Shillong & Sohra

Our goal was to get to Shillong…and from there regroup…if we wanted to go to Patna or on to Kolkata. Our nerves were getting best of us and we were banking on getting to Kolkata as soon as we could. On the way to Shillong we passed a few coal mining towns. Which meant we were stuck behind huge, overloaded trucks hauling coal. It was definitely interesting to see how they were mining for the coal but not so nice to see little kids pouring the mined coal into trucks. Heartbreaking. Eventually we made it to Shillong and again our friends came to our rescue. Kuldeep and Charu have a house in Shillong and they insisted that we stay there although they weren’t there! Coming to their house felt like home and we ended up staying 3 relaxing nights. In the meantime Nick gave the bike some much needed TLC and spent a day servicing the bike. He washed the bike, checked all the nuts and bolts since we did a lot of offroad, cleaned the air filter, and topped up the engine oil with a local oil since it was running low. Thank God we took an extra day…we found that our rear break pads were almost gone! Riding through the different kinds of dirt caused them to wear thin. Luckily we had an extra pair, someone had told Nick to carry extra break pads. At the time Nick really questioned if it was worth it…but now we know! The day before we went to Cherapunjee (Sohra) where the matriarchal Khasi tribe lives. Cherapunjee is also the second most wettest place on Earth. It used to be first but now a nearby village holds that record. It felt like we were in Hawaii! There were some dry hills but still a lot of greenery for winter. There were quite a few waterfalls falling over the steep rocky ledges into beautiful sapphire pools. Everywhere you looked there was pineapple growing which made us very hungry…so we stopped for some fresh pineapple chaat! Are we in India? This was an amazing place…it reminded us of a mix between the Amalfi Coast and Hawaii! The last sight we saw was an amazing place. Probably our favorite in the area. We took it upon ourselves to do a little bike photoshoot! If you find yourself in the Northeast, it’s definitely worth swinging by Shillong and Sohra!