On May 28th, it was raining so heavily in Sohra that just to walk into the waiting traveler in front of the door of our stay – we had to wear our ponchos. I must tell you my Poncho was such a good support… bought from Decathlon, it was such a boon for me – hassle free – quick to wear, light weight too. Rest everyone in our team got it from the local market and was simply “no good” for that heavy rain. Have a Look at this picture… this is at 10 am, in front of entry gate of Arwah cave, Sohra. Finding this family of four, with their two kids was such a joy.. it looked as if we were not the only fools who have ventured out to visit Meghalaya in this difficult weather… 😀 We literally called the family to pose with us for a picture… so we could show proof that there were people other than us…

Meghalaya has many cave systems to boast about. Of them Mawsmai, Arwah, Garden of caves we are lucky we could visit. As you will recall, our trip coincided with Cyclone Remal’s and we could not see much for initial part of the Sohra visit.

Garden of caves is beautiful .. very relaxing walk through the natural wonder. History says this place was used by the Khasi tribes of Meghalaya to hide from British. Must visit ! When you enter the place, we do not see anything… I wondered – what is this.. but as we walked through, slowly the place began to show its contours and marvels, including a small waterfall in a secluded corner, that is supposed to be the bathing corner of the Khasi queen.

Mawsmai Caves

We saw a well laid path to walk around the cave to reach the entry of the cave. Mawsmai cave is well lit with lights. Wearing our ponchos, walking inside the caves is a balancing act as there are lots of boulders. lots of water puddles to cross. It was raining at some spots inside the cave too.. water seeping thru.. At one point we had to crawl thru for a minute as the the limestones were literally growing towards the floor… but it was fine and finally we came out into daylight after walking in the cave for nearly 10 minutes. With the fog covering the area, it felt to me like we are in Amazon Jungle 😀 as we were amongst huge trees, thick clouds surrounding and maybe after breathing in the closed cave, this feeling was special… that is something beyond words.

Arwah Cave

Another famous cave nearby (9 km) in Sohra is Arwah caves. Walking towards Arwah cave entrance we were fortunate to witness our first waterfall, the clouds moved and the view in front of us was what we came to Meghalaya for, something like seven sisters waterfall- only this had falls for uncles and aunts too 😀 .. All the water from the surrounding was flowing down, into a river valley below. We were dancing in the rain with joy…

Some 5 minutes after the entry into the cave, we saw the family of four(with kids) returning, as they said it was dark and they don’t want to go further in.. We continued to walk ahead. It was very dark, but we had mobile torches and of course we were together.. All quiet and dark, just some sunrays to show the grand rock formations… at times the sound of drops of water falling was also echoing. There was further narrow passages, and found rain water flowing inside the cave.. the gurgling sound was very pleasant. At this point we had to sit down to cross the area and our friend Chavreji who feels suffocated in such paths decide he will not continue. Rest of us said alright we are going ahead. Walking ahead of me was Vasant who has a bit of tummy, and because of the thick rocks protruding and shrinking the gap, made us walk sideways .. Finally even Vasant felt he is not going ahead, as he didnt feel comfortable. I had to sit down under the rocks so that he could cross me to go back, it was not easy for him… And then rest of the friends too said lets not go ahead and asked me to return. I said “hey hum 80% cross kar liye h aur 20% h mae to aage jaa rahi hoon”. I asked Archana “tu chalegi na?” She was being pulled from two ends but she decided to stay with me… and we walked inch by inch ahead in the darkness. I wanted to feel the open air when we walked out of Mawsmai cave and so I was daring to walk ahead.

Imagine walking between two thick plates, restricted movement and darkness all around, can’t see much ahead except what is right in front…! At this stage, I told Archana, lets sit down and move ahead scrawling… and both of us sat down under the rock plates. Here we had some more space, not very restricting. Suddenly I felt, what if there is a huge pit right ahead and we don’t see and fall into it!! That was a terrifying thought which i kept to myself. Archana was behind me… all my determination to complete the cave ahead seemed a bit foolish now and I was a bit worried. Suddenly the mobile torch was off, no light, not much of air and for that 3-4 seconds when I was trying to scratch the mobile screen to switch on the light was pathetic as my hands were muddy from touching the rocks. There I decided no more of this darkness, can’t go ahead.. I cannot risk my life as well as my friends! I told Archana .. “Chalte h vapas” She must have been relieved for she was accompanying me inspite of her husband’s warning. We turned and scrawled back as fast and then we were literally running where we could calling out “Chavreji hum vapas aa gaye” … It must have taken 5-6 minutes to reach the cave entrance, we saw Vasant and one man coming in to search and Chavreji’s face all clouded with fright.. as once out they checked with the security and realized a huge rock had fallen in and the path was closed… which no one told us. And due to the rains the lights inside the cave was not working…. Phew !!! I felt relieved we were out without a scratch, no mishaps.

We were told by one man that path is one way, one main reason for me to continue walking inside… walk out like Mawsmai Cave. In that confidence I was pressing we can go ahead… but that could have been fatal. It is nearly a month we are back home and now as I write and rewind the memories, I can still feel my heartbeat going up, and I am grateful to be writing this.

Meghalaya trip remains incomplete as we could not touch Double decker bridge … for which we will have to make the trip again!