Ashish KumarMeghalya is a doorway to heaven with swirls of cloud passing beneath you amidst the green and vast landscapes. On our trip to Meghalya we learnt and discovered various fact about their culture and tradition , one being importance to Cleanness. Most travel enthusiasts would have heard of our next destination as Asia cleanest Village – Mawlynnong and later on Riwai.
It will come as a surprise to all Indians that Mawlynnong was given the honour of “The Cleanest Village in Asia” by the travel magazine ‘Discover India’ magazine in 2003.
I along with my friend Vivek mittal made our way to next destination in Meghalya Asia cleanest Village – Mawlynnong After completing the Double Root Living Bridge trek . We started our trip around 2 p.m. from Tynra village . Due to heavy rain in Cherrapunji there was fog all round and swirls of cloud was passing beneath. Visibility on the road was so low that our cab drive Ratan was driving observing the back light of car moving ahead of us almost at speed of 20 km /hr. On the way we stopped to had our lunch.
Later we driven through a scenic road with tall Broom grass lining the smooth tarred road on your way to Mawlynnong, 75 km from Cherrapunji in Meghalaya.
A meandering path through trees and flowery bushes brought us to a pretty house with a sloping roof. The house nestles among more flowers. Whichever way we looked, there were flowers smiling. Those were the prettiest house we had ever seen – not in the hills or a suburb of a metro but in a village in one of the remotest parts of India bordering Bangladesh.
Around 7 p.m. we reached Mawlynnong ” Gods own Garden”. At first we start looking for stay over .The village has several homestays. The houses in Mawlynnong were very interesting . They were more of Khasi style bamboo house .Due to heavy rainfall in monsoon all the houses were design in such a way.
The veranda of house were filled with grass,colorful flowering plant and orchids.The house owner had an obligation to keep the surrounding pavement clean and well maintained and hence everything in spic and span.
Early morning we observe …Yes, the village was squeaky clean – the cleanest and the most beautiful village we had ever been to. The greenery was everywhere, flowers glow in the sun and a gentle refreshing breeze tiptoes through the village lanes.
Mawlynnong had a big central area from where narrow mandering walkways emerges in all directions.The paved walkways around this central area were extremely clean and lined by shrubs and tree.
We notice there were bamboo conical basket cases, locally called khoh, that were supposed to be trash bins. There is no litter to be seen anywhere; there are no polythene bags or chip packets flying around.
The most ususaul and remarkable thing that the village construct out of bamboo was sky walk or sky view point.We climbed the sky walk and enjoy the spectacular view of the plains of neighboring country , Bangladesh at nomial fees.
The village along with being the cleanest is definitely the floweriest village in India. As in a trance, we walk through the lanes in complete joy and awe. Flowers, ornamental shrubs and tall areca nut palms line the alleys covering every inch of the landscape. The feeling was almost similar to when you walked through the flowery canvas.
Mawlynnong big central area had small market where one can shop hand made many artistic souvenirs , pickles and clothes etc.Various tree and house constructed of bamboo were found on the roads,where one can climb and view the entire village and the football ground .
Village of India are always a fascinating experience and finally we made it to the much famed cleanest village in Asia -Mawlynnong . We explore the hinter land ,talks to locals and understand their lifestyle.
The biggest surprise was two kilometres away in the village of Riwai. Here you actually get to walk on a Living Root Bridge
Riwai is the neighboring village of Mawlynnong is famous for its living root bridges. Rubber trees are planted on both the side of the river and thier root are guided tied together as they grow and become sturdy to be used as bridge to cross the river which was truly fascanting .
Lastly after some snack at Mawlynnong we set off another beautiful destination of our trip ” Dawki “.