My first ever solo trip
To Meghalaya — the land of clouds
Trips and vacations are always fun. However, traveling alone to an unknown place and meeting new people hits us on a different level. I’ve done a few trips with my mates mostly within South India. The northernmost part I have traveled to before was Mysore. I neither did solo trips nor visited any Northern parts of India. So, when I booked a solo package to Meghalaya, I had so many thoughts before I boarded my flight from Bangalore.
P.S. This is a long post! Please read this only when you have time. You won’t regret it 😜
Oh..! I forgot to tell you! This is my first flight experience too.
Why did I book this package?
2020 was really bad for me. Apart Corona induced lockdowns, I have faced severe damage both mentally and physically. I wanted a getaway for a long time. My brother saw my miserable state and took me on a Kodaikanal road trip. That was the first time my brother and I traveled for a vacation. Needless to say, I wasn’t that active during our little trip. I was still sulking with the bad decisions I made, issues I have created, etc. So I wouldn’t say that was a fun trip.
Skip to 2021, September. I started seeing a lot of people in my network posting their travel pictures. People were ganging up and traveling to a lot of places. I got so pissed off and jealous. I’m stuck in some indefinite sad loop and these guys were traveling. I didn’t do anything.
October came, again I saw another set of people traveling. In addition to that, my Instagram feed was filled with people traveling. I lost my patience. I decided I should travel with my gang. Then, I started canvassing my tour idea to a selected few. I know many friends in my gang are busy and didn’t want to disturb them. (I’ll plan another trip with those guys afterward) My campaign was an utter failure. Nobody was willing to take one week leave. Finally, I decided that I should go on a solo trip! I mean I don’t need anyone’s approval or company to enjoy a trip. But later I understood how dumb it is. I’ll tell you later on in this post.
So even an hour before I started my journey towards Bangalore airport, I don’t even know the names of the people with whom I’m going to travel. I have to find them only after I reach Guwhati.
First Flight experience
After getting a few instructions from my brother and my friends, I headed towards Kempagowda International Airport in the late hours of 19th Nov. Surprisingly it wasn’t that crowded as I expected and the boarding is also soo smooth. In fact, it is comparatively easier to board a flight than a Chennai metro in Koyambedu 😂
So, it is connecting flight. Bengaluru to Calcutta, then from Calcutta to Guwahati. With the “A for Annathe” playing in my earphones, I set to tie the kaappu for Kolkatta. (If you’ve watched Annathe, you would have understood this analogy, but not a good movie though, watch it for Rajini! 😎)
Coming back to the first flight experience. Traveling always introduces you to new people. Be it a bus, train, or flight. I’ve encountered a lot of strange people and had a good experience when I traveled by train and buses back when I was in college. The same happened to me during the flight.
I sat beside a guy and we both were minding our own business for quite some time. I was busy clicking photos to let my Instagram friends know that I had boarded my first flight. Usually, I’m not a guy who starts a conversation. However, we slowly started talking, turns out he is in some senior position in a biotech firm called Biocon. It is used to be my dream company back in my school days as I was into biotech then. So, I got so excited and he was explaining to me how medicines are made. I told him, my brother is working in some deep tech that will definitely help him and his team to cut back some workload. It was a good flight.
So I finally reached Kolkatta, waited there for almost 3 hrs. Felt bored, so I started roaming around to tie the kaappu for Kolkata 😂 . Later I figured out that whatever you buy at the airport, it will be at least 100% costlier than outside.
Never going to touch them in my life again!
Finally boarded my Guwahati flight and landed safely at the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi airport on the early morning of 20th Nov. My Meghalaya trip starts from then.
Meeting the travel buddies
I was the first guy to land at the airport and our pickup is at 10 am and I reached there by 7:00 itself. It is basically a package tour where 4 or more people will join for the trip. Fortunately, I came to know that all the other 3 people who are going to travel with me are solo travelers too. One guy from Hyderabad, one girl from Delhi, and another from Bengal. So basically, no one speaks Tamil in that group. I was like, how am I supposed to talk to these people, as many Tamil guys tend to use many movie references when they talk and if the opposite party doesn’t get it then there is no fun in that. We are tightly bonded with films and towards the end of the trip the girls in our group told that,
“Kaavian is too much into movies!”
“Yes, we are woman! That’s why we even made cine stars as Chief Ministers of our state 😎”
So, I came out of the airport and waited there for almost 3 hrs for others to reach. It was the Bengali girl, Tuhina who reached first. It took me some time to remember her name properly 😅. When I saw her, I felt that she must be someone who is into feminism, empowerment, strong, etc. Bengali right? Turns out, she is quite opposite of what I thought. LoL 😂
Then we met the other South Indian guy of the group, Sheri Anvesh a few minutes later. From a long distance itself, I could recognize him. We Southies always have this vibe, you can easily identify them if you’re one of them.
