Feb 22 - Calcutta to Shillong
- Up at 6AM. Cab to airport shudders when it gets anything above 35 mph. Official looking guy comes up to me while I am in line waiting to have my bag X-Rayed. I realize only too late that he is a porter and I will now have to pay him. I gave him 20 rupees and could see that he was not happy but come on….
- On the way to the airport, kept thinking of things which I keep forgetting to document. By midnight, the streets were typically covered in trash. On the occasions when I was up at 7AM, the streets, sidewalks, etc were usually quite clean. Somehow, they collect the vast amounts of trash every day and then deal with it quite efficiently. In Calcutta, I passed a station where garbage was segregated into different types, ashes were in one pile, vegetable matter in a second and rubbish in another. Women sort through the different piles, looking for items that still have value. There is a social pecking order about who can sort through which piles, the top of the pecking order get the choicest selection of garbage to sort through.
- Another minor point was the use of thin clay cups for holding chai. They were quite sanitary and very disposable, crush them and they just turn back to dirt. The other common chai cup was a very flimsy plastic cup. You have to be careful with these as they can collapse in your hand if you are not careful.
- Another observation was how prevalent neighborhood pumps are. Many blocks had a hand pump somewhere in their sidewalk. There was usually a line to use it, for bathing, washing clothes, dishes, cooking, etc. Sometimes there was just a pipe that came out of the ground with water gushing out. These seemed to be quite wasteful, as water would invariably run down the street.
- No porters approached me in Guwahati. I checked with a taxi service how much it would cost to take me straight to Cherrapunjee. 8000Rs! ($200) I took a taxi into Guwahati for 450Rs (seemed high but it did turn out to be quite a long way). Then I picked up a sumo to Shillong (3 hours away) for 110Rs. It boggles the mind how inexpensive some things are here in India.
- In addition to the driver, the sumo had 2 in the front seat, a family of 3 in the middle seat and 4 of us in the back seat. A lady in back was very kind and gave me her cell phone number in Shillong in case I had any difficulty arranging anything. The drive reminded me a lot of driving in Costa Rica, with steep hills and lush jungle. There was much habitation here, however, and all the flat areas were cultivated with rice or vegetables of some sort.
- Hired a taxi driver to take me to the Hotel Boulevard but he tried at least 10 times to dissuade me from staying at this hotel (too expensive, he said) and instead to stay at one that he knew. In the end I went with the guide book recommendation, however, I may regret this as they seem to be dropping heavy steel balls on the floor above my bed. I definitely splurged, at 830Rs. I have a TV, private bath, king size bed and heater in my room. I arranged to meet my taxi driver tomorrow morning and for 1500Rs he will drive me to Cherrapunjee and act as guide along the way.
- Tried an ATM but it did not accept my card so I settled for a deep fried chili pepper instead. Tasty. Ate at the “Fast Food Inn”, next to my hotel. It is small hole in the wall place but the food was good. Mutton cakes, Pokhala (cabbage in batter and deep fried) and something resembling our onion rings, and chai - all for 37Rs (slightly less than a dollar).
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Feb 23 - Shillong to Cherrapunjee
- Up 6AM, packed, got some street food before meeting driver and his friend. They took me to Cherrapunjee Holiday Resort. We stopped numerous times along the way for pictures. They showed me how to chew betal nut, but I think I still have it wrong. You are supposed to feel hot inside after chewing and I have not yet felt that. When you start chewing it, your mouth gets full of saliva and you are supposed to spit out the saliva. I’ve been spitting out lots of the nut as well, and think that is the problem. If I figure it out, I will launch an advanced betal nut chewing class.
- Saw some small scale coal mining where locals have cut into coal seams by the side of the road and are mining in a very rudimentary fashion. Also saw much bigger operation where limestone is mined, then cooked over large fires for 3 days to prepare for making of cement.
- Looked at Nohkalikai waterfalls and Mawsmai Cave. The cave was pretty Mickey Mouse as far as caves go, but I talked to the owner and got the name of the key caving guy in this area which would be great for organizing any trips to this area in the future.
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| Cherrapunj |
- Checked in to the Cherrapunjee Holiday Resort (you can find on Google). Very friendly owners, Dennis and Carmella. It is located at 4200 feet on a ridge overlooking Bangladesh on the east and a steep river canyon on the west. The area is incredibly lush and receives the highest rainfall of any place on the planet, an average of about 40 feet of rain per year! Two years ago, they had 5 feet of rain in one 24 hour period! I’ve been here about 6 hours, and it has not rained yet. Most of the rain comes during the monsoon, from April to July.
