North East India: 5D & 4N

The gateway to the Northeast, and the largest and most cosmopolitan city in the region, Guwahati serves as the starting point for many itineraries. Extending along the south bank of the mighty Brahmaputra, it’s in large part a somewhat featureless expanse of concrete, glass and traffic. But if you explore the older areas near the river, you’ll start to feel the character and local flavour that lingers amid the ponds, palm trees, temples, single-storey traditional houses and colonial-era mansions. Only a few stretches of the riverbank are accessible in the central areas – but when you reach them, those Brahmaputra views never disappoint!

Drift through the serene clear waters of Dwaki. Take a glance at this fairyland where you encounter cascades that drop from the crevices of the magnificent mountains covering the mountains green. Indulge in the beauty of nature as we take you on this peace-filled ride.

The undulating Meghalaya uplands give way abruptly on the state’s southern fringe to deep, jungle-clothed, waterfall-ribboned valleys plunging precipitously to the plains of Bangladesh. Cherrapunjee (also called Sohra), sitting near the lip of the escarpments, is the obvious base for exploring this spectacular landscape.

Irreverent Shillong was the capital of colonial and post-Independence Assam (which embraced almost the whole Northeast) until 1972, when it became capital of the newly carved-out state of Meghalaya. Since then it has developed some accoutrements of a typical modern Indian town, including urban sprawl, a lot of concrete, and snarled-up traffic along its winding streets. However, it retains some old-time charm in certain pockets – and a strong sense of individuality and difference, with its many Christian churches and its residents’ tastes for hanging out in cafes, playing and watching rock music and football, driving around in spruced-up automobiles and gambling on archery.

Mawlynnong is a village in the East Khasi Hills district of the Meghalaya state, India. This village has won the acclaim of being the cleanest village in Asia in 2003. Surprisingly, the village has hundred percent literacy and most of the villagers are conversant with the English language.