We five of us, Upma, Trapti, Priyanka, Prerna and I having thought for a week came to a conclusion to visit Shillong and Cheerapunji during our vacation. We were all sad that the camp for which we came 2 weeks early was cancelled. This idea suddenly brought light into our lives. There were serious discussions among us regarding our safety and stay in those new places. There were dreadful dreams and also full length disapproval from our parents. Everyone said that only girls going to a new place is not safe.
Even after so many hurdles, we set off to Shillong on Saturday, 22nd of July, 2006. We were all in high spirits and fully confident of our bravery and unity wherever we go. We made many vows to each other, to be like this and that. I don’t know how many of them were kept but we were all together just like siblings caring for each other throughout the trip.
We started journey by boarding our 8.ooam campus bus. We set off to Shillong in a sumo with 5 others in it. By the time we started it was 10.00am. There in the sumo we met a man, Mr. Satish Batra who was involved in some business in Shillong. He gave us the route map and details of hotels in Shillong. The way to Shillong was beautiful, full of green trees on hill sides. The road took us higher and higher with the climate getting colder and colder. On the way we could see BARAPANI LAKE, which is an artificial one. It is said that it is the part of a river which was blocked on both sides. It was very beautiful, lake in between hills and greenery. There is a park near it named after NEHRU.
By the time we reached Shillong it was 1pm. Then Satish uncle sent his manager Chotu bhaiyya to look for a hotel for us. We booked a room in HARI OM hotel and thanked him for his help and bid him goodbye. Then we had lunch and hired a taxi for local site seeing. The driver’s name was Shahidul. He was a very good and experienced and the most important thing is that he knew hindi, we were relieved. We first went to ELEPHANTA FALLS. The story says that those falls were actually named by Khasis which meant “Falls in three steps”. But the British named them “Elephanta Falls” because there was a rock which broke n fell off during the 1887 earthquake that resembled an elephant. We spent good time over there playing in the cold water. From there we went to the “SHILLONG PEAK”. From there we could see whole Shillong. The view was startling as we dint know that Shillong was so vast and densely populated. We then went to the “WILLIAM WARD’S LAKE.” That was also beautiful. We went boating in the lake where Prerna and Trapti tried rowing the boat. I was a bit tensed but they were not that bad rowers. It was 6.30pm by then so we dint want to risk roaming out in the dark in a new place. We asked the driver to drop us at the hotel and come again at 5.30 in the morning. We all locked ourselves in the hotel room from 7pm on Saturday night till 3.30am on Sunday, 23rd of July, 2006.
There was a shock for all of us in the early Sunday morning. Trapti fainted and puked. We all panicked and stood awake from then. We dint know the reason why she puked. I thought that it was due to acropobia. Well, we checked out from the hotel at 5.30 am and started for Cheerapunji at 6am in the same taxi. Road to Cheerapunji was very beautiful. Fro the beginning of the journey till about a third we found only greenery and hill slopes everywhere. The next third had clouds seen between the hills. We were surprised seeing ourselves higher than the clouds. In the last third we found only fog. This part was all covered with fog, we could not find what existed, a valley or plain or a village 2mts away from us. The car sped up and down the hilly slopes circling the hills. That was the most enjoyable ride among all the rides till now.
We first went to a park near a bridge with a water fall. We couldn’t see anything in the fog and rain, neither people at a distance nor the waterfall but could just hear the sound. From there we went to “Thangkarang Park”. Spent some time over there, had breakfast and went to the limestone cave. It was a good adventure in the cave. We had to pass through the narrow passages in it to reach the other side of the cave. We had to get totally drenched in the dirty waters of the cave. From there we went to “SEVEN SISTERS FALLS”. Even here we couldn’t see anything due to the engulfing fog. During a half an hour wait over there we could only get a glimpse of the falls. It was awesome and can never be forgotten. That was the last place we saw in cheerapunji. It was 11.30 by then. We started back to Shillong and reached around 1pm. Infact Shillong was only 80 kms from Cheerapunji which is on the India-Bangladesh border.
After we reached Shillong, we saw the “CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF SHILLONG.” That was very high and had a very vast area. It had beautiful paintings, sculptures, idols and posters. From there we asked the driver to take us to a restraunt. We bid him goodbye and had lunch in Bamboo Hut very famous for Chineese. Infact Shillong is famous for its chineese food and footwear along with denim. Then we went to the taxi stand, hired an Indigo to come back to Guwahati by 6pm. We were back in the campus by 8pm having boarded our 6.45 campus bus.
This was our journey, very enjoying, fantastic and memorable. This has given us the confidence to do anything daring and risky. We are all happy to be back to start a bright new chapter in our lives, being “SENIORS”.
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