Exploring the Living Root Bridge – Meghalaya
In my childhood days when reading siruvarmalar, I came across the Living Root Bridge photo and a girl who was telling how the bridge was interconnected with their daily life. Somehow that bridge got registered in my mind as a mystical place in dense forest. So I had it in my travel bucket list. When I told Vinod that I would love to visit Living Root Bridge in Meghalaya, he was surprised that I wished to go to a tourist place. Vinod was a bit hesitant as the travel was hectic to reach the Nongriat Village where we can see the living root bridge and whether its worth all the trouble.
This Longest Single Decker Living Root Bridge is in Nongriat Village,Meghalaya. The 30 meters long bridge was handmade by the tribes of East Khasi Hills using the pliable roots of Ficus elastica.
Then he found out that the enroute to the Living Root Bridge is rainforest and an excellent spot for butterfly, so he was also eager to visit the bridge.We reached Lower Sohra (Cherrapunji) which was a lovely little town. The colorful little houses, kids carrying testpads and running around, grasslands all made Lower Sohra just like a town in cartoon where nothing bad can happen. The Nongriat Village is 12kms from Lower Sohra and we started our early morning drive to Nongriat.
We went in the driest month still there were many flowers enroute, so we stopped frequently to see the flowers and sceneries. The roads were very narrow with cliffs on both ends.
The road to Nongriat Village looked like a trekking route with dense foliage on the roadsides. The 12km drive from Lower Sohra to Nongriat Village was very scenic.
We stopped to see the Sunrise and we heard constant humming sound from nearby plants. We couldn’t find the source of the sound but it was similar to the Coqui frog sound which we heard in Puerto Rico. There were many sign boards for the Living Root Bridge, so we reached the destination without confusion. Seeing the guides standing near the car parking , I was little upset that it was going to be just like another tourist attraction. We didn’t understand a word the guides were saying. Anyway, the route to the Living Root Bridge was pretty straight, so we didn’t want to hire a guide. People who don’t feel comfortable to walk alone can always hire a guide, which is also good for the local community.
Trekking Route for the Root Bridge
Once we started walking through the steps, all the commotions stopped. There was a petty shop selling fruits and juice, I bought Star fruit and Pineapple slices. Then we started climbing down.
Remember the lines from Kungfu Panda movie, “My Old Enemy – Stairs” , the same thought will come to everyone’s mind when they see these steps. But the scenery blew our mind, so we didn’t mind the steps at all.
After few steps, there were just trees on both sides and we heard the same humming sound which we heard in the morning. When we started searching for the source of the sound, vinod spotted the East-Himalayan Balanophora (Balanophora dioica) which is a root parasite plant and is not a commonly found plant, so we were pretty excited at our first sighting.
East-Himalayan Balanophora (Balanophora dioica) Colony looked stunning. These root parasites are very rare to see and we were so thrilled to see them.
We couldn’t spot the source of the humming sound which could have been a frog or a cicada. We continued the downhill walk. The steps were so steep and when I was thinking how tough its going to be when climbing up, I saw 3 young tourists climbing up with huge luggage. They were sweating and breathing heavily and asked us how long will it take to reach the road.
Vinod was enjoying the mountain view and was thrilled to see the unique vegetation. We went to the Living Root Bridge in the driest month but the mountains were still green. Just imagine how these mountains would look during the rainy season!!
At the same time two young girls in school uniform were casually climbing up to go to school. For the locals these walks are everyday routine. When climbing up I knew I was going to be like those three tourists. The view to the mountains was breathtaking but we had to keep our eyes on the step as the steps were very narrow.
The butterflies activities started in the morning and our first butterfly sighting was the Fluffy tit. The butterfly was glowing in the sunlight. Luckily,except for few locals and very few tourists the entire place was left for us. So the place was not like a tourist attraction, just a peaceful forest hike.
Fluffy Tit Butterfly was glowing in the sunlight. The long fluffy tail makes it easily recognizable. There were not many flowers but the butterflies were casually fluttering around.
We saw the sign board for Single Decker Living root bridge and took the diversion. There was a local guy sitting infront of his house and when we crossed, he asked us to pay for the ticket to the Single Decker Living Root Bridge. There were some inscriptions near the Bridge and they were written in local Khasi language using Latin scripts. We learnt later that the Khasi Language uses Bengali and Latin scripts which is a compulsory learning in their school.
We were surprised to see this inscription in the local Khasi language. But we were more surprised to learn that Khasi has been an official language in Meghalaya only since 2005.
Even in the dry season, the plants were lush with large green leaves near the Single Decker Living Root Bridge. The bridge was handmade by the local tribals Khasi and Jaintia using the aerial roots of rubber fig trees (Ficus elasica). The Bridge looked as I expected inside a dense jungle. Though there were villages nearby, it didn’t look that way as the locals didn’t disturb the environment they were living. There was no garbage in the water and the water was crystal clear. Adding to our excitement, there was not even a tourist in sight. So we enjoyed the peaceful surroundings and walked on the bridge to and fro.
