I came to the northeast wanting to visit many places. The first of which was Guwahati, my train's final destination. Actually there, the city did not seem very welcoming to me. I had trouble finding a good hotel so I decided there must be a reason why so many shared cab rides were being offered. I ended up taking the option that was offered most, that is going to Shillong.
After resting from the long day's travel, I hired a private cab that drove me to pretty places in the area. We went to various view points, mostly of waterfalls, but my favourite attraction were the caves. Besides the main cave, one could explore some smaller ones where proper climbing was necessary to get further. I couldn't go in that deep though because there was no lighting. It became pitch black and I was not comfortable relying on my phone's torch that much. Instead I went out and climbed a little into the jungle, where I could enjoy nature undisturbed.
The following day I took it easy on my body and wallet and only went to a lake nearby. There I relaxed nicely reading my book. That evening however I was not sure about what to do with my remaining time in Shillong. It was a stroke of luck that the guest house owner introduced me to Sudeep, who let me join in on his plans.
We started the next day very early in the morning and took a shared cab to a village about one hour away. From there we took another shared ride to an even smaller village. From there we had to walk 3500 steps to reach an even smaller village in the valley. On the way we had to cross shaky suspension bridges and bridges that were formed by roots of trees. Here, in the middle of the rainforest, we found our guest house. It was an absolutely wonderful place. Completely surrounded by nature, we spent our days doing shortish walks and just relaxing. The river nearby offered many blue pools to bathe in. The main attraction of that area, the double decker living root bridge, was literally only one minute away from our hostel.
Sudeep and I went for a more exhausting hike to the rainbow falls, which just made me realise how unfit I have become. Mostly though we just went with other travellers to linger around different pools.
After definitely having had enough of noisy and polluted cities, I could have stayed at this place of natural beauty forever. Though I like all the places I have been to so far for different reasons, I will say that this has so far been my favourite.
