Scotland in the East

Information : (Curtesy http://wikitravel.org/en/Shillong)

How many of you know that there is a Scotland in the East..... Perhaps some of you who have travelled to the Seven Sister states of India might know this. It is in the :Abode of Cloud " or Meghalaya in India.

Located in undulating pine covered hills, the city has a milder climate than tropical India.

The British legacy is still visible in architecture and food habits of population. The houses have slanting roofs, large number of windows and wooden floors look like a piece of art (and happen to be very good idea, considering Shillong lies in a area where rains and earthquakes are very common). Shillong receives heavy rainfalls during monsoon and the rainy season usually lasts longer than rest of India. An umbrella is therefore a necessity while packing your bags. Although people avoid the rainy season, it is generally the time when city is clean (rains wash the streets of all garbage) and waterfalls are in full strength. Most of the Shillong population belong to Khasi tribe, who are predominantly Christian. There are significant Bengali and Nepali minorities. An interesting aspect of Khasis are that they are a matrilineal society - the mother is head of family, youngest daughter owns all the property and mothers surname is passed on to children.

Travel Option:

Rail: Nearest railhead Guahati. 105 Km (5 hrs) in Taxi from Shillong. Guahati is well connectes by rail and air with rest of the country.

Air: Nearest airport 105 Km. away. Guahati airport.

Important information is who want to save time and want have a commercial helicpter ride might book one right from Guahati airport terminal. It charged us 1200/-Per head per ride and can carry maximum 20 kilo of baggage. You can book the same form Shillong as well in shillong tourist information office in the heart of Town of shillong.

The road to shillong is a national high way which is under maintenace for widening for faster traffic as it passes thogh spectacular mountains of North East....The shillong platau.

Journey Begins:

We planned our trip 1 month ahead of our trip. We booked a decent place to stay in a calm and quiet residencuial place way from Noisy market place, near Survey of India Office in Malki, Shillong. We were new and had no idea about hotels excepting from blogs and Meghalaya Tourism Information websites. we picked one and and it turned out to awesome. it was a small Bed and Breakfast stay, very new in condition, maintained and perfectly located in the hill top.

We reached Guahati by air around 1030 hrs. We did not know before that there was a ommercial helicopter service form Guahati to shillong and back and all the seats were booked for the day , so we took a cab. The cab charges INR 400/- perhead and take s 4 passengers in a cab. if yopu hire a whole cab it will chage 1600/-INR.

We reached around the evening as it took 6 hrs becuse of slow trafffic due to work on Road widening. Shillong being the eastern state and as in India there is no concept of 'Day light saving' it gets dark after 5 in the after noon.