A thing of beauty – Assam and Meghalaya
Planning for yearly vacations had become quite a routine activity
for us. Having membership of a popular Holiday resort chain meant that we
invariably ended up choosing a destination where they had a resort.
But this time we were determined to try something different.
Kerala was quickly rejected because the above reason and as we had been there a
few times. Hampi was a hot choice for me, especially after having helped my
daughter in researching for a project on Hampi. But that got shot down by the
kids (no surprise).
Finally, we narrowed down on North East. It was a
destination none of us had visited. Well, technically I had been to Guwahati
some 25 years back but remembered almost none of it. My familiarity with the
region was limited to a few stereo-types. Terms such as ‘Seven Sisters’, ‘Cherrapunji
– world’s wettest place’ and Kaziranga (thanks to the Geography books) and some
other negative terms such as “neglected states” and "disturbed areas" (thanks to newspapers) is mostly
what I knew about the North East.
The heart wanted to try out some exotic locations, such as
Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh or the Jampui Hills of Tripura. However, given that
it was our first trip and with kids aged 12 and 7 to tag along, we decided to
make it a relatively easy itinerary, covering the most touristy and popular
Guwahati – Shillong – Kaziranga triangle.
Exotic locales would have to wait for another day, I
convinced myself with the following thought:
“If you truly love Nature, you will find beauty everywhere.”
Vincent
Van Gogh
Although our itinerary was Guwahati – Shillong – Kaziranga – Guwahati, for ease of reading I have split this blog into two sections, covering Assam first and then Meghalaya.
Assam – where the Brahmaputra rules
Guwahati – Gateway to North East
Guwahati is known as the Gateway to the North East, although
geographically it is 263 kms from Srirampur at the West Bengal – Assam Border
and 485+ kms from Siliguri, which technically houses the 27 kms wide (or should
it be 27 kms narrow) Siliguri Corridor that separates the North East region
from mainland India. The reason of it being calling so, is because it is first
city in Assam that acts as the main hub, in the form of connectivity via road,
rail or air to rest of the North Eastern states.
When we landed in Guwahati after a circuitous flight
covering half of India, half the day had already passed. After a quick lunch
our driver advised us that before checking-in we should do the sunset cruise on
Brahmaputra as we had to be there by 4 pm. “Sunset cruise starting at 4 pm?” I
wondered, only to realize that thanks to a single time-zone for India this part
of the country got a very early sunset in winters, almost 1.5 – 2 hours earlier
than rest of the country.
The Brahmaputra is a mighty river that travels from China,
traverses most of Assam and ends itself in the Bay of Bengal in Bangladesh.
Most of us are aware of the fury it unleashes during heavy monsoons. However,
on a calm winter evening, a cruise on the river is a pleasant experience as one
can witness the expanse of the majestic river, in all its serenity and glory.
The place where we were to take the cruise from had a 35
feet statue of Lachit Borpukhan and his army. Lachit was a legendary Ahom
general who bravely fought and defeated the Mughal army and prevented their
entry into Assam. But for his bravery, the history of the North East could have been very different.
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| Sunset on Brahmaputra |
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| Moonrise on Brahmaputra |
Our stay in Guwahati was limited to two, half-days one each in the onward and return legs. Hence the only other noteworthy place that we visited was the Kamakhya Devi Temple, one of the 52 revered Shakti Peeths across India. The legend of the Shakti Peeths traces back to the most iconic pose of Lord Shiva – the Sati Tandav, that the Destroyer performed at the death of His beloved wife Sati. Such was His angst filled fury, that Lord Vishnu had to intervene by unleashing His Sudarshan Chakra and cutting up Sati’s dead body 52 parts, thus stopping Shiva from destroying the entire universe in his anger (read more about it here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakti_Peetha ). It is believed that the 52 body parts fell at different places in the country, each of which house a temple today known as Shakti Peeth. Khamakhya is where one of the parts, her “yoni” or womb is believed to have been housed (more about the temple here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamakhya_Temple)
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| Khamakhya Devi Temple |
Housed atop the Nilachal Hill, on a misty morning, the route to the temple does evoke a sense of mysticism.
