Exploring India is a lot like peeling an onion. With each visit, you peel off another amazing layer that exposes a new world-within-a-world that blows your mind. My time in Assam and Meghalaya in northeast India in March of 2019 blew the lid off what I thought India could be. It’s so diverse and is home to some of the world’s friendliest and most welcoming people. Come along with me as I explore northeast India!
On the morning of my fourth day in Meghalaya, I linked back up with my friend Paul. We took a drive to the cleanest village in India and saw a canyon, but first we needed to get a delicious, Meghalaya-style breakfast!
Our journey began at Four Plus Two Restaurant, which is known for its parathas! I went with an aloo paratha and started off with a red tea. It tastes minty but doesn’t contain any mint. It also doesn’t contain any caffeine.
The aloo paratha looked more fried that others I’d had in my travels around India. It had a potato filling and also came with a potato and chickpea sabzi. It’s like a nice, light curry. The sabzi was good enough to drink!
Then I tried the paratha with the mango pickle, which I love. It’s nice and hot, just the way I like it. I let the paratha soak up as much of the sabzi as possible, which made it extra delicious! The paratha was very big and filling and cut into pizza-like wedges. It’s like an Indian pizza and is a great way to energize yourself for the day!
It was so good that I got another serving! Each serving was 60 rupees, which is less than $1 U.S.
Afterward, we headed for the canyon on the way to Mawlynnong. It cost 10 rupees/$0.14 U.S. per person to visit the viewpoint. It felt like I was high in the mountains, like I was in the Himalayas! The view of the valley and surrounding mountains was incredible.
We drove along some winding roads along the canyon, through the greenery of the hills. Deep within the canyon are towns, but it can take several hours of driving to get to them because the roads wind through the mountains so much. I wanted to visit a place along the main road that’s easier to get to.
We arrived in the village of Pynursla, which has a weekly market. The area past the village is a lot flatter than the mountainous road near the canyon. The elevation is lower and it’s also warmer! We made a quick stop on a rusty old British bridge above a trickle of a river that would be much higher during the rainy season.
The dry area we drove through reminded me of the tight, winding road leading up to Jiagarh Fort in Jaipur. The area also felt more tropical. After well over 2 hours of driving, we finally arrived at Mawlynnong, the cleanest village in Asia!
To enter the village, you must pay 50 rupees. It looked extremely clean, especially when compared to other places in India. The locals pride themselves on keeping the village clean. We crossed an unstable and slippery bamboo bridge in order get to it.
Across it, there’s a bridge. There’s no litter or trash on the ground at all! We saw All Saint’s Church, which was built in 1902 and is a mix of European and Meghalaya architecture. We also saw jackfruit, mostly unripened berries. I picked a few ripe ones.
At the homestay, I saw a huge marijuana plant and as I explored, I saw locals cleaning up any debris on the concrete path. Not many people live here. It’s beautiful and feels like the Caribbean or Central America.
Then we arrived at the market, where they have a mix of local goods and others from elsewhere, including scarves, bamboo hats, and more. I didn’t see anything I wanted to spend on, so we continued to a lookout point where we could see Bangladesh from.
After a bit of a hike (and 20 rupees per person), we walked the narrow bamboo ramp to the top. There was a haze over the flatlands of Bangladesh. From there, drove 40 minutes to see the balancing rock, a massive boulder that balances on a pillar. It was really cool!
I hope you enjoyed coming with me for our Meghalaya-style paratha breakfast and our day trip to the cleanest village in Asia! If you did, please give this video a thumbs up, leave me a comment, and subscribe to my channel!
Mango pickle? Oh wow. Take it off like that. I actually love mango pickle. I had it a few times in India.
Mmm. Nice and hot.
Good morning everyone. I hope you're all doing well.
This is David Hoffman from David's Bin here in Meghalaya, India.
Northeast India. I'm here with my friend Paul.
And today we're headed to the cleanest village in Asia.
It's about a two hour drive south from Shillong.
And on the way we go on like a skyway.
And you see a huge canyon. I mean it's gorgeous.
But before we go to the village, we're going to stop here.
What's this place called?
It's called Ringan.
So we're going to have a local paratha.
Aloo paratha.
