Cherrapunji, Nongriat 29th March to the 1st April

My quest to reach the rural corners of India, once again, has forced me out of my comfort zone; both metaphorically and physically. Despite the remoteness the mountains, valleys and waterfalls of Meghalaya had enough of a pull factor to entice me in.

My journey once again started in Guwahati – they don’t call it the gateway to the North East for nothing. The first leg of the journey was to get to Shillong, this was fairly easy – I took an Uber auto (motorbike) to the bus station, where I then caught a shared taxi to Shillong. A reasonably cheap option for this route, but as a bit of a moan, fat people should have half of the ticket of the person next to them. I was in the middle and the guy to my left was consistently encroaching on my seat. Luckily the girl to my right told the fat fuck guy to get over his side. I think she was fairly polite but I like to think she laid him out. As to be expected the taxi dropped us at a another taxi rank not quite where any of us wanted to be, but after a short walk I found the parking garage I was looking for. And on the first floor I found the shared sumo jeep stand for Cherrapunji that I needed. The first Sumo in the queue said there wasn’t room for my bag and I couldn’t really be bothered to argue. So I hopped in the second one. As the first passenger I knew I had a bit of a wait on my hands, so I took the opportunity to have a quick kip. I was stirred by the driver as the sumo was filling up. For context these ‘sumos’ are essentially yellow jeeps, standard size, but with two benches (one where the seats would be and one in the boot). The sumos only depart when full, which is four on each bench, and two in the passenger seat. But what you sacrifice in comfort you make up for in value. And surprisingly these are more comfortable than the shared taxi, owing to the fat man, I had more space with four of us sharing a bench than next to the aforementioned lard arse. I toyed with also doing the next leg of my journey immediately, but decided that was enough travelling for today and found a homestay for the night (called By The Way which I thought was a good name).

With the remainder of my day in Cherrapunji, I rushed to have a quick lunch at a local eatery suggested by the homestay guy. It was phenomenal, a small shop with a glass counter housing various curies and a few benches / tables. Serving simple and traditional food which felt healthy. I ended up eating there twice more and popping in again for a (not so healthy) extra cookie. My first meal consisted of a plate of rice with three veg curries, a tea, and a cookie which came to a grand total of 40 Rs (40p). I very generously gave them 50p. The eatery was run by a group (presumably family) of women of all ages but all tiny! Like really short. They asked how tall I was, and suggested 7ft which went straight to my ego.

After my quick but late lunch, sunlight was burning, I knew I was racing against the sun to find the waterfalls. The first of which I found easily; simply I followed the stream / river until it dropped off the edge of a cliff. My boots held up brilliantly not letting a drop of water in, despite me standing submerged. The view was stunning. There’s an intriguing feeling standing at the precipice of a waterfall. A little voice desperate to peek over the edge, gradually winning the mental battle against the pure survival instinct that says ‘we’re not going near that edge, no way. Right. Right Hugo?!’ After taking that in I continued the hunt for the other waterfall marked on google maps. What I didn’t realise was that it was on the next set of cliffs over. While I still tried to make it with a bit of a jog around, I didn’t make it. The sunset claimed the day. I did manage to find some more views of the first waterfall which were nice, ultimately dinner was also calling so I began my return trip.

The ‘by the way’ homestay was a lovely very quiet spot – but anywhere with a hot shower is pretty great if you ask me. Also staying with me at By The Way were a few chickens, three ducks, and a man from Delaware. I embarrassed myself when I asked where in America he was from and then proceeded to ask which state Delaware was in… 

Following an okay night sleep on the rather firm bed, I packed and continued my journey to the rainforest. A cab ride took me as close as possible by road to Tyrna; without asking he knew where I wanted to go, and dropped me right at the top of the stairs which were the final leg of my journey. I disembarked and began my two maybe three hour descent over 3000 steps down to Nongriant (mostly just downhill but a bit of uppy downy as well). Now at the time I didn’t know the done thing was to leave your bag at a hotel at the top of the valley and just take the bare minimum down. But alas without thinking I lugged all my stuff. My calves were not happy about this, not happy at all. Every step down came with the knowledge that it would be a step up on the return journey – but whatever that was a future Hugo problem.

