Planning a family trip with a 5 year old is not easy especially in a country like ours where there is no dearth of choices from plains, mountains to oceans. There is a place for every season. We fwanted to do Northe East for the longest time and finally zeroed on Meghalaya as our next destination considering the weather, terrain, ease of travel, safety, stay options and food.
1. Nearest airport which has the best connectivity with all of India is Guwahati which is around 110 kms from Shillong. This journey will take around 3-4 hours. Guwahati Shillong Road (aka GS road) is beautiful, clouds and rain are often there to welcome tourist to the abode of clouds.
2. There are numerous little shops along the highway which sell fruits and pickles. Must take a pit shop and taste these local fruits, they are the best.
3. Shillong is a small city and like any other developing city has really bad traffic. It takes a lot of time to navigate on the narrow roads during peak hours. People know functional English and Hindi and there are no issues in communication in the city.
4. Police Bazaar is the hub where all actions happen. There are a number of stay options which will suit all budget types. if you are conservative in food choices you will find a number of places where you can eat there from Delhi Misthan Bhandar to Sharma Bhojnalaya.
5. There are a number of emporiums which sell all kind of bamboo items and take home some beautiful artifacts.
6. State run buses ply from Police bazaar to all the major destination. There are shared cabs also available which cover all major tourist destinations.
7. Sun is up quite early in north eastern part of India and sun sets early in the evening accordingly. Consider a difference of 2 hours from the rest of India. We visited in early November and sun was up at 5:30 am and it was pitch dark at 5:00 pm. Plan your journey accordingly.
8. Most of the attractions have washrooms which take a nominal fee of INR 10 for entry.
9. Consider staying at a homestay atleast for one night to get a feel of Khasi life.
10. Meghalaya is matrilineal and birth of a girl child is celebrated. Youngest daughter stays with the parents and inherits the family home eventually. Females do all kind of job is this state and do not be surprised to see most of the enterprises run by females. This is the safest place to travel with family and kids.
P.S Photos in the post were captured using Iphone 7 and are unedited.
#Meghalaya #Shillong #Khasihills