India Travel

The important market town of CHERRAPUNJEE, 56km south of Shillong, achieved fame as the wettest place on earth. The highest daily rainfall ever recorded fell here in 1876 - 104cm in 24 hours- but Cherrapunjee now shares its watery crown with nearby Mawsynram, whose overall annual rainfall recently pipped it at the post. Cherrapunjee’s numerous falls are most impressive during the steamy monsoon season when awesome torrents of water plunge down to the Bangladeshi plains. Noh Kalikai, the fourth-highest tall- ifl the world, was named after Kalikai, a poor local woman, who in Khasi legend was tricked into eating her daughter by a jealous and evil second husband and then threw herself from the top of the falls after recognizing some fingers in her berel-nut basket.

Cherrapunjee is divided into upper and lower sections, spread out over several kilometres. The upper town consists of a few poky buildings built around the Ramakrishna Mission, and has a couple of restaurants, the Diengdoh and the Raindrop. The lower part has all the civil offices from the days when it served as administrative capital for the region, and a couple of churches. The various points of interest - the Noh Kalikai waterfall, Bangladesh viewpoint, and Mawsmai village and cave - are each a few kilometres in different directions out of Cherrapunjee; the easist and most comfortable way of seeing them all is to join the Meghalaya Tourism day-trip (daily 8am-4.30pm; Rs80). State buses and Jeeps run from Shillong if you prefer to do it on your own, but there is no accommodation available. Buses leave from the Anjalee Cinema bus stand in Shillong at 7am and the last bus returns at 2.30pm. Shared taxis and Jeeps are more readily available on the day of the market (every eight days, and four days after the Iewduh in Shillong) famous for its local orange honey and tribal jewellery.

A one-day jungle trek along the David Scott trail from Mawphlang to Cherrapunjee can be arranged through Impulse Inc, NGO Network, near Horseshoe Building, Lower Lachumiers in Shillong. The trail was constructed during the nineteenth century to facilitate transport of goods. Maswphlang is the site of an ancient sacred grove from which the sacred fruits could be eaten but never taken away.

There are plenty of places in Police Bazaar to pick up a snack. Bara Bazaar also has a few simple restaurants and cafes. Most of the hotels also have restaurants or room service.

Abba, GS Road. The best Chinese restaurant in Shillong, with another branch on the main Jowai Road, Malki Point, Lachumiere. Both closed on Sundays.

Broadway, Broadway Hotel, GS Road. Attractive and very reasonably priced restaurant specializing in Indian and Chinese food, Recommended.

Delhi Mistan Bhandar, Police Bazaar Road. Classic Indian snacks and sweets. Very cheap, always full, and recommended for its excellent breakfasts.

La Galerie, Hotel Centre Point, Police Bazaar. One of Shillong’s plushest restaurants serving fine Indian and Chinese food.

New World, GS Road, at Bara Bazaar junction. A local favourite, serving good Chinese food including spicy Szechuan dishes.

Life in Shiltong used to revolve around the decorative Ward Lake. In the exclusive European Ward next to it, the large bungalows set in generous pine-shadowed gardens include Government House, the official residence of the governor. The ambience here is in stark contrast to the bustle around Police Bazaar, where the narrow streets are packed with vendors trading in local handicrafts, Khasi women wearing toga-like jaitisem, in checked gingham and tartan designs, and Khasi men smoking roughly chiselled pipes. Bara Bazaar, farther west, is even more hectic, attracting locals and hill-people to its warren of stalls and shops. Primarily, it is a produce and provisions market - vegetarians and those with fragile constitutions would do well to avoid the meat section - but you may come across interesting jewellery and handicrafts. Bara Bazaar is the scene of Meghalaya’s oldest and most important market, Iewduh, which is held every eight days, although it’s exceedingly busy and crowded every day.

Meghalaya’s State Museum, in Lachumiere, has exhibits depicting tribal customs, and a weaker collection of ancient sculptures from elsewhere in India (Mon-Sat: summer 10am—4.30pm; winter 10am-4pm, closed 2nd & 4th Sat of the month; free). More unusual is the tiny Butterfly Museum. based in the home of Mr Wankhar, in the Riatsamthiah area, which holds an extensive collection of (dead) rare butterflies and moths (Mon-Fri 10am-4pm, Sat 10.30am-lpm; Rs5). Since 1939, Mr Wankhar has run a breeding farm in the Khasi hills to the south, shipping eggs and cocoons allover the world.

