Guide on the make

It was one and a half months back my senior in college SIG, a colleague in Cyber-Tech and a very good friend texted in FB saying she was coming to North-East India touring the region and also attending the Ziro Fest at Arunachal Pradesh as she is fond of music, gigs etc. The idea was great as she was coming to the NE region for the first time and yes of course having the NE roots that makes it more perfect. Out of good friendship I took the honor to invite her to visit our beautiful Meghalaya the abode of clouds.

The idea was really great because I too wanted a break from the monotonous work in office, so I decided to take an off and helped my senior with the lodging and stuffs etc. However back in my mind the thoughts of where to take my senior friend around worried me because I too have not visited much places but however took the help of the Internet and accordingly planned the trip.

To make things fun and more exciting I requested my close friend Akin to come along with me and he quickly responded to the invitation with no hesitation , very much obliged to him (probably buy him a beer hahahah).

So the day had come for my senior, she landed in GHY airport and accordingly took a cab from GHY to Shillong, picked her up at the Stand, and just before dropping her at the guest house I took her for a short drive around the city PB , Laitumkhrah, she was excited and had loads of comments on the city, felt good with the comments and yes my senior liked it.

So the next morning accordingly I dropped in the guest house where my senior friend stayed making things ready for the first trip. It was drizzling but my friend wanted to go out. So as a Guide hahahahahah not a pro though I took her to the Cathedral at laitumkhrah and of course the usual guide thing (explanation after explanation hahahahah), the rain became heavier and was raining cats and dogs we halted at Don Bosco Square for a Cup of coffee and Tea, we were waiting for our friends to come and picked us up however seems like my friend had some errands to run, we decided to proceed to my sister’s house and to wait for our friend to come pick us up. After an hour or so our friend had finally reached so we headed to his car. I introduce my senior to our friend who is going to take us places around. (You know the usual thing “hi this is so and so” hahaha)

So day one was to Cherrapunjee, as my senior really wanted to see the place therefore my friend Akin suggested to take the road from Nongkrem-Smit-laitkyrhong-laitlyngkot-Cherrapunjee. The route was perfect as such that we will be covering the country side. We took the route from Nongkrem, my senior liked it very much as she saw the semi-rural side, the rain was as usual raining but that was not a hindrance to the trip we enjoyed. We reached Smit Town, the area once a British hold; we visited the Smit palace belonging to the Syiem of the khyriem kingdom. Another friend Bari joined us in the trip, Bari took us to Laitlum a beautiful Canyon site. The rain did not stop but we too did not stop we went ahead to Laitlum got down at the site took our umbrellas; it was unfortunate we could not see much because of the cloud cover. The wind was blowing and the rain was coming towards us we got wet not completely though, I was struggling with my umbrella hahahaha and to my disappointment each time I open it got fully taken by the wind.

From Laitlum we went straight to Cherrapunjee and trust me the rain did not stop at all, on the way towards Cherrapunjee there were few small falls we halted and took pics, Senior friend was very much delighted at the site we went ahead reached Duwan Singh Syiem Bridge and yes took few shots again.

We finally reached Cherrapunjee and raining of course, so the site we first visited was Nohkalikai falls again the cloud cover did not allow us to see the view but we could only hear the sound of the falls,

We halted at the Nohkalikai site for lunch, we were of course very much hungry, the food served was just awesome everything was hot it just fits in the cold weather, as we sat and ate we explained the story behind the falls to our senior friend and lots of chit chat.

It was getting dark so we started our journey back to shillong City, while returning we had great fun, everyone enjoyed to the remix numbers from bollywod (I don’t know which movie but yes Bari was having great fun).

We reached Shillong City had coffee at a local Coffee Bar and from there drop my senior friend to the guest house.

The trip for day two was to Mawphlang sacred grove, Elephant falls, Golflink and Umiam Dam, the second day probably the rain gods favoured us hahahah it was not raining a bit of haze and sunlight. As usual accordingly to the plan Akin came and picked us up and we headed to Elephant falls, Mawphlang Sacred grove. We thought of going straight to Umiam but it did appears that all of us were hungry so we return to Shillong, my senior friend wanted to have local food so I thought why not try Jadoh in PB everybody agreed to that so there we go, PB. I explain my senior what Jadoh is, no sooner before completion of the explanation the food had arrived, everybody ate and relish the taste of the Jadoh however it slightly difficult for my senior friend she could not finish the first serve it was way too heavy for her hahahahah. Later when we were done with the food stuffs we just visited few shops around PB and went down towards Umiam, it was foggy and the ambience was so romantic in a way hahahahahha you know how it feels with the foggy weather etc, Bari our friend said “ Roamantic weather” hahahah, we were hoping for a boat ride tour at Umiam Dam but unfortunately due to the foggy and visibility problems we could not do it, to our disappointment the only thing left was to take pics and pics so we did that.

Further we returned back to Shillong city reached late because of the traffic, had our drinks and dinner in PB and dropped my senior at the guest house. Akin and Bari bade good bye to my senior and same with me back to pavilion.

The entire trip was learning for me there is a big scope in Tourism, Tourist Guide jobs, places to discover and the potential that we have is yet to be fully exploited.

I guess that’s why it’s me “Guide on the Make” hahahahahah