Right.
Yeah.
It's not even a village. It's like three restaurants.
Yeah. Just three restaurants.
There's a viewpoint actually out here.
Viewpoint. Yeah. So there's a view there?
Yeah. There's a view just to the right.
Awesome. Awesome.
Okay. I'm starving. Let's go eat.
Alright.
You have a lot of aloo paratha.
You have plain paratha.
You have butter paratha.
Aloo paratha. Onion.
Oh my God.
You have a lot.
So what can we get?
I'm going with the aloo paratha.
Okay.
Is it small? How small is it?
No. I think it's about...
Yeah.
Okay. I'll get one.
Yeah. We'll get one first.
It looks good. And they have a lot of other things.
They have Chinese dishes too?
I told you.
A lot of Chinese dishes.
A lot of Chinese.
Shillong is filled with Chinese, you know?
I don't need sugar.
Alright. Go ahead.
Mmm.
Oh, it's perfect.
Red tea.
It's always minty, right? The red tea?
No. There's no mint actually.
But it has like a minty taste to it.
Yeah. Like a minty taste to it.
The only problem is no caffeine in this.
Yeah. No caffeine.
Like no caffeine.
But it's good.
It's like this is red tea.
This is what they have up here in Meghalaya.
The other tea, the other chai is like the one with milk.
That's the more Indian style version.
This is what they drink up here every day.
And here we have it.
Aloo paratha.
And this paratha is a little different.
It actually feels more like they fried it, right?
Like it looks a little more fried.
Mmm.
Is it? So it is.
I thought it was potatoes here.
Alright. So that's potato filling as well.
Oh, this looks great.
So what you do is you do that, right?
Super nice filling.
The dough.
This time I'm going to drizzle it in here.
Mmm.
You like it?
Yeah. I love it.
So this is sabji.
Potatoes and chickpeas.
Look at that. Just drench the paratha in there.
Like really let it soak it all up, right?
Mmm.
Nice light.
It's almost like a light curry.
This time what I'm going to do is I'm going to get some of the chickpeas.
Put it on top.
Right there.
Put it up.
Wow.
Mmm.
I'm going to drink the sabji.
Mmm.
Try this pickle.
Mmm.
Yeah, try the pickle.
The pickle too?
Yeah. You'll love it.
Mango pickle?
Yeah.
Oh, wow.
Pick it up like that.
I actually love mango pickle.
I had it a few times in India.
Mmm.
Nice and hot.
Yeah.
Not spicy but very good.
Best thing to do is just keep going into the sabji.
Sabji like that.
Mmm.
I just love chickpeas.
And the bread, the way they make this flatbread.
Yeah.
The paratha.
Yeah, the paratha.
So go in here.
Get as much as possible.
Right.
Let it soak it all up, right?
Like that.
Put it all in there.
Right there.
Oh, wow.
Growing my fan base here.
You guys want?
I got an extra one.
No.
I didn't think it was going to be that much.
It's aloo paratha.
Mmm.
Sometimes they give you small amounts of paratha.
This one they gave us a lot.
And they cut it into like pizza shapes.
Oh, so good.
So good.
Mixing it with the pickle.
Yeah.
I mean, it looks like an Indian pizza.
And the inside, you open it up here.
You have like the aloo, which is the potatoes, right?
You can barely see it there.
But it's there.
It's like a mash.
Yeah.
Take one, man.
Take one.
Mmm.
It's just such a great breakfast, no?
Eating this.
Gives you all the energy you need for the day.
Mmm.
Wow.
Look at that pickle right there.
Grab all this.
So, one serving wasn't enough for me.
Oh, man.
And each one of these was 60 rupees.
So, under a dollar.
Incredible.
Thank you.
So, here in Ringan, we have our one view.
I mean, one view stop.
Where you can watch the entire canyon drops.
A lot of canyon drops, you know?
Oh, yeah?
Yeah, yeah.
You can see a village called Wakhan actually from here.
Very small village.
Let's go see the viewpoint.
It costs 10 rupees per person and 5 rupees for kids.
Wow, dude.
Yeah.
It's super high up.
This feels like I'm somewhere in the Himalayas, right?
Yeah.
