Cheerapunji

On My 9 Day trip to North East, Here comes the stop of Cheerapunji.  

I left around 8: AM from Shillong towards Cherrapunji a.k.a Sohra. Even though the distance is just about 56km, stopovers at many viewpoints enroute make the journey a prolonged one. From Shillong downtown, our car revved up the pinewood covered mountains which last all the way till head of Eastern Air Command (EAC) headquarters. The uneven landscape of Shillong city evens out after crossing EAC with farms on both sides of the roads, the busy city transforms into a beautiful laid-back countryside in not more than 10Km from its heart.

Our first stop, most tourists' for that matter, was at the Duwan Singh Syiem Bridge near which the forest department has made a view point. That is the first view of the Mawkdok Dympep Valley which extends all the way upto Cherrapunji. One has to be lucky to have a good view of the valley, most times it'll be obscured by clouds. For us the view was pretty clear with clouds kissing the top of the mountains. The name Meghalaya (abode of clouds) will be justified by just one look at this valley. There are shops selling food and handicraft near the bridge.

We went a little ahead of the bridge and stopped over for breakfast on the ridge of the valley. It was one of the most romantic breakfast I've ever had...seated on thin grass cover over the edge of the canyon we had delicious parathas and alu sabji. The panorama was breathtaking, a hazy valley in front of us with cloud-kissing-mountains in its backdrop. Our next stop was at Wahkaba tourist spot, but the visibility was very low and the valley was completely covered by clouds. We could hear the roar of the waterfall but see nothing, we hoped for a better weather on our way back and continued to Cherrapunji.