Lost and Found: Christmas in the Abode of the Clouds

I was going through all my blog entries today because (1) I'm bored and (2) I wanted to see what I forgot to write about. Well, I found a lost post! Apparently I wrote an entire blog post about Christmas in Shillong with Ben and Joel but forgot to click "Publish Post." So, I'm clicking "Publish Post":

As part of our Northeast adventure, Ben, Joel, and I went to Meghalaya, which means "Abode of the Clouds." We went to Shillong and Cherrapunjee, called Sohra in Khasi. Cherrapunjee is where we went hiking to the living root bridges (see my previous post about this incredible hike).

Getting to Shillong, which Ben and Joel affectionately called "shlong," took longer than anticipated. Our flight from Delhi to Guwahati, the biggest city in Assam and the gateway to Northeast India, was delayed two hours. Then our shared sumo (jeep--called sumo after the original Tata Sumo; kind of like how we might call tissues "kleenex" or in-line skates "rollerblades") took 5.5 hours instead of 3 hours to get to Shillong. This delay was caused by a "खराब गाड़ी"/"kharaab gari," or broken-down car, that had blocked the highway. By the time we reached Shillong, it was pretty late at night and we had missed the Christmas Eve celebrations, which are supposed to be awesome (and which were the reason we were going to Shillong at this time in the first place).

Police Bazaar, the commercial center of Shillong, is lit up for Christmas.

The next day, because it was Christmas and Meghalaya is a Christian state, everything was closed. Actually, Shillong is supposed to have amazing Christmas celebrations--everyone told me it's the best place to be in India for Christmas--but this year due to the economic crisis the Christmas Day celebrations were cancelled. Unfortunately, I was unaware of this. So we didn't have that much to do. We decided to check out the view from Shillong Peak, but it was totally cloudy and we couldn't see anything. Well, I suppose this is the clouds' abode, so perhaps we should have expected that.

This sign at Shillong Peak says "Don't urinate around the place." But it says nothing about pooping.

We went to a Khasi market called Iew Duh. Most of the stalls were closed for Christmas, but there were still some people selling live chickens. Hens cost Rs 100-200 (US$2-4), but roosters could cost up to Rs 400 (US$8). I'm fairly certain these chickens were meant for eating, not egg-producing.

A Khasi woman shows us a delicious rooster. Those baskets are holding live chickens.

There you have it, my lost post. At some point I should probably write about the Khasis' killer Michael Jackson moves. After all, Shillong is the rock capital of India. (Though they actually performed their MJ dances to traditional Khasi folk music, and this was in Cherrapunjee, not Shillong.) Or better yet, I should post the video. Stay tuned.