Awesome Assam, Magnificent Meghalaya #northeastphotos

So Day 1 started with the most coveted safari in the Kaziranga National Park. Kaziranga is famous for being home to the largest number of one horned rhinoceroses. Having reached there previous night, we started off early morning for the safari as the elephant safari runs only till a certain time. Post that you have to take the Jeep safari, and though good, it keeps you limited to the roads while with the elephants you can go much more deeper in the forest.

This was a bit of relaxed day. We started in the morning to explore some local places. We visited a local workshop that creates some amazing face masks which are used in cultural performances in all parts of the country. We also paid visit to a local tribal village, interacted with the tribal people and tasted the famous rice beer (it is brewed by the locals in a traditional way and is quite tasty).

In the afternoon we left back for Jorhat, from where we had a train to go to Guwahati.

We reached Guwahati early in the morning, had some breakfast and then left for Shillong. It takes around 2-3 hours to reach Shillong from Guwahati. After checking into the hotel and getting some rest, we went out for some local sightseeing. There is a beautiful artificial lake called 'Ward's lake' surrounded by lush green garden right in the center of the city. After spending some time at the lake, we got our hands on the must try Momos at a local restaurant.

After breakfast, we left for Mawlynnong. Mawlynnong is recognized as one of the cleanest villages in Asia. After spending some time in the village and meeting some happy faces, we started walking down towards Riwai. Riwai is one of the few places where you can see the living root bridges - bridges created by local tribes by shaping the aerial roots of rubber fig trees. After Riwai, we headed for river Dawki, the river with such clean waters that you can literally see the river bed. You can see parts of Bangladesh on the other side of the river.

Day 5 was all about waterfalls and caves. We began with the Elephant falls. This is a three levelled waterfall and you need to start near the top and climb down in order to reach the lowest level. After the Elephant falls, we left for Cherrapunjee. Cherrapunjee is one of the wettest places in the world. The Nohkalikai waterfalls in Cherrapunjee are amazingly beautiful, albeit one with a very tragic story behind the name. Finally, we went to the Mawsmai caves, the longest caves in India. Once back from there in Shillong, the day was ended with an amazing dinner at Dylan's cafe. Shillong has some really nice cafes and Dylan's is amongst the best out there.

We arrived back in Guwahati from Shillong. The rest of the group dispersed and I stayed back for a day in Guwahati. There are a couple of beautiful temples to visit in Guwahati - Kamakhya temple and Umananda temple. The Kamakhya temple is a temple dedicated to Hindu goddess Kamakhya and is one of the oldest of the 51 Shakti pithas. It is advisable to go there early in the morning, preferably on a weekday as it can get really crowded on weekends. Umananda is a bit secluded but really beautiful temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. It is located on an island in the river Brahmaputra and you need to take a ferry to reach there and back.