By the time I’d found the home stay, which was an act of blind faith assuming I was on the right path through the jungle, I was dripping with sweat. Every inch of my back was drenched, it was running down my nose, it wasn’t good. Thankfully, just five minutes before my homestay I passed a plunge pool with people swimming in it. When I got there, given the state of my shirt (being already soaked) I just unzipped my trousers into shorts and got in. Well after paying my 100 Rs to rent the ‘compulsory’ life jacket of course. The life jacket was actually great though, you could just swim up and under the waterfall and then lie on your back drifting with the current. It was a much needed and refreshing dip. I also got chatting with one of the other people taking a dip, he very kindly took some photos/videos and sent them to me (included of course). Of the three Indians there, not one could swim – which I found pretty surprising. Already just having a little swim and relax by the waterfall made the journey worth it.

But why have I taken a shared taxi, a shared sumo, a cab and hiked three hours? Well this area is beautiful, with stunning valleys and luscious rain forest, and not to mention the several waterfalls. However, there is one bit more unique to here that drew me in – a specific type of bridge… More on this later…

After a bit of lunch, I went for a further walk through the jungle just to have a bit of an explore. I had a set route in mind, but was quickly steered off course by some people trying to be helpful but who in reality were clueless. Despite the bum steer, it ended well as I just explored some of the really small tracks. Traversing up the stream until it reached a cliff that I couldn’t scramble up. While obviously the flora was stunning, it was the butterflies that blew me away! They’re pretty at home, but the colours of these butterflies were so striking. Punchy blues and luminous yellows contrasting against matt black. These colours also only visible when in flight, when retracted the underside of the wings are a much more sensible, camouflaged, brownish colour. With my mini-explore complete it was time to return, get some rest and have dinner – which thankfully given the amount of activity I’d done was a very tasty veggie buffet!!! I regret stopping at three plates.

The next day I rose early to get some hiking done before the heat of the day. My plan was to take it easy this day, rest up before the mission of trekking my bag out of the valley the next day. So after a quick brekkie I set off towards Rainbow Falls (an hours’ hike) which took me past the most unique bridge I think I’ve ever seen. The people of Nongriat felt the maintenance of bamboo and metal bridges were too expensive and a particular hassle when there is no road link at all (meaning all supplies are carried by hand to the village). So they planted rubber trees on both banks and patiently waited steering the roots of the trees together. Eventually, the roots meet and (with some guidance) form a bridge made of the roots – a root bridge if you will. I’m sure these aren’t completely unique to Nongriat – not that I’m going to fact check that – but here they showed some flair and built / grew a double-decker root bridge! For seemingly no purpose other than they could. Throughout the valleys I crossed all sorts of bridges, concrete, bamboo, metal etc – the root bridges felt as strong as concrete – they had no give and just felt solid. The bamboo and metal bridges however have minds of their own – and were slippery when wet (not a great quality in one of the wettest places on Earth).

The root bridges were beautiful and such a cool way to harness the power of nature. We get a bridge that maintains itself, and the forest’s aesthetic (which it puts so much effort into keeping up) is maintained or even improved. Also the bridges aren’t just used by humans, ants marched across in uniform lines as they do.

After the root bridges I passed a fork in the path that intrigued me, but continued towards the waterfall. Obviously the waterfall was very pretty and a lovely place to sit and enjoy my packet of crisps, but not too much to say about it really. I did make a feline friend here who was very keen on sitting on me – although I think he just wanted my crisps more than anything. Typical really, only interested in what I have, not who I am…