We started to have conversations and had breakfast together. I was surprised to see South Indian dishes like Dosai and idly being served there. However, after eating them this is how I felt.
Then we went to the railway station to pick up the 4th member of our group. Poor girl, she chose train as her mode of transport from Delhi to Guwahati forgetting that Indian railways never reach their destination on time. She was about 2 hrs late.
By then we all three bonded very well. Everyone was excited about this trip. We were getting to know each other and finally when the 4th member joined the group, it became full. The funny thing is, it was never like a group of unknowns. It was like we all had been friends for a long time and we are meeting for the trip. There was sync between all of us right from the beginning.
So the fun starts!
We have to travel from Guwahati, Assam to Shillong, Meghalaya by road. This road trip really helped us to bond and vibe together. By then, we all become comfortable with each other. For the whole trip, I never stopped talking, because if I do, I know that for sure that I’ll easily be out of the circle since all 3 of them speak Hindi and only I’m the odd man out. Those people also understood that and maintained almost all the entire conversations in English.
On the first day, we reached a lake, maybe a backwater? 🧐
It was calm. People were speed boating and sailing in the family boats, we took a few photos and left since speed boating can accommodate only 3 people apart from the driver. Everybody acted like a gentleman and didn’t wanna leave anyone onshore. Now that I think, if we had done that, then we wouldn’t have enjoyed the bond we had later. I guess?
We didn’t visit much on the first day as most of the time was spent on road travel from Guwahati to Shillong. That road trip helped me a lot to bond with these guys.
After visiting Shillong’s shopping centers and streets, we reached our homestay late at night sometime around 8:00PM. Oh! I forgot to tell you guys. East and NE states are 1 hr ahead of the rest of India. So the sun rises and sets early there. We had our dinner and our bedtime talks then went to sleep. In the middle of the talks, the gang was planning what to do next while I was just sitting like a child looking at them with confusion. Planning is not my cup of tea, to be honest.
Day 2 — the most productive day of the trip
The next day we woke up as early as possible and started our journey. We were determined to visit as many places as possible since we didn’t visit many places on the first day.
First, we reached Elephant falls. The drive to that falls was really good. It was a small waterfall, not much water, and felt more or less like a waterfall that’s nearby to my native place. We have to climb down a few steps and reach there. All of us took enough pics and quickly climbed up.
As the second destination, we reached a place called Mawmihthied. It was such a breathtaking place and it also had Zipline! I’ve never tried Zipline in my entire life so I was hell-bent on doing it. Sheri and Pooja opted out for some reason and finally, Tuhina and I waited there for almost 45 mins to get out turn. So first there will be a warm-up line which is short and zips over the side of the mountain we were standing. The second one is the lengthier and it’s actually between two mountains! While Ziplining, I felt like being a part of a commando squad silently ambushing the hijacked mountain peak 😂
So this is the view I had while Ziplining.
And a sneak peek into my Zipline video.
Later on, we headed towards another waterfall named Wei Sawdong. We never knew that this one is going to be a warm-up session for tomorrow’s trek. So, we need to climb down, some hundred steps or so to reach that falls. It will not be some well-laid concrete steps, instead, we have to use the steps laid using bamboos, stones, sometimes even muds.
The falls was really good. Though waterfalls and river is not new thing for me, the sheer beauty of water will always take over my mind. I was wondering how the water in that falls is still that clear even with a lot of people visiting this place.
We climbed down easily, but climbing up is literally an uphill task, not for me but for the woman I accompanied with. Even though I managed to climb those steps easily I had to stay back due to the Bengali girl 😂. Apparently, she never did such “hill-climbing” in her life it seems. While the other two quickly climbed up since Pooja got herself wet while clicking photos 😜, we two slowed down. I became a gym coach for her, instructing her on how to climb these steps. The amount of drama she created to climb just 100 steps is still the top five funny things she did in the entire trip.
Then while returning back from the falls we again made a pitstop to a place named Nohkalikai falls. Though we can’t climb down to the falls the viewpoint was amazing.
Later on, we reached a cave named Mawsmai caves. Those caves are must visit when you’re in Meghalaya. I’ve never been to many caves before, so this one is hit me differently. We have to walk like 200 meters inside the cave to emerge out of the other side. It was one hell of an experience. Pooja was on cloud nine as she is mad about caves. Later she told us of her plan to visit Turkey and stay in a cave hotel. A woman who craves caves!
There are many narrow pathways and I have to shrink myself to move forward. Sheri hit his head twice while walking as he was twice as big as me 😂
We ended our second day trip with another waterfall on our way back to our homestay. Initially, we all had assumed that this stay is going to be something like a gent’s hostel. We saw the room pics of the wrong homestay and we were all pissed off. The tour manager kept on saying it’s nothing like that and we will love it. After an hour-long discussion, we decided to visit that homestay and call them if we are not satisfied.
