Road Trip to North East from Chennai – Part VI (Dec ’16)
Day 13: Route taken: Mawlynnong – Dawki – Krang Suri Falls – Jowai – Guwahati (Dinner Cruise)
We wanted to start early, as we knew it was a long day. Tourist attraction at Mawlynnong was the Rewai Village, with single living root bridge, Dawki river, bamboo house view point etc. We went to the bamboo house view point and it was quite an adventure climbing up/sliding up and down. View point was beautiful, we clicked a few pics, couldn’t see the Bangladesh border from there though, due to fog.
We all wanted to make it to the 500-meter root bridge, and it was another lovely natural bridge that connected two trees, with water underneath. Couldn’t spend more time, we left early, had breakfast enroute, where the bearer told us the Dawki river had another short route, if at all we would go but we told him that we already went.
We decided to take the shortcut route, which was only 28km from the point, which otherwise was around 40km usual route we came by. We all were convinced that we shouldn’t have missed taking the scenic routes, captured lovely trees, landscapes all the way, and also hit the Bangladesh border, TAMIBIL border again and saw the beauty of the DAWKI again. Though we missed Shonpodong view point of even more clearer Dawki River, one policeman wrongly guided us our way back to Guwahati, instead.
Adithya also was telling about KRANGSHURI waterfalls enroute Guwahati asking us not to miss that at least. We took a deviation and made it to the view point of the waterfalls, it was so beautiful, but none of us had strength to walk down and climb up again for another 1+1 hour. So, we skipped that one and clicked a few snaps from the view point and left, as we had another target to make it to Guwahati dinner cruise.
We reached Guwahati as per plan and took our stay at Hari Krishna Sweets and Restaurant/Hotel, which was almost a luxury for the night. But it was more for just an overnight stay, as we had dinner cruise from which we would only return by 11 pm post dinner.
Yes, refreshed, buckled up and geared for the dinner cruise, but decided not to take our car in the city traffic, which is a wise decision and took two small rickshaws to reach on time for the dinner cruise. The sun dawn cruise was returning with all lights in the dark and we were so happy to see the huge ship and the beautiful Brahmaputra river at night. We got in to the ship and were given reserved seats that were the second table from the stage.
We thought we would only be witnessing one cultural event but were stunned to see back to back events, starting with a brief introduction about the river, about the state, a run through about a wonderful sand art video about North East India warriors, followed by a very beautiful Classical Assamese Dance performance, followed by Assamese Group folk song and dance accompanied with Tharkha and Dhol, followed by an introduction session given to explain all the musical instruments of their state, finally with karaoke solo singing performance of a singer who was accompanied by a keyboardist, picking up all old Hindi melodies. He seemed to invite all guests to come forward and dance / sing and participate in the musical evening.
Every performance was a treat to watch, soothing for the ears, and pleasing for eyes, cheerful with the music and dance loving crowd around.
Finally, it was time for dinner around 9.00 PM and we were asked to go to the basement to have the tasty dinner. We wouldn’t have got to see so many performances, even if we had stayed in Assam for 2-3 days, but all in one place, we were really delighted and thankful to the Almighty who made it favorable for us and help us get through our plans one by one without a miss.
Road Trip to North East from Chennai – Part V (Dec ’16)
Day 11 & 12: Cherrapunjee – Mawsmai Caves – Nohkalikai Falls – Double Root Bridge – Cheerapunjee – Dawki – Mawlynnong
Roads from Kaziranga were just wow. I very well knew my wife won’t be able to do double root bridge on the same day. So, we planned overnight stay at the bridge and so the previous night we had to stay elsewhere near to it. We chose PALA Resort, which was a big resort in Cherrapunjee with scenic views, and near to 7 sister falls, a few km to Nohkalikai falls and Mawsmai Limestone caves.
I wanted to try cycling from the resort to the root bridge. Roads were climbing down mostly, so it’s quite good to cycle all the way. However, our first stop was to Nohkalikai falls after seeing Mawsmai caves. So, my wife took the wheels and both my wife & my friend went to Limestone caves.
In the mean time, I reached Nohkalikai falls and the views were just awesome. What was more awesome was the shopping point and both my travel partners found a big shop which had almost everything they needed and also some showcase items, some shawls, etc. After shopping and loading the car with the items, we met few friends/tourist from Coimbatore and Chennai, whom we also met again at Mawlynnong, the place where both the gangs proceeded to.
The time came when we reached Double Bridge and the board reading “Living Root Bridge 3 KM”, my wife almost exhausted reading it but had no choice than to proceed. We had to carry our own bags with the next day dress, while I carried couple of carry bags along with cameras, she carried another bag which has clothes. NOTE: LESS LUGGAGE MORE COMFORT, plan it such a way.
The trek to living root bridge consists of 2000+ steps climb down & another 1200+ steps climb up. So, it’s a mixed bag and just not one way climb down and one way climb up. You will also cross couple of bridges which would be a thrilling experience as it’s quite narrow and also both are hanging bridge. The first 1000 steps itself would dehydrate you very much and your legs will start begging for rest. Fortunately, you will find few shops / villages enroute, so you can recharge by having black tea, fresh lemon drink, maggi etc.,. Crossing of the iron bridge, was a WOW moment as you will witness pure bluish water below, with cool breeze around. The second bridge was even more difficult to cross but quite safe. A fit person would be able to do the trek in 2 to 2.5 hours flat with couple of breaks. We manage to do it in 3 hours.
We booked our room at Serene home stay and it’s a basic one with couple of rooms availabe for the guests. We got a 3 bed stay with mosquito nets. After checked in and left my wife to catch her breath, Hari & myself went to check out the bridge which was hardly 100 mts away. There is a fee that has to be paid and after paying we went to visit the bridge and took few photographs and back to the room. During dinner time we met fellow travellers from Israel, Scotland & Russia.
We also met two lovely people, by then famous Honeymoon Couples Ramneek and Swatabdi who just out of nowhere started for a long trip on their Enfield bike, a day after their wedding. We were spellbound hearing their adventures in a bike who also made it to the rainbow falls, but said that they had to stay a day extra to make it. After hearing this we made up our mind that we wouldn’t be able to do rainbow falls, as we had to reach Mawlynnong next day.
Next day morning all 3 of us visited the double decker bridge again and spent close to an hour before we start our return journey to the base village. My wife managed well on the return leg and I took a detour at the single root bridge while they went ahead with the ascend.
The return leg took close to 3 hours and we managed to reach the base at 11.30 AM and we started our journey to Mawlynnong. Roads from Cheerapunji to Mawlynnong was good except few rough patches around Dawki.