Common Jester butterfly was casually sitting on the rocks. These butterflies make North East region of India more special for butterfly lovers.
We easily reached the Single Decker bridge, so we thought the Double Decker Living Root Bridge was in the next turn. There was a sign board for the bridge, but it turned out to be a long hanging bridge. The bridge looked very beautiful with the surroundings but it was very shaky. We were thrilled to walk on the bridge, but that was just not the specialty. The specialty was the blue water under the bridge. We have never seen crystal clear blue water in India.
We were really thrilled to see this glittering pure water with no garbage floating around. For some Diamonds are precious, for us its always pure water. So you can understand how thrilled we were!!
By this time, the butterflies were fully active and few were mud-puddling near the blue water. We stood there watching the sceneries until few tourists came and then the bridge started shaking a lot. So we quickly moved out of the bridge and then it was uphill climb. There were few houses and then we saw the sign board for the Double Decker Living Root Bridge.
Fees was again collected at the entrance of Double Decker Living Root Bridge and the girl in the counter repeatedly asked whether we had a Gopro. We didn’t have a clue why they had to keep separate ticket for Gopro. The Double Decker Living Root Bridge looked scenic but it was smaller than the Single Decker Living Root Bridge. Vinod got very excited on seeing big fishes in the beautiful waterpool. He went behind the fishes while I sat and admired the bridge,the trees and the clean waterpool.
There were places for stay nearby, so slowly tourists started coming in. I went to upper and lower deck of the living root bridge and experienced the touch and feel of the roots on the bridge. There were many colorful butterflies flying around, so vinod started running behind them. I ate few starfruits which were very sour and vinod ate his pineapples. Even though Double Decker Living Root Bridge was beautiful, we personally preferred the Single Decker Living Root Bridge.
All our photos are taken by us, so how we took this photo? Vinod as usual kept timer on the camera and ran to the Lower Deck, that was why we didn’t pose from the Upper Deck 🙂
When we were back in the hanging bridge, there were many uncommon butterflies sitting on the rails,rocks. Surprisingly, there were no bird activities. Even if it was a off-season, we should have seen atleast few common birds. We kept on wondering about the birds and were crossing the hanging bridge.
Common Maplet Butterfly was casually flying around but was not ready to sit on any plants. Vinod chased behind this butterfly for sometime to get this shot finally!
Few other tourists crossed us and asked us weakly, how long will it take to reach the Double Decker Bridge. We encouraged them that they got closer and we wondered why these youngsters got tired in the downhill walk itself!! We didn’t have any food from morning, but we didn’t feel hungry. So just stopped at a petty shop for a drink and then we had planned to walk in a stretch. I ordered Lemon Juice and waited expectantly for the cold juice. When I tasted the juice I got in the small cup, it was just salty not sweet. Vinod laughed on seeing my expression and told me “do you know how tough to get sugar when you live in forest ? “. Seriously, I have never thought about it!!
Local tribes were living a very simple life. Even though they had very small houses, there was no house without a flowering garden.
We started the uphill walk after the salty drink. It was not a lengthy walk but the slope was very steep. Breathing heavily, we quickly walked the steps. There were few butterflies to distract us from walking continuously. Once we reached the petty shop where we bought the fruits, we stopped again for water. But there were fruit juices in bottles, so I got tempted to try the local drink. When I tasted the juice, it had a bad smell and I couldn’t even drink a single sip. Vinod then tasted it and laughed again at me teasingly, saying its the local moonshine. Ohh, thats why the shop guy had a weird look when I tried to drink that!!! I was starving but I didn’t want to try anymore food stuffs there.
I didn’t expect to see any orchids in the Living Root Bridge as it was the driest season. To my surprise, I found this Slender Helleborine Orchid in full bloom. This place is a must visit in rainy season to see butterflies and orchids.
When we reached the entrance, a cute little girl was selling pineapple slices infront of her house. Vinod couldn’t say no to her face and got few slices for 10 Rs. When he gave the money, she turned the note like a big woman and returned it back saying the note looked old. We couldn’t stop laughing at her cheekiness and gave her a fresh note even though the previous one was not torn. I was happy to see the Khasi girl being knowledgeable about money.
Leopard Lacewing butterfly was sitting on one of the garden plants grown in the tribal house. We didn’t see any birds but we were happy to see these colorful butterflies in the dry season.
When we were back in the car parking, only few guides were waiting. All others guides went with the tourists. We were glad to see the local tribes leading a sustainable tourism and didn’t disturb the ecology of the place. Except for few plastics put down by tourists, the place was very clean. We both were happy with the sightings of the bridges and butterflies but we were wondering about the birds. I happily ticked my travel bucket list to visit the Living Root Bridge and it was really worth all the travel from Chennai.
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