Mawlynnong

I had spent a lot of time in Shillong and as much as I loved it, I was getting a little antsy to move on. So I was so happy when Fiona asked if I was interested in going to the small village of Mawlynnong, also known as The Cleanest Village in Asia. It is a small village (470 people) in the Kasi hills that is about 4 hrs away from Shillong. There is no public transport to this village so we had to take a shared sumo to anothern village (Pynursla) and then another shared sumo from there. the ride was a bit much, but as soon as we got there we were both soooo happy we came!

Fiona was born in Shillong but has been living in Mumbai for almost 20 years. She can speak the local tribal language, Kasi, but because she looks like a city girl, it would really knock the socks off the villagers to hear her speak! The village itself is just gorgeous, and even with the rains it was so calming to be there. There is one guest house but it turns out you have to reserve it from Shillong before you arrive, so we asked around and found that we could stay with a family (in fact, the head chief's family!) who owns the only restaurant in the village.

We spoke with the secretary of the village, Richard, who hooked us up with a boy, little Richard, to take us to see some local sites. We saw a living root bridge, which is actually a bridge made of tree roots. It was hard to explain but it did feel like we were in Lord of the Rings! 

The next morning we went to check out the small small village school.  It was a little one room building, with a few different classes and 3 teachers inside.  The kids were sweet and we sat with them and read a little bit of English.  We also visited some neighboring villages and saw some interesting tree houses and views of Bangladesh.  But, due to the rain, we spent most of our time sipping tea and chatting with the Kasi woman who owns a little tea stall in the village.  Fiona and I thought that this was the perfect place for a honeymoon, now we just need to find us some husbands!!

To check out pics of the village as well as other pics from my North East trip click here.