We started the day a little late today - waking up until late in the night to write blog posts does that! Most travelers spend just one day at Shillong and then go to Cherrapunjee apparently. But since we’d already lost half a day, we thought we’ll take it slow and spend some more time here (that’s another way of saying we are yet to figure out our travel and acco plans for Cherrapunjee). So after we got something to eat (that didn’t fill us up) at a small snack shop, we started inquiring the directions (cheapest way) to get to Umiam lake (Bada pani). We wanted to visit the lake while it was still bright and didn’t want to worry about getting back in the evening. You do know how it works with getting directions in India - you get directions alright, but every person you ask will give you different ones - and sometimes exactly opposite of what another person just said. So, we spent about an hour looking for the right place to hop on a shared taxi which would take us to Bada pani. It was a good walk up and down the hilly streets of Bada Bazar (Iewduh market) and soaking up the local scene. Fruits, different kinds of meat, plastic toys, lottery tickets - you name it and you have it here. But don’t mistake Shillong for just these, you do have stores selling branded clothes, billboards with advertisements for cellular operators and so on - not very different from any other big Indian city. Oh yes, one thing sure is different here - a lot more taxis than autorickshaws. And, they do follow traffic rules!
Anyway, coming back to our journey to Bada pani - after running around and searching for the shared taxis, we had to relent and engage a taxi just for ourselves. Our driver Bareb, was informed and chatty too. Enjoyed his company and the drive to the lake (the views we missed yesterday as we had arrived after dark). You can see the NEHU (North-Eastern Hill University) campus too on the way. Its location is so scenic - on the slopes of a mountain, overlooking hills and a lake. I hope we will get a chance to go visit the campus, if not we will atleast try to tag it from Shillong peak which we plan to visit soon.
We went directly to the Lum Nehru park at the Umiam lake and frankly were very disappointed. Sure, it was very peaceful, green, etc - but it just missed something and I can’t put my finger on it. We just ate the food we’d got packed from Police bazar and went back to the main road so that we could catch another taxi back to the city. And then, we saw the board saying there was a resort and some boating facilities also available here. We headed back down another lane so that we could check these out. The resort (Orchid Lake resort) is managed by the Meghalaya tourist corporation and sits right next to the lake. We didn’t dine there (not within our budget for sure!) and headed back to the city.
We still had some time before it got dark and we started looking for Ward’s lake. Inder even found directions on youknowwhich maps on his phone and we walked a circuitous 3km to the lake. Here we were pleasantly surprised, this lake was absolutely gorgeous! A section of the lake was sectioned as a lotus pool and a small wooden bridge at the center. Boating is available too. Ward’s lake is much smaller than Umiam, but I felt that it had more character. We spent some time here on the lawns and then headed back to Police bazar. Some more pictures from the chowk and we were ready for dinner!