The shops lined alongside the
steps replete with red and saffron sequinned cloth, rudraksha malas and variety of brightly colored threads; the
shopkeepers shouting out for you to purchase offerings to the Devi and hordes
of people jostling to find their place in the long queues are all familiar
sights in most popular Indian temples. Inside the temple grounds one gets to see
grey, white and brown pigeons, vermilion streaked goats, some of them probably
awaiting their turn at the sacrificial altar, and stone idols – smeared with
blood red vermilion, all indicators of the Tantric influence on this temple. The
temple is usually very crowded, as most temples of this nature are prone to be
and that for me tends to take away some of the spirituality. However, it is
quite a sight to see the faith of the devotees who queue up in large numbers to
have a view of Sati’s “garbha” housed in the sanctum
sanctorum (Garbhagriha). Owing to paucity of time we gave it a pass.Kaziranga – Close encounters with the Rhino
The drive from Guwahati to Shillong (our first leg) was through the magnificent hills of Meghalaya (more of that later in the next section). However, to get to Kaziranga we had to come almost 3/4th of the distance back from Shillong and then travel further East, almost parallel to the Brahmaputra – but never quite coming close to it. In sharp contrast to Meghalaya, the Assam terrain is mostly very flat. As you speed along the well laid-out NH-27, one can see vast paddy fields on both sides (devoid of the lushness at that time of the year) interspersed with bright yellow mustard patches and the occasional tea estates.
We were keen on tasting some authentic Assamese food and our
driver stopped at a highway restaurant that served Assamese vegetarian thali. A large stainless-steel thali was soon in
front of us that had a huge, neat, pile of rice (basically an inverted bowl of
rice) in the center and small servings of a variety of interesting and
delicious dry veggies. There was my favorite karela, then there was one made of banana flower, another one using
raw papaya, potatoes and cabbage all of which had the distinct mustard oil
flavor. Coupled with two varieties of dal it was a really delicious meal,
simple yet exotic.
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| Kaziranga National Park from NH27 at Bagori |
Satiated we proceeded towards The Kaziranga National Park,
the abode of the Indian one-horned rhinoceros; a marshy, tropical moist forest
that is spread across an area of almost 380 sq. kms and spans 2 districts of
Assam. Shillong to Kaziranga is a 6 plus hour drive and gets tiring. There is a
place by the roadside in Bagori known as Rhino View Point where one can view
the wild animals at a distance right from the road. One can usually spot a few
rhinos, wild buffaloes, perhaps a herd of elephants, deers and birds such as
the stork or wild fowl. We were lucky to spot most of these and this set our
expectations soaring for our upcoming safari the following day.
We settled down in the cozy and elegant Infinity Resort and
called it an early day as we had to get up at 4 am the next morning for our
elephant safari. We were booked for the first slot from 5:30 – 6:30 am at the
Bagori sector. The chilly, foggy morning made my heart sink a bit, with a
latent fear that it might end up being a flop show.
As we clambered from a tall platform, onto the seat atop the
elephant, two of us seated on either side with out feet hanging and the mahout
in front, I felt a strange sense of guilt engulfing my mind. “Isn’t it cruel
having 5 of us sitting atop this elephant,” I wondered trying to quickly
calculate our combined weight. Between the 5 of us we would have been weighing around 300
kgs, much lower in comparison to some of the other elephants that had hauled upto 6 adults. Add another 50 kgs
for the seat on the elephant’s back on which we sat. That was approximately 350
kgs weight on a 3500 – 4000 kg elephant. “I am sure she can manage that much
weight without a fuss,” I rationalized with myself. Now that elephant was well
on its way, I thought, “there is nothing I can do about it now anyways. Let me enjoy
this unique experience.”
And, surreal it indeed is.
