Meghalaya

Meghalaya is a plateau that ends abruptly. From Shillong the land runs south across rolling grassland and then drops two thousand feet into the Bangladesh plain in a single escarpment, and every stream on that edge becomes a waterfall — Nohkalikai, at roughly 340 m, is the tallest plunge fall in India.

Sohra (Cherrapunji) and Mawsynram trade the record for the highest annual rainfall measured anywhere, and the Khasi response to that rain is the reason most people come: bridges trained over decades from the aerial roots of *Ficus elastica*, still growing, still load-bearing. The double-decker root bridge at Nongriat is roughly three thousand stone steps below the road at Tyrna, and the walk back up is the hardest hour of most itineraries.

When to go. October to April, when the plateau is dry, the gorges are walkable and the Umngot at Dawki runs clear enough to see the riverbed under a boat. June to September is spectacular and almost unusable — trails wash out and the falls are hidden in cloud.