Like up in the mountains.
Incredible views.
Wow, wow, wow.
The landscape is just ridiculous.
This changed the entire thing, right?
Yeah, it's a village called Wakhan.
Right over there.
And travel right over there.
How long did it take to get to Wakhan?
It takes an hour.
An hour hiking?
No.
Driving an hour?
Yeah.
Oh, my God.
You have to go through all this?
Oh, man.
That's too much.
Such a delicious paratha breakfast.
I stuffed myself.
I had a lot of paratha.
Had two big portions.
Oh, man.
The sabji.
Sabji is so good.
Let's go.
So right now, we're moving through this road.
This very narrow road.
This is called Ringan.
And we're moving to a very small town called Punusla.
And from there, we're moving to Maulunong, the cleanest village.
Well, I mean, it's basically like just winding roads along this mountain that keeps going down and down and down and down.
But as you see, I mean, to the right, you have this huge canyon.
It's like never-ending hills over there.
Very green.
Lots of small like huts, you know, people living here.
There's a few villages down there.
Not so many, though.
I mean, it would take you forever to get there.
He was saying that some of these towns, it takes like a day of hiking just to reach them.
I mean, if you want to go visit unexplored, my God, you can do that.
But I'm sticking to the place I can get to on the main road.
And yeah, I mean, this is only a fraction.
What I'm doing on this trip is only a fraction of what you can do in this state.
But the state is so big in terms of like a mountainous region that everything takes time.
So, if you want to go to the far end of the state, it takes you 5, 6, 7 hours to get there.
And then if you want to go down, you know, some dirt road, then it takes even longer.
So, we are right now at Punosla, a village, okay?
So, they have a market out here that is once in a week.
The market out here comes out only once in a week.
Either it's Monday and they skip another day.
Then it comes on next week and Tuesday.
So, this is the market that comes out of here.
So, Paul was telling me that here in Meghalaya, each village or each area has like a day for each village, right?
For the market. So, it's not every day.
They'll have it like on a certain day and then everybody around in other villages come to sell their produce in that village.
This area actually does a lot of farming like broom and betel nut and the wild pepper.
The area we've entered now is a lot flatter than the mountains from before.
You can see lots of green brush, there's cows.
It just keeps going lower and lower and lower.
And the temperature just keeps getting hotter and hotter and hotter.
Man, so it's going to be really hot once we get to the cleanest village.
How much longer to Mangalore?
40 more.
What?
40 more minutes on this road?
Damn, dude. I didn't know that.
I thought it was only a 2-hour drive from Shillong.
It's like way longer.
2 hours and 30 minutes at least.
David, you can get that smell, that pungent smell right now.
That is because of these betel nuts that are soaking in this stuff, you know.
So that they, I mean, they'll ripen out.
Because when they pluck it from the tree, it's still green.
And so they have to soak it in these tanks for about a year.
That's all good, but I hate betel nut.
I didn't like it at all.
It has a weird taste to it.
We're reaching one first bridge before we enter the village, Molin.
Before we continue, I wanted to show you the bridge and the river.
As you can see, right now the river is very, very low.
And that's because it's dry season, right?
Yeah, it's dry season.
How high does it really get?
You can see the rock, right? It covers the entire rock.
The entire rock?
The entire rock it covers.
And this bridge is very old.
Yeah, very old.
Yeah, it's like super rusty.
I'm like nervous to be on it.
Okay, let's go, let's go.
I feel like I caught a cold, man.
My throat.
This area is extremely dry.
All the trees are like dead.
And it reminds me of Jaipur.
Going up to the castle in Jaipur.
I forgot the castle's name.
Yagar Castle in Jaipur.
It's just the same type of road.
Super thin, one car road.
You can only fit one car.
I'm trying to fit two cars here.
How's it going to pass?
Yeah, I have it super tight.
But yeah, I mean, lots of rocks.
Different types of trees out here too.
I haven't seen these trees.
It feels way more tropical.
It feels more like Bangladesh, I guess.
Very, very similar.
Yeah, this is still more hilly.
Because Bangladesh is way flatter.
So, we have arrived at Mawlanong Village, guys.
And this is the stretch that we are entering to this village.
