Tag Archives: Shillong

Shillong : Known as the Scotland of the East, Shillong is situated on an elevation of 1946 metres above sea level. It derived its name from the legendary Shyllong hill range, where the deity U Lei Shyllong dwelled. It is the state capital of Meghalaya and also the headquarters of East Khasi Hills District. Shillong was previously home to the Khasis but now its population comes from all regions of the country. English is the official language and Khasi the predominantly spoken language but English, Hindi and Bengali are also widely spoken.
Shillong is also a destination for the nature tourist. A wide range of activities-rock climbing, caving and boating await those who seek nature sports. Cherrapunji, famous for its abundant rainfall and waterfalls, is only 34 km away.

#Elephant Falls
Elephant falls is a combination of 3 rivers. One of the British officers named it as Elephant falls after they saw a rock which resembled as an elephant. This rock was later destroyed due to earthquake. Ka Kshaid Lai Pateng Khohsiew was the name given by the Khasi tribe, meaning Three Steps Water Falls. Around 12kms from the outskirts of the capital city of Meghalaya, Elephant falls is advanced with the public transport for the visitors.

#Nohkalikai Falls
Nohkalikai Falls was one of the taller waterfalls in India. It made a dramatic free leap from a fairly well-forested drainage into a rocky base accompanied by a pretty blue pool. While Julie and I noticed that most of the waterfalls in the Cherrapunjee area had really lost their luster outside of the monsoon season, this waterfall seemed to have maintaind its perforance.I suspect that the relatively healthy drainage upstream of the falls was largely due to the moisture-retaining foliage that remained forested and untouched (though this might be threatened based on what we saw, which we’ll get into later). In fact, we even saw a pair of light flowing companion waterfalls making similar dramatic leaps off the escarpment. I’d imagine in wetter times, there could have been many more companion waterfalls flanking the main one.

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