When we reached there we were all surprised to see the homestay. It was actually good and wasn’t what we had in our mind at all. So, we all settled in, later on, we had our fun in our room. We were playing, talking about our life stories and plans, etc. After a while, we all went to sleep with the satisfaction of visiting many places in one day.
This was the morning view we had in that homestay
Day 3 — the toughest among all
So we woke up “late” in the morning, had our breakfast, and after a few delays, we headed towards our trek. Although I’ve climbed small mountains, walked more than half a dozen KMs in my life, I’ve never been on a proper trek before. When I asked the trip manager he said that this is going to be a basic trek. Anyway, I was mentally prepared. But that’s not the case with the other three. Sheri, though he is living to travel, never did a trek before. Although pooja works out daily she was just wearing crocs and she was kinda tired in the morning itself. I don’t want to talk about Tuhina 😂
So, we started our trek around 10AM. While we were climbing down some of them we returning back. No one had even an ounce of a smile on their face. Some were terrified, some tired, some were praying to their god 😂
Everyone told us that it will take at least 3 hrs to reach the double-decker bridge, which was our first destination before we started our trek. However, the homestay manager told us that there is a natural swimming pool we should definitely visit which is around one and half hours away from the bridge. The water of the pool is so clean that you can never guess the depth of it. We decided that no matter what happens we are visiting it. After seeing those people who were climbing up, the only thing that was running in my mind was whether we will be able to reach the pool and return back before the sunsets. Because the whole path looked like this,
There are around 3500 steps we need to cross to reach that double-decker and another few thousand to reach the natural pool. I was walking down normally carrying both mine and Sheri’s clothes. Sheri was conservative in spending his energy since he knew that climbing back is going to be arduous. Pooja was as usual being herself enjoying the walk, playing, and dancing while Tuhina, for the most part of the first half, was trying to keep up with the guide who accompanied us. She wanted to show us that she is capable of doing this trek. Peer pressure 😂
Within 2 hours or something and after crossing two rivers, we reached the double-decker bridge. It is a man-made bridge built using just roots so that people can cross the river without getting into the water. It will take at least 100 years to create such bridges.
We decided that instead of spending time here, let’s go to that swimming pool, spend some more time and while returning we can make a pitstop here. So we continued our journey. You have to cross more than three rusty, old, and hanging bridges, a few root bridges, and climb another few thousand steps to finally reach the natural pool.
Needless to say, the whole trek was as breathtaking as exhausting. If you guys have watched “Theeran Adigaram Onru” movie then you will definitely remember that “dho kilometer” scene. Man! whenever we enquired the distance to the guide just like that thatha in that movie, he kept on saying “10 mins” for more than 40 mins. Maybe 10 mins in his walking speed?
But when we reached the destination and saw that pool finally, I felt the entire trek was worth it. I’ve never seen such clean water in my life. Ever! Without wasting any more time, I just jumped right at it.
I was jumping into the water after almost 2.5years! Only those who know swimming will understand the urge you will get when you see a clean pool or river. However, all we could spend there was just one hour 😒. Everyone was tired so we came out of the water to change our clothes and dry ourselves.
Only then we discovered Sheri got his legs hurt. A sharp rock inside the water tasted his blood and when we came out, almost half of the rock was covered with his blood. We didn’t have any first aid kit nor did the shop nearby have any. So, he cleaned his wound, wore his socks, and was trying hard not to put pressure on his left leg. We started our return journey by 2PM. Everyone was tired. Of course, Tuhina started her drama 😂 and even pooja wasn’t doing well. All the energy that Sheri conserved didn’t help him in the return journey because of his wound. I was exhausted but surprisingly not that tired. While coming we met a few Tamil groups and had good chitchat with them. These guys became so jealous of how I was talking to those Tamil guys, they started saying “Go..Go.. join with ‘em” 😂😂
Little did they know that I was collecting all the experiences they had in the camp we were planning to visit the next day. I was being truthful to my group 😉😌
We made our next pitstop at the double-decker bridge. Sheri was bleeding again, and I took Pooja’s handkerchief to wet and use it to clean the wound. I have to go near the small waterfall and due to slippery rocks, I was about to fall. Thank god I had my shoes. I kinda saved my life there.
So, when I came back, Tuhina remembered she has bandages with her all the time. When she opened her “mobile clinic” she had a couple of bandages are also an anti-septic cream. I was personally relieved because I was afraid that if the bleeding continues, Sheri might faint in the middle of the trek. We had enough rest and started our journey again. Tuhina was accompanying Sheri and I came with Pooja. We slowly started to increase of pace.
Thank for reading this blog with patience. Hope you enjoyed it. It’s not the end, of course! I know if I go beyond this point in this blog itself, it will feel like a novel. So, I’m continuing this in my next blog. Cheers!
