8 Beautiful Places to visit in Meghalaya

Meghalaya, the abode of clouds is one of the most beautiful destinations in India. With nature all around, there are many tourist places to visit in Meghalaya. Check them out!

Meghalaya is a paradise brimming with picturesque landscapes where nature comes alive, undulating hills inviting you to drown you in their mist, clouds telling you a story of their own, the happily chirping birds swaying to the pleasant wind all telling you a common story of land unexplored, making you fall in love with Nature. Here is the list of beautiful places to visit in Meghalaya.

PLACES TO VISIT IN MEGHALAYA

While there is a long list of tourist places in Meghalaya, the following are the must-visit while on the first trip to the state.

Umiam Lake

Umiam lake is one of the first tourist places in Meghalaya, one will visit.

Also known as Barapani (big water – thanks to its huge size), Umiam Lake is a man-made lake on the Guwahati-Shillong highway.

The highway has a Umiam Lake viewpoint, with railings, and is about 400 meters in length. This is where you get the top view of the lake. You can see mountains all around, which makes the first ‘abode of clouds’ phrase come true. Popular among the locals as well as tourists for boat rides, it offers a good view from the highway, provided the sky is clear.

Umiam lake was formed as a catchment area during the building of a dam. The water from 3 rivers Umkhrah, Umshyrpi, and Umiam rivers made this lake which is spread over 220 square km.

The dam is the first Hydel power project in the Northeast region of India. The lake is important among the locals as it is a source of irrigation, and fisheries and provides potable to neighboring villages.

Umiam Lake reminds me of Naini Lake in Nainital. Read about it here: Places to visit in Nainital.

Activities around Umiam lake:

Umiam Garden: The Lum Nehru park provides fantastic first-hand views of the lake. One can walk along the cobblestoned pathways or in the garden while enjoying a snack.

Sports complex: Tourists can enjoy kayaking, water scooter, boating, etc in the Umiam lake water.

For its sheer beauty, it is featured on my list of places to visit in Meghalaya.

Elephant Falls

These falls are the hot favorite tourist site in Shillong and hence feature on my list of places to visit in Meghalaya. These are 3 tire waterfalls at a walking distance of a few meters from each other and thankfully quite clean.

In the local Khasi language, the name of the waterfall is Ka Kshaid Lai Pateng Khohshiew which translates to ‘three-step waterfall’. True to its name, the waterfall is divided into three steps literally.

The first step of the waterfall is wide and is lost amongst the dense forests all around, the second step is more concentrated while the third one comprises a sheer vertical drop and a cascading flow of water which makes the falls one of the most beautiful ones. You can also check out the many gorgeous waterfalls of Meghalaya.

However, Elephant Falls got its name in the British colonial era. One of the rocks near the waterfalls resembled an elephant and hence it was named that. The rock was however destroyed in an earthquake in the late 1800s and the residual rock has been disintegrated since then. But the name remained.

Shillong peak

Shillong peak is one of the must-visit tourist places in Shillong.

Located at a distance of approximately 10 km from Shillong city, the Peak is the highest point of Shillong and offers panoramic views of the city, as well as the lush green mountains. The peak has an impressive height of 1962 meters, above the mean sea level.

The Shillong peak is often surrounded due to its high altitude but luckily when I visited, it was pretty much clear. One can easily reach the peak in a car as it has good roads.

The top of the peak also has a sacred site that is dedicated to the U Shulong. In every spring season, a ritual is also organized here in the honor of U Shulong.

Nohkalikai Waterfalls

Nohkalikai Falls is the tallest plunge waterfall in India at a height of 1,115 feet and has to be on the list of places to visit in Meghalaya. Nohkalikai waterfalls is a gem situated in the lap of mountains, the stunning beauty of the waterfalls is beautifully complemented by the mist, clouds, forests, and verdant valleys all around. The story of the fall having its name is sad but it paints a beautiful landscape.

The name of the falls has a heartbreaking story behind it. Legend has it that once there lived a woman by the name of Ka Likai, who was married to a porter and had a little baby daughter. The happy family was abruptly disrupted when her husband died in an accident while carrying heavy iron on his head. Ka Likai was forced to remarry because of the social stigma of the time and the fact that her daughter needed a father. She also got a job as a porter to earn her own bread. But the trouble began when the new husband became jealous of Ka Likai’s love for her daughter and felt threatened. So one day when Ka Likai was at work, he killed the daughter and prepared a meal out of her flesh.

