The Cherrapunjee Holiday Resort is everything it’s said to be – and I really recommend it. It’s out in the villages far from any town, and the friendly owner does a whole lot for his guests and the local tourism scene. There’s plenty to see – the waterfalls plunging all around the valley rim, the Khasi villages spread out along the resort’s ridge, and especially the unique living root bridges (and the hike on steep forest trails to get to them).
Of course, it also bills itself as “the wettest place on Earth”. Most of that rainfall comes in these months, during the monsoon, so I ought not to have been surprised by it. For the three days I stayed there it rained a fair amount each day. After a while, you begin to think of ‘not raining’ as the period when only a few drops hit the ground each minute. Although on two evenings it did actually clear up, and the heavy clouds and fog were gone long enough to reveal most of the view.
When it’s raining and you want to see what’s there, there’s little choice but to head out into it and hope for the best. As a result I got soaked feet two days in a row; I had decent rain gear except for my lower legs, which I would have left bare but didn’t want to bother with the leeches. I did get to see that the market is still open even when it’s pouring, and without too many slips I made it down to see the closest living root bridge.