Very clean. It's going to be super clean.
To enter the village of Mawlanong, it costs 50 rupees.
And as you can see, it looks extremely clean.
Comparing it to other places in India, this looks like I can eat off the floor.
Yeah, basically.
It's ridiculously clean. Wow.
Mawlanong is such a thing that it becomes the cleanest village.
It's because people out here take the initiative of cleaning it.
You know, they're doing it all by themselves.
The government is doing nothing much.
A lot of credit for keeping this place clean.
And right now, to get into the village, we have to cross on a bamboo bridge.
Dude, that's cool.
I've never seen that.
Okay, it's my turn to cross this bridge.
Dude.
Oh my god, that's not even stable.
This is not stable at all.
Slip.
Okay.
I made you climb the most dangerous bridge right now.
Careful, careful, careful.
It's super slippery.
And over there, it didn't have that many bamboos.
I mean, there's a lot of holes.
They're still constructing it.
Why did we come this way?
I know, I know.
We did it for the camera.
Oh my god.
Whoa, it rocks.
Okay, this is a lot easier.
The other side was very steep.
Oh, it's still super slippery.
I got it, dude, I got it, I got it.
It's a living bridge.
I hope they complete that soon.
Because that's very dangerous.
So we have a church, which is the oldest church out here in Maulanong.
So as you can see, this place is super clean.
I guess you're watching every step of it.
Yeah, I mean, there's not one thing on the floor.
Like nothing, no trash.
Ah, I see one.
I mean, you can't get it all, right?
Yeah, you can't get it all.
But no one comes here except like tourists or what?
Yeah, tourists.
Just tourists?
Tourist people.
Wow, it is really hot here.
Really hot.
I put sunscreen on today.
Thank God I brought a lot of water.
All Saints.
Yeah, it's All Saints.
All Saints Cathedral.
All Saints?
Yeah, All Saints.
Okay, so that's All Saints Church?
It's European, but at the same time mixed with Indian in a way.
Like the style.
Well, not Indian.
Not my favorite.
A little too sour for me.
We'll leave it right here.
David, you can see the jackfruit out here.
Look, there's a number, plenty of it.
Is jackfruit durian?
It's not durian, but it has the texture of a durian.
I mean, it looks like durian.
Yeah, it looks like durian, but it doesn't smell like durian.
But the texture is similar to durian.
I mean, it is clean.
This is blueberry, blackberry.
It's mulberry.
Kind of like, similar to a mulberry fruit.
But it's still not ripened.
Yeah, nothing looks ripened.
You can try that.
Oh, this one, yeah.
Yeah, this one over here.
Mmm.
Pretty good. Is that sour?
A little bit sour, I told you.
It is like a blackberry.
Mmm.
This one's great.
Mmm.
Is it blackberry?
Doesn't taste like blackberry.
This one I can pick, right?
Yeah, yeah, you can pick that.
That one's good.
Try that one.
This one right here?
Mmm, super sweet.
Mmm.
If I had this in my yard, I'd eat this all day.
Mmm.
We're walking through a path in the village.
Yeah.
And these are a lot of the houses, right?
Yeah, the homestays.
And this one has a big marijuana tree.
Wow.
Is this marijuana? Yeah, this is marijuana.
Oh, it reeks like weed.
But there's no buds.
There's no buds.
It hasn't come out yet.
It hasn't come out.
They call this the cleanest village for a reason, as you see.
They clean up everything.
It doesn't have to be trash.
It could be trees, shrubs, anything that's on the path
or around the houses, they clean it up.
And yeah, great job, guys.
Good job.
I mean, they weren't lying when they said
it was the cleanest village, right?
I mean, this place is beautiful.
And it feels like I'm in the Caribbean
or Central America right now
because it's so tropical.
What do we have here? Grapefruit.
Man, can I have some?
Hey, how are you?
They've really done a great job here.
I love these huge boulders, these rocks.
Yeah, the rocks.
The rocks are awesome.
It's so nice.
How many people live in this village?
Very little, right?
Yeah, very little.
100 plus probably.
Yeah, 100 because it's tiny.
Nice path.
I mean, everybody's cleaning it up.
It's amazing.
It's like a huge spider.
