Sometimes a weekend getaway is enough to temporarily satisfy the traveler in you. Until and unless you are in the Antarctic region, there will be certain places within 200-300 kms from your home where you can visit once in a weekend or in a span of 2 days. If you are really addicted to travel, you would always find an excuse or way to travel.
Guwahati has plenty to offer to a traveler as well. So, the other day I happened to visit Guwahati for some of my personal works. I finished my works by the Sunday afternoon and just called up my friend Sanjib for a meet as he stays in Guwahati. I planned to stay for a night in his place since we didn’t meet for long. We were just gossiping in the evening over a couple of beers and suddenly he popped out the idea of doing this trek out of nowhere. I wasn’t prepared for a trek at this point but I didn’t want to say no too. We both began checking about the trek for a while and finally decided that we are finally doing this trek. So as per the plan we decided to rent a 2-wheeler for a local self-drive agency called Ahija.com.
Since we planned to start early next morning, we thought that it would be better if we get the vehicle that evening itself and keep it overnight .As per the plan we went to the rental, took the vehicle and fueled and slept off early that night after deciding that we would move out by 5 in the morning.
It was a typical Monday, we got ready and started by 5 in the morning from Guwahati.
It was March and we could still feel the bone chilling cold because of the breeze.
We couldn’t move fast due to the cold breeze and continued to move in average speed till we took our first halt at Umiam.
We planned to have some steaming Maggi and tea but we reached so early that no shops were open as we reached too early.
After not finding anything to eat,we kept on moving and decided that we would have our food after reaching the trek point and continued in the Shillong- Dawki road for about an hour .
We took a couple of mini breaks en route and kept moving till Pomlum.
It was almost 9 by the time we reached Pomlunm village. We took a right turn from the highway and continued in the Wahkhen road towards Mawryngkhang village which was still around 12 kms away.
The road wasn’t as good as it was half paved with small pebbles and sandy patches. We knew that it would be riskier to go fast.
Suddenly we realized that we encountered the most painful problem that we should never get while in a trip. We got a flat Tyre because of the small pebbles and the rear Tyre was also completely worn off which we didn’t notice earlier.
I was very annoyed and thought of calling the rental guys for some assistance but then I realized that I already entered Meghalaya and its almost impossible for them to help in any way. We both then decided to push the scooty to the main road near Pomlun and find for any mechanic or repair shop nearby. We kept on pushing it for around 45 mins we almost gave up the thought of doing the trek that day. Luckily, we met and old aged man who offered to give me a lift till the repair shop which was still till around 6kms away. So, I got into his vehicle and Sanjib was in the 2-wheeler following us slowly. We somehow reached the repair shop and fixed the puncture temporarily as the Tyre was in a really bad condition.
We thanked the old man for his help man and were quite confused whether to move forward with the faulty Tyre and take the risk or to skip it and just return to Guwahati. Finally, we both decided to take the risk and move forward and left everything on our fate.
After this unlucky incident we got into the Wahkhen road again,but this time we were extra careful and moved very slow so as to avoid any kind of injury to the Tyre. We knew that a single mistake would ruin everything again and hence we decided to move slow.
It took us another 50 mins to reach the Mawryngkhang trek point finally. We parked the scooty, got our entry tickets from the counter and got into a small shack for some Tea and Maggi.
The trek started at roughly at around 11.
We kept walking downhill till we reached a small water stream and some small bamboo ridges from where the trek starts.
It was both uphill and downhill , we kept on walking through the bamboo trials and stopped for photos multiple times.
The bamboo bridges made those quirky sounds when we started walking and they were only tied with old coconut ropes .But they were still intact and strong, we only needed to be more confident enough to move forward.
We kept on crossing ridges and trails, repeatedly.
Then came the riskier part where we had to cross a bamboo stretch of about 200 mts long between two small hills.
There was nothing in one side and we could see the river below which was at least around 300 ft down . One single mistake could end our lives and hence we were extra careful in our every single step.
We were both quite hesitant in the beginning and slowly we got the pace of walking along the stretch. We didn’t look down and kept on moving in small steps until we reached the other end of the stretch.
By the time we reached the top of the ridge it was almost 1 and we then realized that we have very less time with us to complete the whole range and come back, since we had to return to Guwahati the same day.
We started to return and kept walking.
The stretch which gave us the goose bumps was riskier now even, since we have to move downhill now. My legs were shivering and I was doubting of losing control or grip even after wearing a hiking shoe.
We kept on moving very slowly and it took us almost double the time to over that part of the trek. Finally, after about an hour we reached back to the trek point.
We both we sweating and tired and was felling hungry after the continuous walk too. The shop where we had the tea was still open and we went inside hoping for some food. We ordered two plates of the traditional Jadoh and made ourselves fresh in the meantime. The Jadoh plate that was served to us consisted of rice mixed with pork and local veggies. It was indeed very satisfying to have such a meal after the tedious walk.
As the time was almost 4, we didn’t wanted to wait longer as the sun sets early and we had to cover a longer distance. The sandy and risky path till Pomlun was another milestone we needed to cover too. We took the risk of going a bit faster than before and somehow reached the main road towards Shillong by around 5.
It was getting colder and we could feel our hands getting numb due to the cold breeze again. At a point of time the numbness was so unbearable that we had to look for road side shops to buy ourselves a couple of woolen gloves to help us cure the numbness.
We kept continuing taking small breaks in between without wasting more time, as we were supposed to return the vehicle by 8 PM that night.
We somehow managed to reach the rental service by 8 in spite of the evening traffic and tiredness, all because of my friend Sanjib’s riding skills in Guwahati traffic!
Well that’s how we ended this Monday trip and walked off to his place with a couple of beers to chill for the night. Mondays aren’t boring sometimes, indeed!
At last , thanking you again for planning it all of a sudden and making the Monday memorable !
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