Soon all of us were preening our eyes, getting accustomed to
the dark, foggy surroundings, hoping to spot a rhino very soon. As our elephant
ambled away, grabbing random branches to munch along or taking an early morning
leak (almost like a waterfall) we were enjoying the view of the frosty forest
from a vantage point. After almost 20 minutes, all that we spotted were a herd
of Indian hog deers and lots of trees laden with spider webs. Just as our
excitement was beginning to wane, I spotted a large rhino and shouted “There!”
Our mahout quickly navigated our elephant (I noticed, by poking the behind of
its ears with his toes) in the direction of the rhino.
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| Indian one-horned Rhino |
Our next safari was by jeep, at the Kohora sector and
planned to be from 3 – 5 pm. As the jeep drove through the dusty road, covered
on both sides with tall elephant grass, we got to see a few rhinos at a distance.
This was followed by a solitary wild elephant in a marsh. For some reason the guilt pangs from the elephant safari earlier in the day, came stinging back. Domestication of elephants, no matter how
nicely the humans treated them, could never replace the unencumbered freedom of
roaming in the wild. Selfishly, I brushed aside the thought again and enjoyed
the various sights the jungle had to offer. We saw a bale of turtle basking in
the evening sun on the branches of a dead tree in the river.
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| Tree climbing Turtles!! |
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| Me and my Mynah friends |
Here was a guy - the one horned Indian rhinoceros, one of the only 3500 of his kind left worldwide, seemingly dangerous but in reality a solitary animal, just wanting to be left alone in his territory.
There was enough time to take pictures from various angles and I clicked away to my heart's content.
I always enjoy jungle safaris as it is the closest one can get to the wilds. Our past attempts at trying to spot the elusive tiger had proven unsuccessful. But this time we were not here for the tiger. We had come to visit the rhinos and as our jeep sped away, raising a cloud of dust against the orange skies of Kaziranga we bade our goodbye to its glorious inhabitants.
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| Sunset at Kaziranga |
There isn’t much else to do while at Kaziranga besides the
National Park. However, there is one stand-out exception that is a definite
‘must visit’. The Kaziranga Orchid and Bio-diversity Park houses over 500
varieties of orchid many of them blooming in a controlled environment. It also
houses a small museum, made interesting by the friendly staff that take time to
explain the history of Assam. Every hour
a show of Assamese folk song and dance is performed that provides a glimpse of
the culture of the land of Bharat Ratna Bhupen Hazarika. Finally one can take a
stroll in the bamboo garden that has over three dozen varieties of bamboo (who
would have thunk bamboo has so many varieties).
Meghalaya – On Cloud Nine
Meghalaya literally means “Abode of the clouds”. It must
have been the abode of the Lords as well; for it is a wondrous land that blends
the elements of nature in the form of its hill ranges, dense forests, tranquil lakes,
sinuous rivers and elegant waterfalls into a beautiful palette, just like a
master weaver might create an exquisite pattern on cloth through skillful
placements of warps and wefts.
Shillong
If you still remember your Geography lessons from Class 6,
you would recall that Meghalaya is divided into 3 main hill ranges; Garo to its
west, Khasi hills that covers most of the central part and Jaintia hills in the
east. Shillong, the state capital is
located in the East Khasi hills and most of the places we visited were in this
region.
The drive from Guwahati to Shillong is a pleasant 2.5 hour
drive via a winding, two lane but surprisingly well laid out road with breath-taking
natural beauty for company all along the route. An hour into the drive, as you
cross Nongpoh an unmissable sight one sees is that of several vendors, mostly
women lining both sides of the road selling massive, ripe pineapples. Not
surprising, as the place is supposed to be one of the largest producers of pineapples
in the country.
On such family vacations, we usually make an effort to try
out some of the local produce and the ripe yellow-orange pineapples
were just too tempting. We stopped in front of one of the stalls and the driver
asked the lady in Khasi language to cut for us a large, ripe one. True to our
expectations, it turned out to be the juiciest, tastiest pineapple we had ever
had in our lives. When it was time to pay, I asked the lady with a shake of my
hand “how much?”. She replied by showing 3 fingers, meaning Rs. 30. Back home in Pune, I would have had to pay
twice that price to buy a pineapple half the size. I handed over two 20 rupee notes and as the lady rummaged through her pouch to fetch Rs. 10 to return, I
signaled her to not bother and keep the change.