- I learned that a large Indian caving conference took place yesterday in Shillong, the city where I spent the night yesterday. Wish I had known in advance!
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Feb 24 - Living Root Bridges
- Hiked to Bangladesh overlook but too hazy to see much. Continued to the root bridges, getting redirection from locals along the way. Lots of jungle bird sounds as I walked. As I approached villages, I would hear people activities, chickens, roosters, occasionally pigs, and because it was Sunday, I could hear singing from the churches (and even people‘s houses).
- At Nongriat Village, saw the famous double decker root bridge. The locals put some of the roots of a rubber tree into long bamboo tubes and are able thus to train them to grow across small rivers. As the roots take root on the opposite side of the river and grow in diameter, they become very strong and form the structural basis for bridges across the rivers. The wider rivers have been spanned by steel cable bridges, which consist of 6 parallel steel cables forming the walkway and a couple more providing a handrails about four feet above the walkway. The handrails are connected to the walkway with a loose arrangement of wires which are close enough together to prevent an adult from falling off the bridge, however a small child would like fall through the holes. The main steel bridge into Nongriat has a small waterfall underneath it, very noticeable both as you look down through the open sides of the wire bridge and can hear the sound of water. The steel bridge bounces as you walk on it, and is not as stable as root bridge. The steel bridge would also wobble from side to side, made me hold the side rails as went across. At other side, I was disgusted at how filthy my hands had become from the rusty cables.
- On way back, I stopped at the Nongriat school to take a couple pictures of the class rooms, The man living next door came over and invited me for tea. It turned out he was one of two school teachers for the village, teaching English, math and social studies. His English was definitely better than anyone else in the village, but most Americans would not think of Andreas as being an English teacher. However, we chatted for about 1.5 hours. Others from the village wandered by and said hello. I took his address and will send him a few pictures of his village. He gave me tea, some pre-packaged toast and made me feel very welcome. Almost all the men smoke cigarettes called bieri, which have no filter and are much cheaper than American style cigarettes. Andreas offered one to me and it felt like the right thing to do on the spur of the moment. I got quite a buzz from it.
- On the way back to the lodge, I stopped to take pictures of a rudimentary soap box racer that one of the boys was racing down a hill. It was constructed out of 3 roller bearings and a few sticks. Every village I have been through has at least one of these. Another child was dragging around a block of wood that had tin nailed to the sides to approximate a truck. It seems that the kids find ways to entertain themselves without having to resort to video games and other “unnatural” ways. Most of the children I have seen seem to be happy. Perhaps something to be learned here???
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Feb 25 - Camp Day
- Just relaxed and read my book.
- Comments on an interesting dynamic. This lodge is fully booked at the moment, in fact Lawrence is camping because the rooms are all full. Three of the six rooms are occupied by foreigners and three of the rooms are occupied by Indians, like Santanu. I did not realize that there were any Indians staying in the lodge, they ate later than us western folks and did not come out to the small fire which Dennis made every night. I thought they were hired help at first and it only gradually dawned on me that they were also tourists. We (white westerners) get so used to our privileged status as foreigners, that it is very easy to fall prey to the stereotype images of ourselves and others.
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Feb 26 - Drive from Hell
- Leave shortly after 7AM. Driver is sullen. Fan belt breaks. Driver and Dennis try to fix, I start to help after 15 minutes. Driver is useless at fixing this and Dennis quickly elbows him aside. I eventually find the secret to fitting the fan belt, a protrusion on the alternator bracket is preventing the alternator from moving sufficiently to put belt back on. By totally loosening one of the bolts, we are able to get round this. Total time to fix is about an hour and a half.
- After fixing, driver informs Dennis that he is quitting and wants to be paid on the spot. Dennis gives him 100Rs and tells him he needs to go back to the hotel to get the rest. In the big scheme of things, this works out well. Dennis drives, I ride shotgun and we have a great chat along the way.
- Stop at several places on way to Shillong, a blacksmith hut, the tire repair place to pick up the retread spare Dennis had previously ordered. Go to car repair place and have the accelerator cable replaced. It is 1PM by the time we clear Shillong.
