My 2nd visit to North Eastern part of India.I have split this trip based on the locations I have visited.
This post is from Day 1 and 2 which I spent in Shillong the capital of Meghalaya. Reached Shillong by air. First flight was at around 4 in the morning to Kolkata and the connecting flight to Shillong. I reached Shillong by noon. Shillong airport is located ardun 12 kms from Shillong and there is no public transport facility to Shillong. One has to take local taxis available. they charge aound 300 to 500 rs to reach Shillong depending on demand.
I checked in at Hotel Elgin, which is located in the same campus as the "Meghalaya Transport Corportation". This a reasonable accommodation for which they charged 900 per day for 2 people. I wont suggest this place if you are traveling with family and are very particular about Hygiene. Following is the link to the location of the building in Google Maps. This hotel is located on top floor.
My first impression about the city is, its very crowded unlike any other places I have visited in North east but only better and less crowded compared to Darjeeling.
After having lunch in nearby food outlet, I went out to explore near by Botanical Garden. I could not spot birds other than few Sparrows and bird calls of Sunbirds and Flower peckers from tree tops.
My friend reached Shillong the same night, he travelled from Vadodara. He took a filght from Baroda to Delhi and then to Guwahati via train. From Guwahati he took a local taxi to reach Shillong.
Next morning we started early at 5:30 PM to our surprise the hotel caretaker has the gates closed and said that the gates are closed at 11:30pm to 6am. We someone managed to convence the caretaker and got out of the hotel.
We planned to start birding from the green patch located opposite to the football ground(marked in the map)
This post is from Day 1 and 2 which I spent in Shillong the capital of Meghalaya. Reached Shillong by air. First flight was at around 4 in the morning to Kolkata and the connecting flight to Shillong. I reached Shillong by noon. Shillong airport is located ardun 12 kms from Shillong and there is no public transport facility to Shillong. One has to take local taxis available. they charge aound 300 to 500 rs to reach Shillong depending on demand.
I checked in at Hotel Elgin, which is located in the same campus as the "Meghalaya Transport Corportation". This a reasonable accommodation for which they charged 900 per day for 2 people. I wont suggest this place if you are traveling with family and are very particular about Hygiene. Following is the link to the location of the building in Google Maps. This hotel is located on top floor.
My first impression about the city is, its very crowded unlike any other places I have visited in North east but only better and less crowded compared to Darjeeling.
After having lunch in nearby food outlet, I went out to explore near by Botanical Garden. I could not spot birds other than few Sparrows and bird calls of Sunbirds and Flower peckers from tree tops.
My friend reached Shillong the same night, he travelled from Vadodara. He took a filght from Baroda to Delhi and then to Guwahati via train. From Guwahati he took a local taxi to reach Shillong.
Next morning we started early at 5:30 PM to our surprise the hotel caretaker has the gates closed and said that the gates are closed at 11:30pm to 6am. We someone managed to convence the caretaker and got out of the hotel.
We planned to start birding from the green patch located opposite to the football ground(marked in the map)
This outing was very disappointing, we hardly got to spot 3 to 4 species that too from a distance which resulted in poor shots.
Verditer flycatcher
Scarlet Minivet
An un identified Warbler
Since birds were not in sight I ended up with some random shots
Following image is shot with Xperia Z5 Premium and post processed on Photoshop Express
While heading back to hotel from the morning session we decided to cut short our stay as Shillong. We did think of visiting other places but were not very confident about spotting birds based on the morning session. So we checked out and left for Guwahati. We decided to visit Mishmi hills.
