7 Sisters and their only Brother – States of North East, as it is very popularly said.

7 Sisters – Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Tripura; 1 Brother – Sikkim is a very popular phrase used to define North East state of our country – India.

North Eastern states have a very unique architecture and style that not only attracts you but also makes you feel proud of your rich heritage and culture. I think this part of India is still unexplored & preserves its pristine & rustic culture for amateur tourists to explore.
We traveled to  – two beautiful states – Assam & Meghalaya, in the year 2012 for a 3-day tour from Delhi.

After our extensive research on where to travel for 3 days, we decided to travel to the North East. The major attraction was to visit the Kaziranga National Park”; but a day before our travel, we got to know that it was closed due to the counting of animals.

We were little confused on what to do, should we cancel our bookings. But fortunately, we didn’t cancel our bookings & went ahead only to stay in a lesser-visited national park – “Manas Rachna.” Nevertheless, the experience we had was undoubtedly amazing & we did not regret visiting the less popular national park. Our 2N&3Ds to Assam and Meghalaya were fantastic and the most memorable ones.

Day 1: Tea Garden, Village Tour

We started from Delhi to catch the flight to Guwahati, the capital of Assam.
After reaching Guwahati airport, we headed straight to our lodge – “The Bansbari,” which is situated in the prime location right at the entrance to the National park, with tea gardens on one side, jungle, and views of the Himalayan foothills on the other.

This property is managed by Assam Tourism. It was a simple lodge but very comfortable. The room was very neat & clean. The best part about the room which I liked was – there was no TV & no range for mobile phones. One could stay in peace, away from their busy routine life. In the beginning, I thought – how can there be no TV? But later, I realized one can stay without TV & enjoy the most.  The best thing is not to watch TV while on holiday.

Post our check-in and lunch in the lodge, we went for Village walk tour. The village was beautiful, we saw naturally grown vegetables by the villagers, to run their home.

It was an hour’s walk in the village. In the evening we went to tea gardens on cycles, provided by the lodge. The day was very relaxing. After dinner, we enjoyed watching the photographs which we clicked for the day.

Day 2: Elephant Safari

Started with Jungle Safari on Elephants, which we had booked the previous day. This National park is more visited by foreigners than Indians; and there is no difference in terms of animals found compared to Kaziranga. The only difference is – Kaziranga is a bigger & more popular national park and probability to spot animals is high compared to Manas Rachana.

Sitting on an elephant and watching the jungle was a spellbound experience. It started raining in between while we were still in the Jungle, sitting on an elephant. We did not had any umbrella or rain coat to cover ourselves. But it was the experience of a sorts. Fully drenched in the rain, we really started feeling very cold, otherwise it was a very pleasant weather. We were literally shivering, sitting on an elephant, in the middle of the Jungle.

We spotted animals like – Wild elephant, popularly  spotted different species of Deers’ and the animal for which the national park is famous – “Rhino”. We requested our Mahot – who was riding our elephant to take us as near as possible to the Rhino. A rhino is a very huge animal and a dangerous one. If a Rhino attacks, it is difficult to run.

After our Jungle safari, we proceeded to our next destination – Shilong in Meghalaya state.  Shillong is called the “Scotland of the East” by the Britishers. Place offers undulating hills, lakes, coniferous forests and rolling fog, which reminded Britishers of their homeland. After check-in at our hotel in Shillong, which was situated away from the city, on the hills, we rested our day. Had dinner in the night and slept.

Day 3: Meghalaya City Tour

After Breakfast, we went on a city tour. We saw some mesmerizing waterfalls, gardens, and scenic beauty. We also wore their traditional dress, which is so colorful.

We had lunch and then proceeded to Guwahati for our flight. As we had time to board our flight to Delhi, we visited the famous zoo in Guwahati. It is a beautiful zoo with many wild animals.

It was a nice, relaxing North East holiday to Assam and Meghalaya for both of us, a much-needed break from our routine life.

The only regret I had on this trip was that we should have stayed one more day and visited Cherapunji- which gets the highest rainfall in the country.

Next time, we would like to travel to kaziranga – The national Park, which we couldn’t’ go because of animal counting. Also we will surely visit Cherapunji and other states of North East during that time.