The one most interesting part of India is the North East India. Gorgeous waterfalls, one of its kind world famous One-horned Rhinos, the mighty Brahmaputra with the worlds largest river island called ‘Majuli’.
I found myself in Meghalaya recently on my trip to North East. It is home to Scotland of the East, the mighty Elephant Falls, the highest rainfall receiving place of the planet and a network of caves. Caves have always intrigued me. Mysterious and complicated as they are. Cherrapunji which is also the highest rainfall receiving place on earth houses many exotic caves. Mausmai caves being the oldest and the most mesmerizing caves and the newly opened Arwah Caves. These 2 are the most tourist frequented caves in Cherrapunjee.
I started my journey from Shillong. A taxi to the Cherrapunji caves is easily available from the police bazaar taxi stand in Shillong. A full small car as taxi should cost one around Rs 2000 for round trip. Personally I preferred to go in the monsoon season so that I could enjoy the beauty of the place on Earth receiving the highest rainfall, and Boy! was it raining?! Its was an unforgettable experience, it was raining so hard that rain had the effect of fog like haze out as we looked out of the car window screen. It had been raining non stop for 3 days already. We left early at 6:30 am for our trip to the caves with enough buffer time considering the excessive rain and low visibility. The visibility was as low as 1 feet. It took us a good 3 hours to reach the first cave on our list, the Arwah caves.
Arwah Caves
The Arwah caves is beautifully located and cannot be missed as its in the highly, recently explored and opened. A make shift wooden bridge was made when we visited since a landslide a few days back had eroded the roads. As soon as we entered the Entry way, a guide with a torch followed along with us, no extra charges for this, we did not really understand why a guide was required initially although. The way to the caves starts with a beautiful nature walk, paved beautifully. There are small make shift huts and a small park type of a place too facing the valley with a swing for leisure. I remember during one of my previous brief visit few months back when due to time shortage we did not have the time to go into the caves but we did take a stroll down the nature walk and it was winter time and the sun was out, the view across the valley was breathtaking. A part of the paved walk also have a fish like cemented fish structure with water pouring out of its mouth down the valley, which from afar looked like a tiny slim waterfalls. Although I am a fan of the monsoons due to how adventurous these places get during the rains, yet having witnessed this spectacular view I would suggest winter time could be a beautiful time to visit as well. Although it is a personal choice!
The make shift huts have mannequin type villagers stationed to give a human touch to the place. As we entered the cave, cave entry being wide enough, you get the mysterious feeling already. Then a flight of steel staircase took us beyond, which we had to climb down which took us further into the cave. They had water flowing at the floor, and since we went at the monsoon season it was not just water but a strong force of water sweeping our feet, clean and cold. The guide informed us that the water from the caves was drinking water and could be used for the same purpose. The first section is wide and high, it has lights fitted as well, also there is something like an upper deck of caves network as well that can be climbed from this section using staircase installed there. We did climb up into one of those smaller caves, gives you quite an attic like feeling and makes for an adventurous one as well. Once we climbed down the guide helped us further into the caves.
Further was a very narrow and high passage into the caves where there are no lights and only torch light was the source, with water sweeping our feet we reached this large hall like opening. The guide told us the water flowing inside the cave was pure and fit enough for drinking. The guide also showed us fossil print embedded into the walls of the caves. Further inside, the guide pointed towards fresh stalactite formations with shape edges and shiny surface. Its was a thrilling experience. A must visit I must say.
The next one on our list is the Mausmai caves and is one of the oldest caves that was discovered and has been a tourist attraction for a really long time. We reached the location when it was raining tremendously.
The entrance to the cave was only a few flight of stairs and which us inside the cave. The maturity of the caves is prominent as the stalactites & stalagmites have huge formations and some have a glittering effect as well. Although the opening as we entered was not too big.
Then comes the interesting part, where the caves form a very narrow tunnel like passage that took us further. It is highly advised that obese and aged people avoid getting through the passage, as the way into and out of the narrow passage to the other side of the cave is slippery and also needs good balance of feet. One could easily get hurt if not careful. The narrow passage took us further into the cave where there was a pretty big opening but a very small area and then we walked out of the cave. The way out is spooky, the exit took us out to a walking track with dense trees around, and as we made our way out it got dark got pretty creepy as well. It seemed like a scene out of some spooky Hollywood movie I must say 😉 Over all a pretty adventurous place and a again not a place one should miss if visiting Cherapunjee.
I would recommend staying here:
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Incessant rans+caves… what a combo!
Visited it ages ago, during my school days… was not much of a traveller back then!
Hi Jitaditya, you should try visiting it again, it has improved a lot from before, more reachable with better stairways 🙂