Unexpected Adventures in Meghalaya

This would be the time when I would be worried about snakes. This day is turning out to be more interesting than I expected, for sure. One thing I've noticed about this area is it's a lot more touristy than I expected, especially Cherrapunji, or Sobra as it's also known. Man, and I can see why it's touristy. Lots of beautiful viewpoints overlooking the gorge there, and so this area is more of a plateau, and it seems pretty dry up here, so I could see why Megalia gets a lot more tourism from what I can tell during monsoon. It seems like it's a lot more popular time to visit during monsoon. The waterfalls have a lot more flow. However, some of the places that I've been are not doable in monsoon. The lesser-trafficked, smaller waterfalls with the blue clear pools, unable to do those in monsoon. But yes, it's almost like a high desert feel up here right now. I just took off on a side road on the scooter, and I think it's called Pruitt Waterfall, but there was several waterfalls along this road here, but it looked like pretty low flow, and this might be pretty low flow as well. But I don't have anything to do today, and I have several hours before I can check into my guest house, so I'm just kind of winging it today. Probably not going to get too off the beaten path because I got to carry my backpack with me with all my stuff, and my knees are pretty tired from the last several days, believe it or not. 50 rupees. So every waterfall I've noticed, even if you don't need a guide to get to it, there is a charge. There is a fee for every little waterfall. I think a lot of people, from what I can tell, take like taxis or drivers. So I mean, I can see why as well, because driving the scooter, and I'm trying to check out the landscape as I'm driving, it's very distracting. It's such a beautiful landscape. I could see why you just want to sit back and have somebody else drive and take it all in. But then again, I do like not having to depend on someone else and be on someone else's timetable and just do my own thing. Oh, more steps. Oh no. Oh no. More steps. How many steps are there? Oh god. I thought I was just going to another viewpoint. I didn't know there was going to be more steps. No. My knees are still screaming from the Double Decker Root Bridge and Rainbow Fold. Oh man, I wonder how many steps there are in this. Okay, whatever. Paid the 50 rupees. Suck it up, big boy. Swimming and bathing is prohibited. Yeah. You know, my first reaction to the no swimming stuff is, obviously I don't like that. I like to swim. But a touristy place like this, I can understand why they don't want people to swim, because they're catering to I think a group of tourists that they all just want to come take a picture in front of the waterfall and move on to the next one. And if there's a bunch of people swimming in the pool, then the bulk of the tourists who just want to come and take their selfie can't get their nice clean selfie in front of the pool. I get it. A place like this operates on volume. Just churning probably hundreds of tourists a day during monsoon or whatever the peak season is here. So I totally understand it. Even though I don't personally like that policy, I understand why they're doing it. Oh, this is pretty cool though. Get to go behind the falls. Even though it's a very touristy waterfall, it's not really busy right now. And you get to come behind the falls. I bet it's even cooler in monsoon, where maybe this whole thing gets, you know, a white curtain. You go behind the curtain. But yeah, this is pretty cool. Wasn't expecting to find this today, but just out getting lost on some back roads. And we'll see what else we can find. Such interesting topography here, where as soon as you drop off from the plateau with that kind of almost, I don't know, high desert slightly feel, and then it drops into these canyons. And then it's suddenly like an oasis. Like unexpected. Like compared to where I started at the parking area to this. It's like such a contrast. That's one of the cool things about this area. Because I think in monsoon season, all the stuff up top on the plateau is bright, green, vibrant like this, obviously. So to see it now, which I guess is the dry season, what a contrast. It's fascinating. So just came across another parking area for a waterfall, but it looks like this one, this one might be a seasonal. Might be only flowing during monsoon because there's nobody to take money for parking or entry fee or none of the little tea stalls are open. So I guess if you want to come and hike to a dry waterfall during dry season, it's free. But yeah, these beautiful valleys and canyons here. Epic views wherever you go, but you can see how the plateaus just drop down into these lush valleys. So cool. Oh, there's something over there. Oh, there's a waterfall over there in the distance. I don't know if this road is going that way, but I think, I think I'm headed in that way. So maybe I can get a closer look at that. Yeah, yeah, cool. But you said, so that's why Sadong or something like that. What's, what's the waterfall? I heard from some of the tribal yesterday. He said, like, there is a problem between two villages. The villages are having a problem. Who is going to rule that falls and all. So that's why it is, it has been closed. So it's closed. So you can't even drive down there. So how long has this problem been going