Assam India North east Travel

A glimpse of North East India

Before I come up with my next post on Chicago in continuation to the previous one In and around Chicago in pictures, let me show you a glimpse of the greenery of North-east India. Something similar to my last post The Silchar to Lumding train line.

During the good old times when I was a student, I did not have the luxury of flying to Guwahati from my hometown Silchar whenever I wanted to or had to.

Jaintia hills of Meghalaya
Somewhere in the hills of Meghalaya

With a very slow train that took more than a day and half to reach Guwahati from Silchar as an alternative to flying, the only feasible option was the (actually it still is, until the BG becomes operational) overnight bus service which took ~12 hours to make this journey.

East Khasi hills meghalaya
A patch of mystic clouds – East Khasi hills

The reason behind this journey taking much less time than the train route was, unlike the longer train route which passes through the hills of North Cachar (Dima Hasao now), the buses take the shorter route through the National Highway 44 which snakes through the beautiful hills of Meghalaya.

Malidor bridge
The Sonapur bridge – One of the many such bridges in this route

Almost 75 percent of this road lies in the hill state of Meghalaya. From the Silchar side, only the initial 40 kilometers or so, with green tea plantations on both sides of the road, is in Assam.

khasi hills
Green mystic hills of Meghalaya

Same is the case on the other side as well. The road enters Assam just ~35 kilometers before Guwahati at the border town of Jorabat. Rest of the route is in Meghalaya, passing through small and big towns and cities like Umling, Umkiang, Jowai and the capital city of Shillong, etc.

silchar guwahati road meghalaya
Enchanting greenery – Meghalaya

This route is one of the many picturesque ones in the north-east. And even with all the landslides and traffic jams during the monsoon season, to me, this route is amazing when done during the monsoons.

PS.- Please excuse the quality of the photos as these are almost a decade old when I barely knew how to hold a camera.

23 thoughts on “A glimpse of North East India”

  1. I liked the pictures you have displayed here. Now, I have to make a trip to these places. We had been to Munnar and stayed at a tea estate. It was drizzling at that time and looked beautiful. Loved the place. We should love this too! Thank you!

    1. Thanks Sandhya!
      Glad to know that you liked it 🙂

      I can tell you very confidently that the North-East is an entirely charm altogether. More so, the state of Meghalaya.

      It will totally be worth the journey as and when you plan to do it.

      *Post on Shillong and Cherrapunjee coming soon 🙂 .
      Cheers!
      Rajiv

      1. One correction: That is not the Malidor Bridge. It is the Lubha bridge at Sonapur, Meghalaya.

    1. Thanks Ankita, really glad that you like it. Why not plan a trip right after the monsoons? Everything will be wonderfully green and lively 😉

      Cheers,
      Rajiv

  2. I had a memory of travelling by train from Silchar to Guwahati. What a lovely scenery this route had? Now that the new train route, I was told, is different than the older one, I would love to have a look and read review of this new route. Why don’t you do it again, Rajiv?

    1. It was indeed a brilliant route dada. Thankfully, even though the new route doesn’t have even half the number of tunnels and bridges the route still is brilliantly beautiful.

      I am planning to move back to the north east soon dada. Once I have, I will share more about this part of the county 🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.