Yeah, that's a huge spider.
They fry it.
I mean, I'd be down to eat it,
but damn, that's a big spider.
That's easily as big as my hand.
We're about to get to the market.
Tiny market, no?
Yeah, very tiny market.
What do they have here? Souvenirs and stuff?
Souvenirs and stuff, no.
But souvenirs that are local stuff, right?
They're mixed.
So what do they have that's local?
Yeah.
Let's see, let's see.
So you have your muffler, right?
My muffler? You mean the scarf?
Yeah, the scarf.
And what's local?
This is like Naga.
This one's grinding.
Oh, they're grinding the pounder?
The pistol and the pounder.
Yeah, it's cool, but I don't need this.
These hats are made locally from here.
They're made of bamboo.
Wow, super nice.
$2.50.
$2.50? I mean, I don't need it though, but it's cool.
It's a cool cap.
So the souvenir shops have a lot of stuff,
but nothing from here.
The only thing they have for me
was a bamboo basket and a bamboo tray,
but I personally don't think I need to take that,
and I don't want to just spend to spend either.
Yeah, I get it.
And I already got the scarf, got my wife a scarf.
It wasn't something like,
really I wanted something like a mask made out of bamboo
or something cool like that.
Something I can have like as a memory
and then keep it forever, you know?
We're going sky viewpoint.
We can see Bangladesh from here?
Yeah, we can see Bangladesh from here.
Yeah, we can see Bangladesh.
Actually, we have to climb this bridge
made out of bamboo, you know?
All the way up.
A little bit of a hike, a little bit.
Not so bad.
After doing it double like a bridge,
this is all easy.
The only problem with this bamboo,
I guess this is not a bridge,
this is like a staircase, but not really.
It's more like a bridge.
Yeah, more like a bridge.
And it's super slippery.
No, it's not slippery.
It was slippery earlier.
That is still a new bamboo.
Yeah.
Okay.
Hey, no problem, no problem.
It's two ways, but it fits one person.
Oh my God.
All right, let's do it.
All the way up.
Here we are, here we are.
We made it.
And there's Bangladesh right there.
Top of Bangladesh.
I mean, Bangladesh is there,
but there's a huge fog over it right now.
So you can't see.
It's more like a haze, like a really deep haze.
I mean, you could see it,
because all the flat land over there,
that's all Bangladesh, right?
Yeah, that's all Bangladesh.
I guess we came up here for that.
Yeah, that's it.
All right, let's go downstairs.
All right.
I almost killed myself there.
Guys, can we have some fruit somewhere?
Is it possible?
Let's go, let's go.
Pineapple time.
Thanks.
So the pineapple isn't here.
We have to go back to the main road.
It's about a 40-minute drive.
Once we get there,
we'll have some pineapple or anything.
Some of the best pineapple in Meghalaya.
Got a little wind going up there, huh?
It's the sun.
So we're in another place
where there's the balancing rock, actually.
You can see it out here.
A balancing rock?
Yeah, a balancing rock.
Actually, it has a very small tip
where this boulder sits on it, you know?
Okay, so something like they have in Norway.
Maybe, I have not seen it.
And it costs 10 per person?
Yeah, 10 per person.
It costs for everything here.
Yeah, it does.
At first, I was a little iffy
on what you were talking about,
but this is super cool.
It's super cool, right?
It's massive and it's balancing
on this tiny little thing.
Oh, guys.
Unfortunately, the pineapple is all done.
All done.
Oh, it's okay.
Well, we had an amazing Paratha Indian breakfast
along the road on the way here
to the cleanest village in Asia.
The cleanest village is really amazing.
I mean, you see them cleaning up
every speck of anything.
Dust, a branch of a tree,
everything that hits the floor gets cleaned up.
They move it off the path
and away from the houses
but, yeah, I mean,
it's something you have to do
when you come out to Shillong.
It's only like a two-hour drive down here
and then, yeah, I mean,
just a great place to visit.
You should definitely add it to your list
when you come down here.
It really is a special place
and if you want to buy some souvenirs,
definitely do that.
You can try some fruits.
And, guys, if you love this video,
please give me a thumbs up.
Leave me a comment below.
