After visiting the Scotland of the East we made our way to the erstwhile wettest place on earth : Cherrapunji. But before that we stopped at the magical Elephant Falls in the midst of a conifer forest .

The Elephant Falls is so named because of the original elephant like rock at the bottom of the fall. Sadly, an earthquake destroyed the rock formation but the falls remain.

The fresh scent of pines and the cool green forest compelled me to take in deep breaths and I finally appreciated what was meant by Forest Bathing.

There is nothing as restful as breathing in the forest air, enveloping yourself in it’s comforting embrace

Regrettably, we couldn’t spend more time in the forest paradise as we had to make our way to Cherrapunji to see the caves and waterfalls that Meghalaya is famous for.

Ever since Class 8 when I heard about Cherrapunji I was intrigued by the name and the reason for its claim to fame. I always imagined it would be lush with green and was totally disappointed to see the brown scrubland almost desolate with its quarried landscape.

Prima Donna consoled me with the fact that an American blogger who had visited this place had mentioned in his blog davidsbeenhere that this part of the East Khasi hills reminded him of Lesotho, so I could take comfort in the fact that I had visited Lesotho as well ! Poor comfort indeed.

Did you know that one of Meghalaya’s exports was sand ?

I thought that the raging waterfalls that we were going to visit would make up for the brown scenery but was shocked to find that they had become a mere trickle !

Prima Donna bravely and boldly marched into the Arwah caves, but I was wary of the water dripping through and the slippery rocks. While I waited for her, I met up with another lady who was also waiting for her guests. She was a young Khasi who had lived in Shillong all her life and used to come often with her cousins to play around in the caves. It was only in the last 15 years or so that denudation, deforestation and climate change have played a large part in the browning of this once green and lush area. Luckily, Mawsynram in the same district is now the wettest place on earth.

The caves were fascinating but frankly I get claustrophobic. Infact, at the second cave at Mawsmai we didn’t even attempt going inside when a returning visitor told me that a tiny space inside would definitely not accommodate someone my size.

So taking advantage of this stop, we indulged in our rumbling tummies with some local momos before heading off to Naokhali.

We did go up to the lookout point and much to Anil’s disappointment , turned down the offer of going right down to the bottom even though the road was bare 5 km long.

On our return back to Shillong we wanted a flavour of the everyday modem Shillong so we stepped into a popular local hub Cafe Shillong.

The cafe was pretty happening when we arrived but within minutes we were the only people left .

We soon discovered why : darkness descends by 5 pm and with no street lights, it is best one gets home before dark !

Ciao