The idea of the Seven Sisters (and a brother) of India is quite intriguing; and planning to visit it is even more fascinating. But owing to the numerous picturesque and enchanting places one can explore there, it can get quite overwhelming to plan for a trip.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step
Lao Tzu
And for me that beginning step is planning. With the upcoming long weekend at hand (after 2 months), we, a group of 8 people hailing from Mumbai, were thinking of a place to go for a nice vacation. When we discussed about possible destinations, we realized that no one among us had ever visited northeast India; so we decided to go there. Although we did dabble around thoughts of visiting the Andaman or Lakshadweep islands, but considering the high cost and less places they offered to cover, we crossed those off for a potential future trip.
Planning leaves
Considering that this would not be the only trip we would go for in the year, we had to plan our leaves such that we could get maximum vacation days with minimum vacation leaves applied. And what better way to achieve that, than to exploit long weekends. 2024 was a great year for long weekends – in late March and early April. We chose the April one as highlighted below –
Although, initially we had only planned to take two leaves and get a five day vacation (5th to 9th), it was later in the trip planning that we came to know that 11th was also declared a holiday for Mumbai. Hence, we planned to apply for two more leaves and stretch the trip for a good 10 days. If anyone is wondering how long ago we started planning for it – this was somewhere in late January.
With ample of days in hand, we now had to decide which spots to cover…
Deciding the route
Living in an era where ChatGPT is trending, of course, we bombarded it with questions of places to cover and itineraries to follow. We also checked on Quora for suggestions and while they were good, we wanted to be more adventurous and decided to custom plan the itinerary.
Initially, we made a list of all the possible places we could visit in Meghalaya, but that could only make up for six days of the trip. After seeing a few more Youtube videos, we stumbled across Tawang – a mesmerizing town in Arunachal Pradesh – close to the Indo China border. A place where we could get the experience of snow because there is 81% chance of rain or snow on an average April day.
Earlier we were planning to visit Meghalaya first then go towards Tawang, but considering that we were going to go for a trek in Meghalaya, we thought we would be too exhausted by the time we reach Tawang and would not enjoy it to the fullest. So with the excitement of snow in mind we reversed the plan.
We took some six to seven days to research all this and once we were sure on the days needed for our trip, we decided to book our tickets.
Booking the flights
After all the research we were very clear that the entry point to the Seven Sisters of India is Guwahati. From there we could either go to Arunachal Pradesh first, return back to Guwahati and continue to Meghalaya or vice versa. Hence, we booked our tickets on 3rd February, exactly 2 months prior to the day of the journey.
We were also hoping to avail the helicopter service from Guwahati to Tawang which takes around two hours and costs around INR 4,000, instead of the tedious 12-14 hour road journey. But on contacting the aviation helpline numbers we came to know that availability is known only a week prior and the service might get cancelled in case of bad weather. Also the helicopter service is operational from Guwahati Airport to Tawang on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and with limited number of seats (we were told 5 seats).
Helicopter booking numbers:
Tawang to Guwahati – 9402221775
Guwahati to Tawang – 9085738939
Preparing the itinerary
Considering that we would avail the helicopter service, we prepared the itinerary such that we could enjoy the road trip while going towards Tawang, and take the helicopter ride while returning back. In this way we could get acclimatized with the high altitude and also enjoy the beautiful towns of Shergaon, Rupa, Bomdila and Dirang; and save time during the return trip from there.
We decided to reserve 4 days for Arunachal Pradesh side by covering places like Bhutan Border, Sela Pass and lake, Jung waterfalls while travelling towards Tawang; spend a day at Tawang and visit Bumla Pass and Madhuri lake and return back to Guwahati the next day early morning. We also hoped we could visit Maa Kamakhya Temple while we were in Guwahati, preferably at the start of the trip.
The remaining five days we allocated to Meghalaya and planned to visit the lakes of Shillong while going towards Dawki for camping. We fancied that we could opt for watersports in the Dawki river and then explore Mawlynnong – the cleanest village in Asia – en route to Cherrapunji. The next two days were kept for trekking – one for Double Decker bridge and the other for Bamboo trek or Laitlum canyons. We decided to explore the Mawsmai caves and Seven Sister Waterfalls on our way back to Guwahati on the last day of the trip.
Deciding on the mode of transport
While deciding on the mode of transport, we initially thought of renting bikes, along with a car that would carry our luggage. Universaladventures provides such service, but since most of us did not have experience in riding, it would get hectic for us. So we thought about renting a travellers. We came across FuFu Gadi; although we thought the name was quite unique, it is very famous in Guwahati. We also checked other options like Northeast Voyagers who offered experienced personal chauffeurs. FuFu Gadi had offering of the 10-seater Force Urbania, so we decided on that for Meghalaya side.
As for the Arunachal Pradesh region, we explored around tour guides like Chalo Hoppo – which we found was expensive, and finally stumbled across Tawangtours. Agnik from Tawangtours was very welcoming when we spoke with him on call, he offered us some great suggestions that would fit in our custom plan. He also said that we could visit Maa Kamakhya Temple and get VIP passes there if we wanted, since it is otherwise very crowded.
But as I mentioned earlier, things do not always go according to the plan…
Final Itinerary – Plan B
With the unsure conditions of the helicopter bookings owing to the weather dependency and availability of seats, on 18th February, we decided we would rather go by road both ways in the Arunachal Pradesh section. Also, with three of our tripmates dropping out of the plan, we had to reconsider booking the 10-seater vehicle for the Meghalaya section.
After discussing with Agnik, he agreed to provide us with a 6-seater Innova Crysta for our entire trip, and also suggested that since the number of members have decreased he will provide us a revised reduced price package suitable for five people. He said he would get our ILP permits ready a week before the trip. Ultimately we booked with Tawangtours and finalized the below itinerary –
With the itinerary all set, we looked forward excitedly for the upcoming trip… 🙂