on for? For past two weeks. Past two weeks. But I mean, they've had the waterfall open for years, probably. Right. And then all of a sudden, and now all of a sudden there's a problem. Is this a dead end road? Does it end at that waterfall or does it keep going? It keeps going? Yeah, but there is no sightseeing. Okay, cool, man. Thanks for the info. Safe travels. Okay, so just got the inside scoop that Masadong Falls is closed. That parking area that I was at up top is actually for that waterfall. And I guess the two tribes are fighting over who will control the waterfall. Interesting. I imagine something like that might happen quite often. You can see, you can see differences, dramatic differences between the villages of a village that has like a tourist stop and some villages that don't have a tourist stop. So I imagine, you know, it's big money for them to lay claim to who's getting the revenue from visiting the waterfall. Now I need to, he also said the road is closed down there. So I guess I got to turn around and figure out what else I'm going to do today. But that is quite interesting. The inside scoop on some local political shenanigans going on. It's getting real hot. The problem is on the bike when I'm up top on the plateau, the wind is colder than it is like if you just drop a couple hundred feet, the temperature increases substantially. But up there, it's a it's an icy breeze on the scooter. Anyway, onward. So this area is known for three, mainly three natural features, the living root bridges, which we have seen, beautiful waterfalls and also caves. However, in this particular area, I don't think there's a lot of caves. There's a few, but the biggest ones are kind of east and west of here. However, I was just driving by. This is not like a tourist attraction or anything, but I saw this water flowing and I think there's something up top there that looked like a cave. So let's go take a look. It kind of looks like kind of a trail, maybe. Unless it's just where the water has flowed. Can I keep my feet dry? Huh. I'll come up here. See that? That looks like a cave right there. But I'm not sure how I would get up there. Is this? This would be the time when I would be worried about snakes. Maybe. Because I can't see anything. All right, we'll scare the snakes away, hopefully. What do we got here? This looks man-made. This looks man-made. There's no way that's natural. What the heck is this? Okay, it doesn't really look like that goes back very far. What is this? Huh. Is this man-made? Must be. I wonder what purpose this serves. I wonder how loose all this is. Can I jump to the other side? Only one way to find out. All right, let's see. Some kind of drainage. Very interesting. What the heck is going on here? Whoa. That's definitely a cave. Is it like a spring? Oh, this is cool. What the heck is this? Oh man, that goes back pretty far too. All right, ditch the bag and let's take a look here. Is this a man-made cave? Whoa. This looks interesting. What the heck is this? What the heck is this? All right, so yeah. Is it a mine maybe? What would they be mining for? Hello? It's weird because it kind of looks man-made, but it also looks like water did this. Water erosion. What type of rocket? This is like a sandstone, mudstone even. Man, this goes back really far. Holy ----. I hope I don't find somebody living back here. Or like an animal. Leopard's here though. Now, how would that have gotten in here? Oh yeah. Oh, this is definitely man-made then. So putting that there to prop this up. Some kind of mine. Oh man, this thing goes back really far. There's more over there. Oh, this is pretty cool. I don't know what they're mining though. What would they be mining in here? It sounds like there's some gas leaks happening. The thing about sandstone is it's pretty fragile. So, you know, I should probably get out of here before I am buried. I wasn't expecting to find this obviously. And I might go to like a tourist cave or two while I'm here, but I really wasn't expecting to do any hardcore caving. But this feels pretty cool. Definitely not a tourist cave. They're mining something here. I just have no idea what. So maybe I should get out of here before one of the miners shows up and is mad that I have been scoping out his mine. Or maybe they just dug into it looking for something and they never found it and they never came back. But then, I don't know, and then they have those rocks out front. Interesting. Fascinating. Cool. This day is turning out to be more interesting than I expected for sure. And then, can I keep, can I keep my feet dry? That is the question. So I, this must be like a sluice way or something. That's what I would, uh, something else over there. Cool. All right, snakes, coming back through. Coming back through, snakes. Here we come. You don't bite me, I won't bite you. Emma Soba, homestay and restaurant. Got some food finally, and their food is very good. So across the street is a popular restaurant called Orange Roots. I ate there the other day, and they are slammed right now. A bunch of people there. And they have a really nice view, but the food is not that good. This place is much better, so you get a chance to come here. I think the service is a little slower here because they have a smaller kitchen, but I thought the food was a lot better over here. Anyway, getting dark, it's getting cold. I might just call it an early mission today.