delays and sometimes it also gets cancelled! But this time we were lucky, it started at 6 O'clock in the morning.
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| From left to right - Mrinmoy & Ronee |
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| Me & Bubai |
Most probably in the afternoon we crossed Farakka Barrage. This is the longest Barrage in the world, roughly 10 Kilometers long. Ganges was flowing with all the might she could spare.
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| Farakka Barrage |
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| Kanchonjongha Express |
2nd Day:
After 22 hrs of hectic journey we reached Guwahati around 4O'clock in the morning. There we had our breakfast and booked a Tata-sumo for Shillong. From Guwahati it took around 4 hours to reach Shillong. Around 9 a.m. I think we reached Shillong bus stand. After reaching there we came to know that all hotel were already booked. That was a pathetic situation. We stood for nearly 2 hrs in the bus stand not knowing what to do.
I don't know if it was fate, luck, coincidence or what, there we met Joy, a friend of Mrinmoy and of course the 5th member of our tour. Joy's father managed to get official guest room for us. Only because of Joy we got our shelter and which was beyond our expectations. The tariff of that guest room was actually Rs.2000 but because of Joy's father we paid only Rs.200. After having lunch we came out from guest house to see a church. Joy showed us his school and college. As Shillong is Joy's home town that's why from next day Joy became tour guide. We had to call our family from telephone booth because in Meghalaya any prepaid sim does not work. That day we were very tired so we had our dinner and went to bed.
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| Though I didn't like the colour but it was nice |
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| Our Guest house - beyond our expectation |
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| leisure time |
3rd Day:
We woke up at 6:30 and got prepared for exciting events. Today we were going to visit Cherrapunji, famous for water falls and caves. Breakfast was served at our room. Meanwhile Joy came to join us. One thing I forgot to mention that Joy is a very good singer and he loves to sing Kishore da's song. Throughout this tour Joy sang many beautiful songs and we really enjoyed it. We didn't have any music system in our car but we didn't realize that because of Joy.
Our first stop was Duwansing Syiem view point which was fully covered by fog at that time and we could not see anything. Meanwhile our hero Ronee started giving different poses and I didn't have any choice but to take those pics. Ronee was a student of art college Kolkata and he is having a great knowledge of photography.
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| Most Stylish guy in our tour, Most of the time I tried to copy his pose but failed. |
Then we visited Nokhalikai falls which is 3rd tallest falls in the world and the scenic beauty I just can't express in words. Everyone should visit that place once in a lifetime. When we reached there it was raining like cats & dogs. We all got wet but we couldn't resist ourselves from seeing the beauty of the falls. Because of rain we were not able to take some good quality pics, but memory remains with all of us.
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| Noh-khalikai Falls |
Now we started our journey towards Mawsmai Cave. That was most exciting one. The cave was completely dark inside and water was falling from roof. First we thought of not going into that cave but one 4yrs old girl made us regain our energy and we spent some of the most exciting moments inside the cave.
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| Mrinmoy & me in front of Mawsmai cave |
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| Wall of that cave |
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| This is the girl I was talking about who gave us enthusiasm |
Bubai couldn't enter into this cave because he was having some problem with his foot finger. It had gone through an operation before coming to this tour, still he didn't give up and enjoyed the whole tour. Bubai was the most strict and disciplined guy amongst us and the most needed guy to make the tour successful. He is a medical student and I have already recruited him as a family doctor of mine. Now after enjoying Mawsmai Cave we started going towards Seven Sisters Falls. But again because of fog we were not able to see anything. So we took some snap and moved towards Daintlen falls.
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| Me and Bubai in front of Seven Sisters Fall |
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| Nothing is visible - Clouds are coming |
Now one major problem arose when we were moving towards Danthlen Falls was our Driver didn't know the actual place of Dainthlen Falls. He stopped our car near one village and told us to walk through one road which is shown in the next picture.
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| Don't know where to go... |
We had been walking through this road for 2 hrs but didn't find Danthlen falls. So my advice would be better hire car from Assam and try to avoid local drivers. They first promise to show every place but most the people even don't know about their own places.
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| Meanwhile we took one group photo |
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| Snaky Road |
So this was the end of our third day. We enjoyed a lot, though we didn't see some of those spots but still Cherrapunji was a very nice place to go. While returning back again we visited Duwansing Syiem view point. At that time fog wasn't there so I took some snaps. Then before returning to guest house we went to Joy's to meet his parents.
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| Trying to copy Ronee's pose |
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| Joy's father has very good collection of such things |
4th Day:
Today we decided to venture around Shillong. First we had gone to visit sweet falls. But after seeing the falls we were excited to go at the bottom of the falls. But our driver said depth is about 300 meters. But I and Ronee didn't listen to anyone and started descending. I didn't know about Mrinmoy and Joy but Bubai had to cancel this exciting mission because of his problem. While descending we met with some guys from Mizoram. They also came here for vacation. We took some pictures with them. They were so friendly and so enthusiastic, by seeing them we regained our energy and again started descending.
