Places covered: Meghalaya (Shillong, Dawki, Cherrapunjee, Siej) and Guwahati
Travel date: 1 st to 6 Nov
I have never been to northeast India but I have friends from the northeastern states who use to bring me unique souvenirs which you can’t find here in Delhi. Well if you ask me, is this the only reason which made me plan my trip to Meghalaya? my answer is No. This time while planning a vacation, I would admit that I was heavily influenced by Instagram pictures. I have been seeing a lot of people posting images of a clear river and Krang-Suri falls and it is that time I decided that I have to visit this place.
How I planned my trip: for me, the northeast is completely an untouched subject and I have just heard of few names, that’s it. I did some research and read blogs, watched YouTube videos to gather some information about this place. I explored a Facebook group on traveling on backpacking and got acquainted with 2 people there. They were locals and they helped me out in planning the trip by giving me exact information like what to visit and what not to.
Trust me I had a wonderful time of my life here and this place is splendid. Meghalaya is truly an abode of clouds and you will be spellbound very often here.
What I actually Planned. Trip details/ My itinerary:
- Day1: arrive at Guwahati airport and take a cab to Shillong, explore Umiam lake on the way and check-in to the hotel in the night and explore police bazaar. Night Stay (NS – Shillong)
- Day 2: Explore Shillong -> cathedral church, Shillong peak, Laitlum grand canyon, elephant falls and have dinner at ML05 cafe. NS- Shillong
- Day 3: Drive down to Cherrapunjee and on the way visit Dawki river, Bangladesh border and Mawlynlong. NS – Cherrapunji(Sohra) or go to Jowai to see Krangsuri and NS at Sohra
- Day 4: Explore Sohra -> Mawsmai caves, eco-park, Dainthlen falls, 7 sisters falls. Dinner at Jiva. NS – Sohra
- Day 5: Checkout and go to Guwahati, visit Kamakhya temple, peacock island and Umananda temple. NS – Guwahati
- Day 6: Fly down to Delhi
But none of the articles will tell you these details so read them carefully:
- Sun here sets quite early in Shillong, by 5 pm it was all dark
- Roads are quite narrow and traffic jams are worst here so you will waste a lot of time on the road
- Police bazaar or say market get closed by 8 pm
- Commuting from one place to another is not a cakewalk. It takes a lot of time to cover 30 kms on hills.
- Innova or renting a car is quite expensive. We paid 25k to the driver for 5 days. If you are a backpacker and travel by public conveyance or can rent a bike then you can save money here.
What we actually did:
- Day1: Our flight got delayed and we arrived at Guwahati airport at 2:30 pm then we had lunch while moving towards Shillong it started getting dark and raining. It was dead dark when we reached Umiam viewpoint and we directly moved to our hotel then we came out at 8 pm to the center point and we were surprised to see places getting closed in like 10-15 mins so we just got some stuff packed and ate that in the night
- Day 2:Our driver suggested us to visit Laitlum and it will be a great experience. We enjoyed this place, it’s beautiful while returning to Shillong City we saw Cathedral Church and had lunch at City Hut. we were completely exhausted and by this time we all had figured out the bad traffic situation and time difference.
- Day 3: We started for Dawki at 8 am and reach there on time, did boating and went to see Bangladesh border. After hearing real feedback from locals we decided to drop Mawlynlong and move directly to Sohra. One mistake I did there was to book my stay at Laitkynsew Resort. I would say just avoid this resort. It’s far off and the road is still under construction and it will take 1-hour from main Sohna city to reach this place. Being in the jungle this place had a lot of bugs and mosquitoes which didn’t look safe for the kid traveling with us. And from SOhra to Guwahati will take 5-6 hours so we decided to check out early and move to Guwahati rather than staying at Sohra. We explore Mawsmai caves, you must visit this place. Eco-park was good and there was no water in waterfalls but Cherrapunjee is an exotic place. If you are coming here then stay at least 2 days here and avoid Shillong.
- Day 4: On day 3 evening we started for Guwahati and reached there at 10 pm. Day 4 was all about exploring Assam
- We relaxed on Day 5 completely and because of the changed flight schedule, we reached Delhi before time.
Keep these things in your mind while planning your trip to Meghalaya:
- This place is beautiful, you need time to explore each spot
- Avoid Shillong to save time and traffic jams, straightaway move to Cherrapunji I am sure you will love this.
- This place is very safe for women
- If you are traveling with the family as we did then it is better to hire a cab for the entire trip
- Check for local festivals beforehand so that you can avoid crowd or insane rush while visiting popular places like Mawsmai or Kamakhya temple
- Do not spit and follow the traffic rules
- If you very particular about food then carry pre-packed food items
- Pork is very common here
- you will find females managing the shops and restaurants
I hope you enjoyed reading this post, the purpose of this post was to help you while planning your trip by giving real fact checks.
by 