After coming home from work Ka Likai was naturally hungry and seeing the meal prepared by her husband she ate it without a second thought. It was when she went to have her usual betel leaves afterward that she realized her mistake. She found the fingers of her daughter in the betel leaf case. When the realization dawned on her she went mad and started running till she jumped over the edge of the cliff into the plunge waterfalls and ended her life. The word ‘noh’ in the local language means ‘jump’. So the meaning of the name of the falls is the place from where Ka Likai jumped.

Try climbing down a bit to have a clearer look at the emerald-coloured pool formed at the bottom and envy the small kids swimming there. Talking about beautiful waterfalls, do read about Kuang si waterfalls in Laos.

Tip: Shop for Indian spices like pepper and bay leaves sold here by locals. They are super cheap and of good quality.

Wah kba falls

Located in the Sohra area of the Khasi Hills, this waterfall makes beautiful rainbows when illuminated by the sunlight while falling from a great height. It was never on the plan to visit but I stumbled upon a small sign which said Wah Kba falls. After 15 minutes of trek through thick vegetation and small waterfalls, I reached here. Believe me when I say there was not a single person here and it was one of the most beautiful sights in the entire trip. It got creepy at a point and so I hurried back up.

Caving in Meghalaya: Cherrapunji – Mawsmai caves

Situated around 6 km from Cherrapunji, the Mawsmai Caves are naturally formed limestone caves. The stalactites and stalagmites caves have innumerable forms, shapes, and sizes giving you a beautiful experience of climbing, walking through ice-cold water, and over the bridge – all inside a cave!

Though there are many caves in the area, Mawsmai is a crowd-puller due to its size and the number of people it can accommodate at the same time. Though Mawsmai caves are long, only 150 meters stretch is open for tourists. Mawsmai caves have innumerable forms, shapes, and sizes making visitors photograph everywhere and look at it in awe and wonder. This magnificent natural wonder is created over the years due to natural abrasion and underground water carving various shapes through the rocks of the caves.

There are lights installed inside the cave, especially around some special places/corners. These lights help visitors navigate through the cave as well as look around & enjoying some of the beautiful patterns of stones. There are many narrow areas and areas filled with water, where visitors need to bend and squeeze themselves out. There are places where there constant dripping of water from the roof of the cave so it is ideal to keep your bags outside.

Living Root Bridges

Yup, living roots of trees made into bridges. Living root bridges in Meghalaya are probably the finest creations by humans in collaboration with nature. The local people i.e. the Khasi tribes and Jaintia tribes are to be given credit for creating something so stunning. The bridges were made in yesteryears so that people could cross river streams. Without the availability of urban infrastructures, they needed materials that could withhold the weight of people and not rot in the wettest place in the world.

The living root bridges were made up of tangled thick roots that provide formidability to the structure of the bridge and make it good enough to hold a few people. Some of the living root bridges are over a hundred feet long and often take over ten to fifteen years to become fully functional. But once functional they work remarkably with no maintenance. For the same reason, the Living Root Bridges was announced as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Of all the Living Root Bridges in Meghalaya, the double-decker root bridge in Cherrapunji and the single-decker root bridge in Shillong are the unique bridges in the world and make for prime attractions in the Northeast.

I happened to visit the double-decker root bridge (Umshiang root bridge) in Sohra-Cherrapunji. It is a 30 meters long bridge that stands 2400 feet in height and is the longest known Living Root Bridge and is 180 years old. Reaching the bridge is quite an arduous task and one has to trek for about 3 hours to reach here. But it is worth it.

Umgnot River – Dawki

Located in the Jaintia Hills, Dawki is a border town between India and Bangladesh. There is something really pristine about border towns, like once  I visited Nakhon Phanom, a border between Thailand and Laos.

Dawki is a popular and quaint town with overwhelming greenery, crystal clear water of the Umgnot river, and serenity all around. The water of the Umgnot river is so clear that one can the river bed right away. Dawki has climbed the charts of popularity for trekking, boating, and camping near the riverbed. A boat ride over the river will approximately cost INR 500 and can accommodate up to 3 people.

SUSTAINABLE TRAVEL TIPS FOR PLACES TO VISIT IN MEGHALAYA

• Meghalaya is absolutely virgin in terms of development, it is important to respect the same. Eat like a local, stay like a local.
• Being a pristine environment, do not throw garbage and plastic and destroy the beauty of the place.
• The locals are the caretakers of this land so respect them by taking care of their land and forest.

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