Although Shillong’s Botanical Gardens, below the lake, across a viaduct, are not really worth a visit. Lady Hydari Park is an attractive ornamental park, modelled on a Japanese garden. A small forestry museum, a mini-zoo and a deer enclosure are tucked away among the pines. Lovers of old churchyards will enjoy the Anglican cemetery in Rilbong, with gravestones dating back to the last century, including those of soldiers killed in the Lushai campaign in Mizoram. Shillong Peak, 10km away, rises to 1960m and on a clear day both the Himalayas and the plains of Bangladesh can be seen from the top.

Shillong has a healthy range of accommodation, with older hotels clustered around Ward Lake, newer ones springing up in the congested Police Bazaar area, and several more basic options along Quinton Road.

Ashoka, Police Bazaar Road. Basic but cheap with common bathrooms, for domestic tourists and budget travellers.

Baba Tourist Lodge, GS Road. Friendly, clean and very good value, with a/c and hot water by the bucket.

Broadway, GS Road. Comfortable mid-range hotel, all rooms a/c, with an attached restaurant at street level.

Centre Point, Police Bazaar Road. Plush hotel in the heart of town, with all mod cons and a good range of facilities, including restaurant, La Galerie.

Hari Om, Quinton Road. Basic veg hotel with common bathrooms.

Monsoon, GS Road. Friendly hotel opposite the ITDC Tourist Office, by far the nicest in Shillong. All rooms have hot shower, colour TV and a/c. Recommended.

Orchid Lake Resort, Seventeen kilometres from Shillong on Barapani Lake, with twenty rooms overlooking the lake.

Pine Borough, Police Bazaar Road. Large hotel with reasonable rooms, with attached bathrooms and TV. The Mikado restaurant serves Indian and Chinese food, and there’s a bar.

Pinewood Ashok, Rita Road, European Ward. A grand old hotel, straight out oi the Raj: built in 1917 for British tea planters. Dotted around the landscaped grounds are cottages with Burma teak panels, carpeted wooden floors, fireplaces, bathtubs and a billiard room.

Shillong Cluh, Kacheri Road. One of India’s famous old clubs, offering accommodation in its residential quarters. Large rooms with balconies, hot showers, cable TV and partial views of the fake. Prices include temporary membership.

Utsau, Jail Road, opposite mam bus stand. Homely place with smallish rooms and hot water by the bucket. Make sure your room has a window because about half the rooms don’t have them.

In the absence of auto-rickshaws, black and yellow wasp-like taxis buzz around the town, competing with city buses both on routes and numbers of passengers carried (the record is 15) and generally adding to the chaos. Central Shillong can easily be explored on foot. Buses from outside the state pull in at the Police Bazaar area at the heart of town. The state tourist office, on Jail Road opposite the main bus station (Mon-Sat 7.30am-5pm, Sun 7.30-11am), is the place to make reservations for guided city tours (8.30am-2.30pm; Rs80), or out to Cherrapunjee (8am-4.30pm; Rs100, minimum 15 people), while the ITDC tourist office is nearby on GS Road (Mon-Fri 9.30am-5.30pm, Sat 9.30am-2pm). The Modern Book Depot, opposite the ITDC office on GS Road, stocks town maps and books on the northeastern region.

The GPO is on Kacheri Road, opposite the Skillong Club, as is the State Bank of India, where there are foreign exchange facilities; the branch in Police Bazaar does not exchange money. Khattu Cyber Cafe in the SMS Complex, next to Hotel Monsoon on GS Road, provides internet access.

Those interested in exploring Meghalaya’s awesome caves can contact the Meghalaya Adventurers Association at the Mission Compound near the Synod Complex, or through Hotel Centre Point in the Police Bazaar, Cultural Pursuits Adventures, based at the Shillong golf course Barking Deer Cafe, runs several tours in Meghalaya and Assam, including a fifteen-day festival special in October and November, and can also arrange tailor-made itineraries.