Her reaction took me by surprise as she grabbed my hands, a
palpable joy on her wrinkled, tobacco chewing face and she muttered something
in Khasi language. Confused we looked to our driver, who told us that she was
saying Khublei, which was Khasi for Thank You. It was our first
encounter with the genial, hard-working Khasi people, a matrilineal tribe where
women inherit and children take their name.
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| Pineapples - as sweet as sweet can get |
Driving further, some 20 kms before Shillong as the road
winds down, one gets a spectacular view of the Umiam Lake. Locally known as
Barapani or (Big Water), the lake is part of a reservoir on the Umiam river.
Surrounded by the East Khasi hills, the serene, azure blue waters of the lake
in the backdrop of blue skies make for some spectacular viewing. It is a
popular picnic spot for locals. We went there on a busy Sunday, as we entered
the enclosure the calm of the environs was shattered by large speakers blaring
away local songs. There were picnickers scattered all over in large groups of
10-15 people. The unique thing we observed was that practically each group :
- had formed an enclosure made of thick colourful sheets, separating their group from the others
- had a huge music system that blaring away with loud music. As we walked along, the sound waves from different music systems clashed and commingled to create an incomprehensible cacophony
- had men and women gathered around large vessels, laden over stoves, where food was being cooked for the entire group
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| Umiam Lake |
At Shillong, we stayed at the Pine Wood Hotel, a Victorian style hotel with excellent wooden exteriors but mostly average interiors. Being centrally located, the advantage was the proximity to main locations. The Ward Lake an artificial body of water over 100 years old, is charming and good for a stroll or paddle boating or getting yourself clicked in traditional Khasi clothes.
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| Chanced upon these beautiful Khasi women - only to realize that they are part of my clan |
A ten-minute walk from Ward’s lake take you to Police Bazar,
the central shopping area. It is extremely crowded as people jostle along the
narrow streets lined with small shops stacked with clothes, shawls, fake shoes and
eateries. Nothing spectacular I must admit, but a must visit just to experience
the local life, especially on a cold winter Christmas eve evening.
Mawphlang – A tryst amidst the Forest Gods
Our second day at Shillong was something we were looking
forward to, as we had planned to take a somewhat off-beaten route to Mawphlang
Sacred Grove forest. We started early and stopped en-route at the Elephant
Falls, a three-stage waterfall tucked between dense trees. Probably the fact
that it was late December the water flow was very light. The highlight for us,
especially my son was learning a new Khasi phrase “Wat kiew halor mawsiang” meaning ‘Do not climb on the rock’.
Maw, in khasi means Stone. One will find several towns and
villages in Meghalaya whose name start with Maw – Mawphlang, Mawlynnong,
Mawsynram to name a few. It probably refers to the fact that in Meghalaya
monoliths or large rocks / stones are revered a lot. Mawphlang literally means grassy stone.
The Mawphlang sacred forest is spread over 76 hectares and
as our friendly guide named Hap (his
baptized name was Arnold) informed us, the forest is governed by a simple rule,
“Nothing can be taken out of this forest, not even a leaf or a stone”, as it
would upset Labasa, the deity that
guards the forest and result in subsequent misfortune.
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| Monoliths at Mawphlang |
Just before you enter the forest one can see a bunch of
monolith stones arranged in a specific pattern, the vertically placed stones
depicting the male while the horizontally placed stone depicting the female. These monoliths are testament to the fact
that the tribal cultures of this region go back several centuries and had
parallels with other ancient global civilizations that worshiped monoliths.
As one steps inside, the bright sunlight of the outside
makes way to a light deprived forest with only the occasional streak of
sunlight trickling through the densely interlocked branches. One is transported
into a different world filled with ancient trees, many believed to be more than
1000 years old, covered completely with moss, lichen or orchids.