- Get stuck behind HUGE line of vehicles, mostly trucks. Learn that increase in traffic is due to band (Hindi word for strike), everyone trying to move goods today. The government weigh scale also way backed up and we hear some of the truck drivers grumbling about corruption (officials overcharging for the loads they were carrying). Whenever traffic stops in India, the vehicles from behind start crowding forward, moving into the shoulder, the oncoming traffic lane, anywhere that moves closer to where the blockage is. This creates massive problems for traffic trying to move in the opposite direction, and ultimately results in longer delays but most Indian drivers do not comprehend this. It’s just something to get used to when traveling here.
- Chat quite a lot with Dennis on the drive over (we have, after all, about 12 hours in the car together!) One of the more interesting things he reveals is that when he was working in a bank, he found that he could not rise above a certain level in the bank without giving and accepting bribes. Since Dennis refused to play this game, he limited his Indian banking career. That was his impetus to transition from banking to the hotel business.
- A unique aspect of the Cherrapunjee Holiday Resort is that it is on tribal lands. Tribal land must stay owned by tribe members. This law was established to prevent the tribes from squandering their land. If Dennis were not married to a local woman, he would not have been able to establish his resort in its current location. The hotels in Shillong are very nasty in their treatment of the resort, they bash it and try to keep their customers within Shillong rather than try to promote another draw for the area. In one instance, a Shillong hotel learned that some Japanese dignitaries were staying at the Holiday Resort, and they sent up some rabble rousers at midnight, to try to intimidate the Japanese into moving to back into town. Dennis says this is common. Dennis has built a strong relationship with the local village and in this instance, was able to get a group of local men as backup to turn away the rabble rousers if necessary. As it turned out, the threat of this was sufficient to send them on their way.
- We finally find the cavers at 8PM. They have the most incredible camp set up, with dorms (raised bamboo sleeping platforms inside weatherproof shelters), latrines, shower stalls, mess tent. There are 38 cavers that form the main part of the expedition along with 12 local staff who cook, set up the camp and provide logistics. The cavers are predominantly British but also have representation from Belgium, Austria, Canada and Denmark. They had been exploring caves in Meghalaya for the past 4 weeks and had discovered, surveyed and mapped about 15km of new cave passage. In the last 17 years the same core group have discovered over 1100 caves within a 20 square kilometer area. They have quite an operation, I am most impressed and am interested to go on one of their expeditions in the future and now know the key contacts to make this happen.
- As it was the last night in the area for them, they had a feast and a big party afterward. Dennis and I enjoyed being able to participate in lot of lively discussion and a fair bit of alcohol was consumed.
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Feb 27 - Caving Camp to Shillong
- Left camp at 11AM and spent much of our time following incredibly dirty coal trucks, blowing huge clouds of sooty, stinky, diesel exhaust. We found ourselves several times a day removing filthy, black, hard crusty boogers. The locals breath this all the time and I can‘t imagine it is good for them. Coal trucks literally slow to a crawl (2mph) as they climb hills. It is therefore essential to pass them. Passing on blind curves is the norm and fortunately, because speeds are quite slow, vehicles are able to get out of the way if necessary.
- The towns in the caving area, near Lydrymbai, are modern wild west towns. They have dusty, dirt streets with ramshackle wooden storefronts which are lined by the toughest bunch of characters I have seen in a long time. I would not want to walk the streets at night.
- Asked if there were speed limits, Dennis laughs and says that roads limit the speed, no need for limits.
- During the drive, we see an overturned tank truck carrying diesel fuel. Imagine my surprise when I see 20 people clustered around the tanker with buckets collecting the leaking fuel. We see another would-be scavenger hurrying toward the tanker with an empty five gallon pail and cigarette dangling from his mouth!
- We went to Nartiang Monolith Park which had literally hundreds of “monoliths“ scattered over several acres. Monoliths range from 1500 to 500 years old. Flat ones mark female graves while males are marked by, what else, large phallic stones.
- I spend the night in Shillong at a budget hotel providing a basic room with bathroom. One aspect of budget hotels which most westerners would find disconcerting is that they have rolling shutter doors that provide access to the hotel. After about 10PM, these are shut and if you are outside, you are screwed. I came back at 10:30PM after meeting with some of the cavers to find a one foot space open at the bottom of the shutter. I was able to wriggle under and pull my bag through and the next morning I had to wake up a caretaker to unlock the rolling shutter to let me out to catch my ride to the next town. One wonders what happens if there is a fire?
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