Meghalaya Trip reflections
9 days through Abode of Clouds — and what it taught me about family, growth, and rest
Last week, our family headed to the Northeast — Guwahati, Shillong, Cherrapunji, Dawki, Umiam Lake. Nine days. Infinite waterfalls, good rains, lots of memories. Three generations — my mom, the two of us, and our kids. It was one of those trips that completely stops you from the tendency of opening Teams or Outlook every couple of hours — and makes you reflect on something deeper in life.
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🏔️ Part 1: A Trip About Making — and Reliving — Memories
We started in Guwahati — and just the act of landing in the Northeast, knowing what lay ahead, had everyone buzzing. Our first stop: Kamakhya Temple, one of India’s most powerful Shakti peeths, perched on Nilachal Hill. The energy was instantly palpable. And so were the goats — dozens of them, completely unbothered, roaming around the temple like they owned the place.
If this trip had a heart, it was Shillong — because for my mother, it wasn’t just a tourist destination. It was a time machine. She studied here and hadn’t been back in 40 years. We visited her old college. The building had new paint, but the steps were the same. She paused and showed they had their classes, where their principal room was and also peeked into her hostel rooms.
Beyond that deeply personal moment, the trip ushered lots of rain and numerous waterfalls and pristine places : the Laitlum Canyons; guided Mawphlang Forest walk where every leaf is protected by Khasis; Nohkalikai Falls the tallest plunge waterfall in India, and 4th in the world; and the Living Root Bridge — where 200+ year old tree roots have been trained into a living, growing, strengthening bridge. The kids enjoyed going down and up 1500 steps like it was nothing. My wife and I barely survived. Humbled doesn’t quite cover it, but standing there - felt like the most earned moment of the trip.
Then there was Dawki — a place where Dhaka and India’s ends meet. Travellers on both sides stared through the border, making me realize that the lines are largely human created - we all look the same. We then experienced pristine turquoise blue waters in Krang Suri falls, a holy visit to Jayanti (Durga) Shaktipeeth and finally a fun boat ride in Umiam lake before heading back to Hyderabad via Guwahati.
As I reflect back, there were these moments in-between — kids drawing at the hotel table with their grandma, rainy evenings at Shillong’s Police Bazar over steamed momos, wifey and kids getting scared of lizards in the cottage rooms :) Those moments don’t make it to travel guides, but become memories that we remember later.
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🌐 Part 2: The Tourism Flywheel
Something struck me as we drove through newly paved roads to freshly built viewpoints: Meghalaya’s tourism is running a flywheel. And it looks remarkably like Amazon’s. Bezos famously sketched it on a napkin: better experience → more traffic → more sellers → better selection → lower costs → even better experience. Once spinning, hard to stop.
The same is happening with tourism in Meghalaya : Pristine natural treasures exist → People visit → Social amplifies it (that Krang Suri photo goes viral or Root Bridge video hits a million views, and suddenly everyone’s adding it to their bucket list) → More tourists arrive → Government invests in roads, trails, infrastructure → The experience gets even better → The flywheel spins faster. 🔄
But the harder question is: as the flywheel accelerates, how do you protect what made it worth spinning? The Mawphlang Sacred Grove exists because the Khasi community simply refuses to let tourism consume it. That tension — access versus preservation — is Meghalaya’s defining challenge going forward. And honestly, every beautiful place’s challenge.
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😴 Part 3: The Bonus Nobody Planned
This year on my birthday, I got a Gabit smart ring and I’ve been wearing it since, to track my sleep — not obsessively, but enough to know the data is usually bad. Mostly it confirms what I already suspected.
When we left for Meghalaya on May 9th, my tracker showed: 7 hours 43 minutes of sleep debt. Status: Poor. Deficit. The modern professional badge of dishonor. I’d been running on fumes and caffeine and optimism for months.
Eight days later, on May 17th: 1 hour of sleep debt. Status: Excellent. Surplus.
That’s not just rest — that’s recovery. What changed? No alarms. Mountain air. Exhaustion from actual physical activity (those 1,500 steps back up from the root bridge deserves full credit). Early dinners. Children who passed out early and actually stayed asleep. And the quiet that only comes when nobody’s expecting you to reply.
The consensus on sleep debt recovery is clear — you can’t recoup chronic deprivation in a weekend. You need sustained, quality sleep over multiple nights. A real holiday. Not a “squeeze sightseeing between calls” trip, but an honest-to-goodness disconnection. Meghalaya gave me that.
If you’re running a sleep deficit — and if you’re in a demanding profession, you probably are — consider this your permission slip. The waterfalls will still be there. But your recovery window is finite.
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What I’m Taking Home
Three things that stayed with me long after the unpacking:
1. Time with the people you love is irreplaceable. It doesn’t require a perfect plan, just a willingness to be present. Watching mom relive 40-year-old memories, watching my kids encounter something ancient and alive — these moments aren’t in any guidebook. You just have to show up for each other.
2. The internet is a double-edged gift for beautiful places. It opens them to the world and inevitably changes them. The places that survive it best are the ones rooted in cultural identity, not just scenic spectacle.
3. Rest is not a reward for finishing work. It’s part of the work. The data confirmed what we intuitively know but conveniently ignore.
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P.S. — One less thing I had to worry about on this trip: the plants at home. They survived too. If you’ve ever stressed about leaving them behind, this hack still works 5 years later 🌱
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Have you ever been to Meghalaya? Has a trip ever genuinely reset you? Do drop in your thoughts and comments. Or if you are planning for your next trip, I’m happy to share the itinerary too!