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| Ceremonial monoliths |
Hap, like many of his Khasi brethren had heard stories about
the sacred forest, passed down over generations and he related some of them to
us. He showed us moss-laden stone (monolith) arrangements, some meant to be
used for preparation prior to sacred rituals, others used as a sacrificial
altar and yet others where the tribal king and his clansmen used to rest after
the rituals.
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| Cobra fruit - lemme know if you know what this is |
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| Mushroom cluster |
Hap also informed us that there are over a thousand varieties of orchids in the forest, unfortunately for us none blooming at that time of the year and a few hundred types of mushrooms (we got lucky to spot a couple of spectacular varieties). He showed us teenmukhi rudraksh seeds that had fallen from the Elaeocarpus ganitrus tree, a bright red fruit he called cobra fruit (I think he made that up as I could not find any reference to such a name) and different variety of fern.
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| Teenmukhi Rudraksha seeds |
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| Love is in the air |
While Hap might have been taking us through a familiar path that
he had taken several hundred times, and relating stories based on a set standard
script that he repeated with every tourist he guided, that one hour in the
Mawphlang Sacred Grove was the closest I have felt to Mother Nature.
Onward to Cherapunjee
The hour and a half drive from Mawphlang to Cherrapunji takes one through the higher levels of the Khasi hills. The deep gorges on one
side of the road and the hills filled with fern overhanging like festoons make
for some interesting viewing.
Sohra, as it is locally called is one of the rainiest places
in the world, recently officially upstaged by Mynswaram. However, this time of
the year is extremely dry. Having limited time in hand we settled for just a
couple of pit stops.
Nohkalikai Falls is a majestic waterfall, and is the tallest
plunge waterfall in India. Despite it being a lean period in terms of water
intensity, it is quite a sight to the water plunge into the azure blue
waterhole at the bottom. On the far side in the valley below is the Sylhet
region of Bangladesh.
As you walk along the rails that protect the edges of the viewing point, a board lays out the gruesome, rather macabre story behind why the falls are so called (I shall leave it for you to read for yourself here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nohkalikai_Falls )
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| Nohkalikai Falls |
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| Mawsmai Caves |
Enchanting Dawki
One of the nuisances of WhatsApp is, the many forwards that
you receive everyday on a variety of topics. Every now and then you will also receive
a dozen mind-numbing images about some usually remote location, along with a
message promoting the place as a Paradise on Earth or Heaven in India. It was one
such forwarded image-set about Umngot river, Dawki that made me want to visit
the place, to see for myself if the waters were indeed as crystal clear as the
images proclaimed them to be.
Dawki is a good 2.5 hour drive from Shillong and the long
drive gives you a glimpse of the majestic Khasi hills once again as you can see
maverick floating adrift just 30-40 feet above you. Being the 25th
December the driver had warned us that it would be crowded. As we crossed
several villages, we could see that almost every village was getting ready to
celebrate Christmas as the hoarded themselves in tractors with several Santa
Clauses leading them, a testimony to the predominant Christian population of
Meghalaya.
As our car wound down the hills into the Dawki valley the
clear green waters of the Umngot river with canoe shaped boats came into sight.
We hired a boat ride and the oarsman took us for a sail he pointed to the people gathered on the other side of the river bank informing us that they were all picnickers from Bangladesh. Incidentally, the Umngot river starts in Meghalaya and at Jaflong Zero Point in Dawki it meanders into Bangladesh where it flows further as Goyain river.
The problem with India is that any beautiful location, once it gains popularity gets throngs of visitors and invariably deteriorates. Sooner or later Dawki will get there. Luckily for us, it hadn't yet and we could experience the glass like clarity of the river. True to the images I had seen, the water was indeed very clear as one could see the perfectly smoothed stones and pebbles down in the riverbed.
We hired a boat ride and the oarsman took us for a sail he pointed to the people gathered on the other side of the river bank informing us that they were all picnickers from Bangladesh. Incidentally, the Umngot river starts in Meghalaya and at Jaflong Zero Point in Dawki it meanders into Bangladesh where it flows further as Goyain river.
