shilong

On 9 day trip to Nort East , here comes the stop of Shillong.

A city once known for its natural beauty - hilly location, fresh air, pine forests, blue skies and fleecy clouds. When I arrived at Shillong after a tiring journey from Guwahati,  I had a totally contradictory image about the city, I had reckoned it to be a laid-back town with few houses dotting the mountains, a very rustic kind of picture I had in mind, but it turned out to be just the other way round.

Elephant falls is located in upper Shillong, slightly ahead of Eastern Air Command (EAC) HQ. Somehow I felt it's over-hyped by the websites and local tour operators, I would rate the place very ordinary. They charge 10 bucks per person and 20 per camera, it's not worth a farthing. A faint stream fell down the rocks and formed a pool and I didn't feel it was touristy and worth visiting at all. I was wondering how many unnamed waterfalls I've seen in our Thirthalli-Sringeri region more elegant than Elephant falls of Shillong.

I went to Shillong Catholic Cathedral, it's gigantic but not very elegant, especially for me after having seen some of the most grandiloquent cathedrals in Mexico, I felt it was just a concrete structure with few embellishments. The design isn't that great, the blue paint makes it worse. Don Bosco museum in Shillong is definitely one of the must-visits. Just check for the regular power-cut timings of the city before you head to the museum, for they charge a lot more for switching on the generators. The best part of the museum is the power saving mechanism they've employed, they have person actuated lights - the moment someone enters the room the lights are turned on automatically. The museum explains everything about north-east not just about Meghalaya. There are arts, crafts, ruins, photographs, hunting & harvesting tools, house plans and everything one could think of about north-east in the museum and it requires more than an hour to see everything in detail.