Walking back came across a fellow foreigner in a Pink Floyd tee-shirt. We obviously stopped to have a little chat. Jack (from Somerset) and I agreed I’d wait for him to see the waterfall and continue our trek together after. While I was blindly going to follow the alternative path from the fork, he had an app that actually had these tiny paths listed. It turns out the path went all the way back to the top of the valley but a much steeper and more direct route. At this point I kinda knew my ‘restful’ day was out of the picture and we embarked up out of the valley – for no reason other than it was there. The climb was taxing, the first half was okay, albeit with lots of steps. The second half the path stopped following the contours of the valley and opted to go directly up – a seemingly endless, increasingly steep, increasingly deteriorating, set of steps. Towards the top the ‘steps’ (rocks) became mossy and slippery to add to the challenge. But we made it and at the top there was a viewpoint people could drive to, with a few restaurants and souvenir shops. In total the climb was over 1km up alone – which took us into the clouds and obscured what I’m sure would have been a lovely view. The climb was tough, and my calves were now really pissed off at me, veins bulging and stinging me with every step.

Once at the top we also realised the steeper path took us much closer to Cherapunji. Compared to the route via Tyrna that we both initially took. This gave me an idea, not a good one, but an idea nonetheless. Anyway, here Jack and I parted ways. He sensibly was staying at one of the homestays at the start of the steps so could get a taxi round the top and avoid repeating the descent and ascent. I returned down the steep, slippery steps. After a few close calls I made it down with both ankles in tack. The calves also somehow held out.

The next day I made an even earlier start as it was time to put this idea into action. My genius plan was to hike with my bag up the much steeper steps and then walk the remaining 4 km to Cherapunji rather than take the gentle route via Tyrna and taxi. With a potential saving of £5/6 I knew what had to be done. Quickly to clarify, the main reason this saving was so important to me was it kept the money out of the hands of the taxi drivers – which is priceless. Also the journey / challenge was appealing.

I donned the raincover on my bag and began the hike. Again it was fairly brutal, two or three hours of continuous uphill. But with the occasional biscuit or choccy bar break and the employment of two sticks to get the upper body involved I eventually made it up. I was hoping the final stretch of the hike would be flat, but it was of course another uppy downy job. Despite the total only being around a four hour hike, once complete it felt like I’d climbed Everest rather than out of a valley.

Once back at Cherapunji I stopped for lunch, where I was getting a lot of attention from the locals. But after eating and the impromptu meet and greet – I boarded another shared sumo back to Shillong. This time taking the front seat – which was really comfortable (comparitaly speaking) even when sharing it with another guy. After another shared Sumo I was reunited with the familiality of Guwahati and headed back to my trusted Guwahati hostel. On my way I picked up a Kingfisher. I used to say my favourite brand of beer was ‘cold’ followed by ‘free’ however I think ‘well earnt’ is now taking the top spot. Maybe one day I’ll achieve nirvana having a cold, free and well earnt beer. I live in hope.

For dinner I had two portions of egg and veg noodles, and needless to say I slept like a baby that night!

The next day, I awoke a pretty broken man. I thought I’d take myself out for brekkie and have a chill day recovering and planning the next few days ahead. My calves protested every step to brekkie, but on the short walk back I spot a familiar Pink Floyd tee-shirt. It was Jack who hadn’t changed since. I ended up joining him for a second brekkie which was nice. Later that evening I got chatting to two of the other guests at the hostel, both Indian. One guy was this lovely chill very peaceful presence, the other guy was perhaps overly confident but full of expressions. I’ve found there is a great emphasis placed on age in India. The overly confident guy seemed to think as he was 27 (the eldest of us) his 8% longer on Earth was the difference between blind naivety and omnipotence. We had a couple of beers, and rolled a couple of… wraps. A lovely evening shooting the shit until around 4.

With that I’m saying goodbye to the very North East of India, and heading towards the cool hills of Darjeeling.

Actually, I have two little bonuses…

Firstly, in Guwahati I also went to their Assamese museum which was really interesting, detailing Assamese culture and history. I got adopted by an Indian family who became my guides. A few highlights (with photos included): Ravana mask – Ravana being a ten headed demon king in Hinduism; a very nice (surprisingly lean) Buddha; a stone carving of Shiva, who appears in many forms, here as Nataraja (the lord of dance), also note Nandi Shiva’s bull ‘effortlessly bearing Shiva’s weight; and finally some of the most unusual coins I’d ever seen!

Then here’s a very short compilation of some rainforest clips.