The problem with India is that any beautiful location, once it gains popularity gets throngs of visitors and invariably deteriorates. Sooner or later Dawki will get there. Luckily for us, it hadn't yet and we could experience the glass like clarity of the river. True to the images I had seen, the water was indeed very clear as one could see the perfectly smoothed stones and pebbles down in the riverbed.
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| Shadow of the boat in the river Umngot |
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| K.k.k... Flop SRK |
At one point there were some gentle rapids formed by the shallow waters flowing down the rocky river bed. We were allowed to disembark from the boat to wet our legs and also take some photographs. We all got our posed shots in the scenic ambiance, including one feeble attempt by ‘yours truly’ to do a Shahrukh Khan.
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| Jai Hind |
Mawlynnong and whereabouts
Mawlynnong shot into prominence after 2003 when Discover
India travel magazine named it Asia’s cleanest village. Since then it has
become a tourist attraction which attracts crowds to witness what it is like to have a clean village in India, a sight which is quite rare. When we reached there around 2 pm on Christmas
day, the streets were already choc-o-bloc with vehicles and people and the solitary
open restaurant, managed exclusively by the local women was bursting at its
seams with people clamoring for whatever little food was left.
Not the ideal sight to witness Asia’s cleanest village.
Mawlynnong is definitely very clean but to me so are most places in Meghalaya.
It is probably the civic system and discipline put together by the villagers
that probably makes it unique.
A few kilometers from Mawlynnong is one of the famed Living
Root bridges of North East. This one is a single level bridge (as opposed to the
two level one near Cherrapunji, but which is a much harder trek) and is easily accessible. Created by the
villagers in the yonder days, by inter-twining the aerial roots of giant rubber
trees, it serves more of a tourist attraction today as opposed to its original
purpose of getting villagers to cross the rivers.
From the other side of living root bridge, we could climb a
steep hill that has well laid out steps to reach a village named Nohwet. It is
a lovely walk through the village as one could observe the villagers going about
their daily fare, smiling kids playing – happy to pose for the camera. One of
the attractions of the village is the View Point, where one can climb up a tree
house that creaks ominously as you climb higher. One can also walk the
precariously built bamboo path to get spectacular views of (surprise,
surprise!!) Bangladesh in the valleys beyond.
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| This fellow was trying to imitate me focusing my camera lens |
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| Happy kids posing |
Nohwet is as clean as Mawllynong minus its popularity. For us, it meant that we could take a much-relaxed walk soaking in the serene atmosphere of this Meghalayan village. The one thing that is integral to the cleanliness of these villages is the ubiquitous conical bamboo bins that are placed at every corner. These bamboo baskets are multi-purpose as one can observe women carrying them on their back, filled with wood or utensils, held firmly by a cloth strap that is supported on their foreheads. At other places these conical baskets serve as an ideal cage to prevent the hen and chicken from wandering away.
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| Multipurpose bamboo basket |
Goodbye Meghalaya
As I reflected upon all that we saw and did, the opening lines of John Keats famous poem Endymion came into my thoughts:
“A thing of beauty is
a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep”
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep”
Useful Information
- How to get there: Flights to Guwahati from any of the major airport. From Guwahati it is most convenient to hire a car / tourist vans depending on your numbers to visit Shillong and other places in Meghalaya. Likewise for Kaziranga
- What we missed: For those who are into trekking, The David Scott Trail from Mawphlang is considered to be a relatively easy trek over 16 kms. But for the kids, we would have loved to do this
- Winters in Meghalaya are pretty chilly with temperatures going down to under 5 degrees centigrade. So if you are traveling in winter, get warm clothes. Guwahati and Kaziranga on the other hand are not as cold
Outstanding
ReplyDeleteOutstanding
ReplyDeleteThanks Vivek
DeleteWow amazing .....enjoyed reading your blog. Tempting us to visit these lovely natural places and meet lovely people
ReplyDeleteThank you very much
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