April 24 | A lesson in Bio-Engineering

Normally starting the day at 6AM is a task, but in a place like Cherrapunjee, i felt like the more time i spend inside the room, i would be wasting my trip. After a quick wash and breakfast, we started our trek to the ‘Living Root Bridge’ (LRB).

I don’t claim to be a regular trekker, but most treks start with climbing UP to the destination, this one was the opposite, we started with walking down. While it was a walk down, it was nothing like an easy walk. No exaggeration, but a few parts of the path were almost 50 degree slopes with stones along the way to hold ourselves while going up and down these paths. We had been given staffs to maintain balance while walking down.

Our guide for the trek was this local who called himself ‘Bat’, he told us a few things about the LRB and also told us a little about himself. Trek guiding for him was more of an interest and not a source of income, he basically is into cultivating Beetle Nuts and spices. The may look very unassuming, just like the people from the north-eastern mountains, but he could walk up and down this trek in less than quarter of the time that most people took and he did this twice a week. We all had our shoes/boots, staffs, caps etc for the trek, but he came in a simple track suit along with slippers but still he was far more nimble as compared to anyone of us.

The LRB as Bat told us are over 100 years old andhave come to be known as a marvel in Bio-Engineering. The only one of its kind in the world, the first LRB was made by an man called Staton, unfortunately, he could not live long enough to see the completed bridge but his achievement is recognized and covered by channels in Japan, India and a few other places. Many documentaries have been made profiling the LRBs across the forests of Cherrapunjee. We went to the LRB called ‘Ummunoi’, and as seen from the pictures, the structure is a marvel of nature. Basically 100 years back when the villagers felt the need to cross the many streams, Staton started growing trees on the banks of these streams and over time tied their roots to each other. In the past 100 years, these roots have grown thick and got entangled to create these natural bridges. They are extremely sturdy and can handle immense weights. The one seen in the picture is a single bridge, these are similar bridges with two levels, while we could not see them, it can easily be imagined that they would’ve not fallen short of awing us even further.

We spend sometime at the LRB, taking dip in the stream and clicking random pictures. After about an hour, we started our walk back up, it was an eye-opener of how we lack any stamina. After getting back to the hotel, we had a shower, wound up lunch and left from Cherra Resort. If you visit Cherrapunjee, choose this place to stay over any other, there are clean rooms and they are great hosts.

The skies had decided to make up for yesterday’s fog fiasco and managed to remain clear through our drive back. We went back to the first stop we had made on our drive up and got to see the valley in all its glory. An unbelievably beautiful drive!

We got back to Shilong, chilled for sometime at Zoravar’s after which we left to explore the night life in Shilong. At first we came to this pub called ‘Cloud 9’, it was a great place about two years back, but now has become a den for the oldies trying to be young. After some quick checks, we discoverd this underground bar called ‘Tango’. The evening was a bob Marley special with a live band performing only reggae. After listening to them, i was wondering, what are these guys doing performing at an underground bar, they should ideally be promoted and their music distributed. I got pretty pasted and was tired as well because of which, i was unable to sustain there for too long and decided to walk back to the car. I personally remember telling one of the boys that i’m leaving but they claim i just disappeared because of which they spent a lot of time looking for me all over the place. Zoro seemed a little miffed and when they came back to the car, his gesture said all of what he wanted to say without uttering a word. But guess, i understand and hence don’t blame him for getting angry. We got back home gorged on home-made food and crashed at about 3AM.

Moral: Wear proper trekking boots while heading to LRB. Carry rain-sheeters but not umbrella, difficult to manage an umbrella. Carry extra trunks, its a nice dip in the stream under the LRB. Never give-up on a foggy sky, it can clear just as suddenly as it appears. Shilong has a great music culture, remember to visit ‘Tango’ if you are in town.