Shillong

Friday 6/3 was our first full day in Shillong, a mountain city in northeast India. We spent most of the day in an academic session; in the afternoon we heard a talk from a guest speaker from the Indian Institute of Management, Shillong. His expertise was in sustainability; it was interesting to hear his thoughts on India’s environmental policies. According to the professor and others I have talked to, India has the best environmental practices in the world. Unfortunately, the enforcement of these policies is lacking. It was also interesting to discuss how to establish cause-and-effect relationships between polluting companies and people whose health is affected downwind or downstream from the pollution. At night, I watched a bootleg recording of Hamilton with a lot of students. The soundtrack is incredible and I wish it was possible to get tickets to the show!

The hotel we stayed at in Shillong was once a castle—what are now hotel rooms used to be guest houses. Overall, the location reminded me a lot of Munnar, a town in Kerala that I stayed in two years ago. The resort in Munnar was on a tea and cardamom plantation. There were many comparisons made between Shillong and Munnar, with the goal of determining which was better. I like Shillong a lot, but the tea plantation tour was one of my favorite days of my first trip, so I am partial to Munnar.

On 6/4, we spent the day touring in the state of Meghalaya. We first went to a living root bridge that crosses a stream. It was nice to wade into the cool water; many people in the group slipped on the rocks and almost got soaked. There was a picture taken of me at the root bridge (now on Facebook) where I appear to be throwing up—take a look. On the walk to and from the root bridge, there were many people selling small bags of pineapple for 10 rupees. This was the best fruit that I have had so far on the trip. I am expecting some great mango, but we have not come across much mango yet. After the root bridge I quickly ran up an awesome treehouse built with bamboo, admission 20 rupees. The treehouse was built with no synthetic materials, only wood and rope-like vines.

Tree house near the living root bridge

Living root bridge, Shillong

Our next stop was the “cleanest village in Asia,” a few minutes away from the root bridge. The precise definition of “cleanest” is not standard, but this village of 500 residents was completely clear of litter and used some renewable energy. The sale of plastics is heavily restricted; the only plastic products we saw were water bottles. Once purchased, the bottles are not allowed to be thrown away in the village and must be carried out. On the clean energy front, the street lights in the village were solar powered and there were rainwater collection facilities. At the village we walked up another bamboo tree house, this one slightly shorter and more wobbly than the first.

Rose in the tree house in the "cleanest village in Asia"

After two more hours of driving on the curvy mountain roads, we reached Cherrapunji, the rainiest place in the world. It receives over 30 feet of rain annually. During our lunch it poured, but unfortunately we were never outside during a rainstorm. In Cherrapunji we visited a couple waterfalls and a cave. At one of the waterfalls we had some delicious tea, again served in very flimsy clear plastic cups. Masala tea in India is always served with milk and sugar, generally a copious amount of the latter. At the last waterfall, there were three small kids selling packages of cinnamon bark for 20 rupees. Rose bought one package, another student bought a second, then Professor Ganguly bought the remaining 10 packages. The children selling the cinnamon were overjoyed when they were out of their wares—they were now free to play for the rest of the evening. They immediately began running around and playing tag once they realized the implications of the gratuitous purchase of Professor Ganguly. I have been chewing on small pieces of the cinnamon bark every once in a while since it was purchased. The flavor is subtle and lasts for hours. The cave we stopped at was 150 meters long, fairly wet, and had a few uncomfortably small spaces.

 

Northeastern students walking through a cave

Waterfall near Cherrapunji

On 6/5, we began the day with an academic session, concluding the morning with a great discussion about politics, business, and how these relate to climate change in India. In the afternoon, we drove to Shillong Point, the highest place in Shillong, then visited another waterfall. Unfortunately we were not allowed to enter Shillong Point because it is inside an army base and was closed for the day by the time we arrived. We walked around the top of the mountain outside the base, buying some delicious plums from the fruit and vegetable stands. We also tried a radish that was very spicy. At the waterfall we finally experienced some rain; of course, I had taken my rain jacket out of my backpack after not needing it in Cherrapunji.

On 6/6, we bid a fond goodbye to Shillong and drove back to the Guwahati airport. On our way, we stopped at the Don Bosco Museum of Culture and Heritage in Shillong. The highlight of the museum was Rose and I getting the opportunity to dress up in traditional royal garb for only 100 rupees. We took some pictures on the skywalk that overlooked the city before heading back down to the bus. From Guwahati, we flew to Delhi where we will stay for three days.

Northeast India's first Bob Dylan tribute cafe. The records are not Bob Dylan records...

Sunset on the way up the mountain to Shillong

Sunset on the way up the mountain to Shillong