MEGHALAYA - A FOREWORD

Three years had passed since my last solo trip to Sikkim. An eventful three years - from Mumbai to Goa to Kochi, culture and cuisine changed dramatically, the Chetak pilot became an ALH pilot, and most importantly, the solo traveller found his mate.

After the first two trips to Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim, it was time to head even further east - to the stunningly beautiful state of Meghalaya. While the initial plan included Bhutan as well, unsuitable flight dates to Paro resulted in us deciding to restrict the trip to Assam and Meghalaya.

 At the fag end of eleven ‘leave-less’ months, and just emerging from the exhausting Operation Madad, the urge to get off the beaten track was at an absolute peak. With much of Kerala, including the airport inundated in the extensive floods that ravaged the state, we had our fingers crossed for the airport to open on time. As a backup measure, we booked a train ticket from Kochi to Chennai as well, which we cancelled once we had ascertained that CIAL had positively opened.

With the massive Decathlon store just around the corner, excuses were concocted to pay them a series of visits to purchase a plethora of items, many of which probably weren't even necessary for the trip.

A number of arguments regarding travelling light ensued during the packing phase, and finally status quo was established on middle ground. With rains forecast nearly every day we were in the North East, we decided to leave the tent behind and armed ourselves instead with an assortment of rain gear, both for ourselves as well as our bags.