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| Sweet Falls |
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| Guys from Mizoram |
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| we made our friendship within a minute, They were really nice and friendly. |
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| That path was more risky than we expected, the slop was about 45 degree. |
Somehow we reached at the base of that hills but after reaching there only we realized what mistake we have done. First thing we couldn't able to go to the foot of Sweet falls because my shoes got damaged and Ronee's trouser got teared. So we had no choice but to return back. But the main thing is for Descending it took around 40 minutes but ascending hill is one of the horrible experience we had. it was so risky and we got tired and thirsty but we forgot to bring our water bottle. Finally we reached at that point from where we started descending and for ascending we took around one and half hours.
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| Though we haven't succeeded but at least we reached at bottom of that hills. |
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| Co-lateral Damage |
Now we came inside the city to visit another famous water falls named Elephant Falls.But me and Ronee were fully exhausted but somehow continue our journey.
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| Elephant Falls |
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| Another side of Elephant Falls |
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| Attempt to Murder |
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| We wanted to take picture along with Elephant falls, that's why in spite of those difficulties we reached very close t to Elephant falls. But our great photographer Bubai showed the power of zooming and took a passport type photo. |
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| All were in a real mood |
After having full fun at Elephant falls we started moving towards our today's last destination which is one park which was very boring except those lotus flowers.
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| Captured by me |
5th Day:
Today we were moving towards Jayantia Hills, another district of Meghalaya. Again this got wasted because of the driver. Before going to Jayantia he said that he knew all those places but truth was different. Unfortunately we got to see only one of the falls which is Krangsuri falls that to became possible only for those local people who directed us towards the falls. The way to the falls was muddy, slippery and very risky.
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| The most challenging work of the day was to walk on those muddy slippery stairs |
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| kind of insect I guess |
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| Krang Suri Falls |
Though we had to satisfy ourselves with only one falls but still the view of the mountain was promising in Jayantia Hills, we felt like those clouds were playing with us. There the weather was unpredictable. Sometimes it was completely cloudy, but again it became sunny. Overall we enjoyed a lot.
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| Actually we were inside the cloud |
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| Iron Hills |
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| Don't get confused... It's actually water mixed with iron |
That's all for the 5th day, but at that time we didn't know where will we go the next day. Basically we kept 6th day for Garo hills, it's another district of Meghalaya. But according to the locals that place is too dangerous to visit. Some problems were going on at that time in Garo district so that tourist were not allowed to enter Garo district for safety reasons. So we decided to go to Cherrapunji again. We missed few places in Cherrapunji because of fog and we wanted to try our luck once again.
6th Day:
Now we had changed our driver and that day our first aim was to visit Dainthlen falls. And thanks to god that the weather of Cherrapunji was quite well that day. But again at an unknown place driver stopped the car and told us to walk through one man made road. So we started walking but the road was so dangerous! Means snakes use this road more than people. But thanks to all those snakes, they didn't do anything and we safely reached at top of Dainthlen Falls.
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| Dainthlen Falls |
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| Another view of Dainthlen Falls - Wrong date is shown here |
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| We have reached at the edge of that Falls but again Bubai showed the zooming quality of his camera. |
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| I shouldn't have taken that risk |
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| Full masti |
After spending some time in Dainthlen Falls, we started moving towards Koh-Ram Falls and famous Shive linga which is situated next to Koh-Ram falls. But unfortunately we were not allowed to go at the bottom of that falls because of Bangladesh border. Though we didn't got clear view of Koh-Ram falls but we were able to see the great Shive linga which is the largest Shive linga in the world, height of that Shive linga exceeds 100 ft.
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| The great Shive linga and that road goes to Bangladesh |
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| Top portion of the Koh-Ram falls, it is also a big falls like Dainthlen, but it would have been better if we were able take picture from the bottom of that falls |
Again after another disappointment we have decided to go to Seven Sisters falls. Though our driver said that in full rainy season the falls is covered by fog. But still we wanted to take a chance and got succeeded. When we reached in front of Seven sisters falls, the view was clear. We felt so lucky that we were able to see Seven sister falls which no one could ever think of in a rainy season. But because of Global warming water content of the falls has become less. We took some picture and spent a great time there.
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| Seven Sisters Falls |
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| Close view of Seven sisters falls |
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| Again our fashion icon Ronee |
7th Day:
We were done with exploring Meghalaya and preparing to return back. We spent a great week in Meghalaya. All were sad because again we had to return back to our regular life. We got a very good friend like Joy, thanks to Mrinmoy. So 8'clock in the morning we left our guest house and started our return journey back to Guwahati. While returning back we stopped our car in front of Umiam lake. This is the largest lake in Asia.
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| Umiam Lake - Largest lake in Asia |
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| It's really a big one |
We reached Guwahati at 3 O'clock and train was at 10 O'clock in the evening. So, we went to Kamakkha Temple. We did our puja and came back to Guwahati station.
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| Joy Maa |
Overall we spent a great time, enjoyed a lot and of course got to see so many beautiful places. While returning back we also have fixed our next tour but for time being it would be better to keep it as a secret.