With its rolling hills and tall elegant pines, SHILLONG was known to the British as “the Scotland of the East". The impression is first brought to mind by Barapani, the loch-like reservoir on its fringes, although the chilly nights may also seem reminiscent. At an altitude of around 1500m. Shillong became, popular hill station for the British, who built it on the site of a thousand-year-old Khasi settlement and made it the capital of Assam in 1874. Much of the original Victorian town is still evident - the large gardens around Ward Lake and the buildings surrounding ic conjure up images of a colonial past. The eighteen-hole golf course, founded in 1898 by a group of enthusiastic British civil servants, is the oldest golf course in Asia.

Away from the centre, Shillong hasn’t worn well: an acute water shortage and a general lack of planning have resulted in haphazard growth, and the surrounding hills have been subjected to severe deforestation. The influx of settlers from the plains and the strain this has placed on natural resources has led to occasional outbreaks of communal violence.

MEGHALAYA, one of the smallest states in India, occupies the plateau and rolling hills between Assam and Bangladesh. Its people, predominantly Christian and belonging to three main ethnic groups, the Khasis, Jaintias and Garos, are strikingly different from those of Assam, as is its landscape. Much of Meghalaya ("land of the rain-clouds") is covered with lush forests, rich in orchids. These “blue hills” catch the main force of the monsoon-laden winds off the Bay of Bengal, and are among the wettest places on earth. Stupendous waterfalls can be seen near the capital, Shiliong, but the most dramatic plummet from the plateau to the south, around Cherrapunjee. The hills of Meghalaya rise Co just under 2000m, which makes for a pleasant year-round climate, a welcome refuge from the steamy valleys of Assam. On January 21, 1972, after an eighteen-year struggle for autonomy from Assam, it became a fully fledged state. Meghalaya has a high literacy rate and teaching is in English.

The scenic hill resort of HAFLONG, 84km north of Silchar, is the seat of the North Cachar Hills Autonomous District Council, where members of several ethnic groups including Dimasas, Hmars, Nagas and Mizos, belonging to different religious denominations - Christian, Hindu and Buddhist - live together in apparent harmony. Give or take, that is, the odd ruction in support of statehood or at least further autonomy, and the odd consignment of arms or militants en route to Manipur or Nagaland.

Haflong’s market is at its best and most colourful on Saturday when it’s overflowing with rice-beer (dju) and other local produce. Private buses pull in on Main Road, 100m above the market by the Hamringdi cinema, with departures early morning and midday for Silchar (5hr), plus one overnight departure to Guwahati (9hr).ASTC has morning and noon departures to Silchar. The railway station - at Lower Haflong is 3km from town. The best train to Lumding is the #5812 which leaves at 1.40pm arriving five hours larer. The best train to Silchar is the #5811 which leaves at 11.50am and takes six hours. Accommodation options include the Elite, Joyeswary Eastern and llahamaniya, all of which have basic restaurants, though the Elite (7am-9pm), is probably the best. There are no exchange facilities in Haflong.

Nine kilometres south of Haflong on the Silchar road,Jatinga is famed in local folklore as the place where birds commit mass suicide. The more brutal truth is that on certain foggy, moonless mghts m autumn, local migrant birds can become disorientated while flying up the valley over the saddle of the rjill and are attracted with lights by local people, who clobber them with bamboo poles and eat them.There is a bird-watching centre in Jatinga, where you can stay with permission from the District Forestry Office in Haflong. Buses to Silchar pass through, or you can make a day-trip from Haflong by auto-rickshaw.

The nondescript town of SILCHAR is south Assam’s main transport nexus There’s little to do here but wait for a bus or train out, but you may find you self having to stay the night. The top hotel in town is the Sudakshi, on Shillong Patty, with comfortable carpeted roor hot water and cable TV. The excellent-value Hotel Siddharth just round the corner on Narshingtola, has clean rooms with showe filtered water and TV. Other options include the reasonable Swagat on Cent Road and the Geetanjali Club Road, which has large rooms, hot water and one of the best restaurai in town. A group of Tibetan traders run a small wool market next to the Swagat during the winter months — worth a visit for its clothing, carpets and friem atmosphere.

South Assam, ridged by the Cachar hills, is the crossing point for the surrounding states of Meghalaya. Tripura, Mizoram, and Manipur. While the main town, Silchar. contains little of interest, places further afield, notably the low key hill station of Haflong, are far more appealing.