mtsuki’s blog

while in shillong, i stayed in a fairly expensive hotel called the Micasa.it was tourist season in shillong, so a place could not be found in any other hotel. however, if i had the choice to visit again, i’d definitely not go there. it is amazing how friendly shillong is. the people really cooperate with each other, despite it being a very urban area. they are disciplined as well, as it is an army run area. speaking of the army, a must visit in shillong is the army museum. it is a small, but very interesting exhibition of the history of the army. however, the most interesting exhibit, in my opinion is, however not at all related to the army. it is a skin of a giant python which was found by the officers on the runway in shillong. before it could be killed, it had already swallowed a giant deer whole. the skin of the deer is also displayed. the mere sight of the skin gave me the creeps! for a month after the visit, i never went to a open field alone without first checking for snakes of all varieties. i was so afraid.

shillong is an amazing place to visit in the autumn season. the things displayed here are just the tip of the iceberg. it has natural scenic beauty, as well as urban comforts.

anyone planning to go?

[visitors are requested to start with Shillong 1.]

when i arrived in shillong, it was just after indian idol’s latest season. prasant tamang of darjeeling had won and amit paul had unfortunately been a close second. in his hometown shillong though, amit was a hero. shillong was overflowing with amit’s poster’s; some old indian idol posters and some from the concert he was to have the day later. i’ve already talked about the street food in the police bazaar, in fact the only things which were more in demand than the food were his pirated albums, which were being sold every few feet along the sidewalk. along with all the other tourist attractions like the army museum, the viewpoint, the lake, our driver made it a point to show us the hotel where amit was to stay, his house, his father’s hardware shop as well as give us a brief history of the life of amit paul and why he should have won indian idol and didn’t. for a tourist like me it was nothing more than amusing, but for our driver it was serious business. i rather enjoyed their devotion to him.

our driver made a casual remark about priety zinta being present in the city, but it was evidently of far less importance than amit paul……!!!

to be continued…..

it’s been a long time since my last post so those who actually read it, i’m sorry.

today i am going to talk about a hill station i went on vacation to some time ago. it is popular, so i’m sure a lot of you have visited it at least once. that’s right……..SHILLONG.

shillong has all the features which make it a good holiday resort.  bargain shopping, sites of interest and above all a breathtaking view. but i, being a foodie, am not going to talk about it like a travelouge. i’ll instead speak about the feature of it which interested me most,it’s street food.

they say that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. well if that is the case then shillong is a heartbreaker. the main part of shillong city is the police bazaar, the thoroughly metropolitan heart of the city. here you’ll find restaurants boasting of all types of indian cusine. punjabi, south indian, indo-chinese, you name it. but for a lazy tourist like me, nothing beats the hawker sold  fried pakoras and others found on the roadside. in the evening, you can get it piping hot, cruchy giant bellpeppers, steaming potato fries, brinjals, tomatoes and a host of other veggies tasting like no home cooked veggies ever does.  the moutain air and walking uphill works up an appetite, so it is very pleasant to do the nighttime sightseeing with a hot spicy pepper in one hand and bags full of shopping in another . If one is tired, they can always pop in a restaurant and sample the local cuisine. the specialty is a sort of pork stew, but  for vegetarians,their veggie fare is equally good.

to be continued….