Following are factual details of the trip for my personal reference, so pardon the dryness. No spellcheck in my text editor !

My employer has a concept of ‘Free Days’, essentially two consecutive day holiday around a weekend every quarter, where the entire company is shut down, no work in any location. This started in December 2020 in the pandemic WFH circumstances. The recent 4 day holiday was 15-18 September this quarter.

I decided to go to Shillong being just a 100km from my home in Guwahati. I took the ASTC bus from Khanapara (booked via RedBus), booked 1 day earlier for 180 (with taxes). I caught the 2x2 AC bug from the flyover at Khanapara, the easter end of the town. The bus had originally left from Paltan Bazar at 08:00 and arrived at Khanapara at 08:25. The bus conductor called me before leaving Khanapara to confirm my pick up at Khanapara. The bus was somewhat crowded with many people standing. I however was able to get my reserved window seat.

The scenic trip of approx 2h30m left me at ISBT at Mawiong, some 8km before Shillong (just after Umiam lake). There is a shuttle traveller van that took all of us passenders from there till Police Bazar in another 30mins. The shuttle cost Rs.40. From there I took the alto taxi to my place near Bishnupur Taxi stand in soutcher/upper part of the city. I had to reserve the entire cab for the trip so I had to pay Rs.150 (after he took another passenger in the front seat).

Temperature at a steady 18-21 degree celcius, with moderate rains in the afternoon. The weather was perfect. Next morning, Day 2, I went for a morning walk around the area, circling the cantonment area and around the silkworm farm, lush green and quiet area. The 5km circuit was beautiful, and I went every morning for next two days as well.

For breakfast I discovered this awesome eatery in fromt of a secondary high school in Lebang. Many schools are there is Lebang, you can always find students on the roads coming from or going to school. The eatery had awesome menu of sweets, chole bhature, puri bhaji, pav bhaji etc. I ate choley bhature (Rs.60) the first morning and Puri Bhaji (Rs.35) the next morning.

My Day 2 was just loitering around, visiting Ward’s lake, the state museum, a closed entomology meuseum, police bazar. I ate a thali at jiva veg in police bazar which was just delicious. Next day i ate mushroom noodles for lunch in the nearby shop.

Day 3, Saturday, my parents arrived at Shillong and I went to Police Bazar with mummy for shopping. Papa stayed put at the room since he was tired from travelling from calcutta the just the day before.

Day 4 was some trevelling by car, we visited the Laitlum canyon (parking Rs.50), and the microwave tower nearby. Beautiful rolling hill landscape. Good weather too. mostly sunny and cloudy. We ried to go to shillong view point via eastern road which is incorrect for it is via the airforce base. So we went back to town and via west approach. There we had to take a local taxi (compulsory) to go inside the aur base campus. Rs.50 per head ticket + Rs.200 for taxi. We bought 7kg nice small potatoes from roadside. Also cabbage. Lot of cabbage farms in Myriem (South of Shillong). We went to Elephant Falls next (Rs.100 ticket per head).

Then we returned to Guwahati having a late Lunch (15:30) at Jiva Veg in Nongstoin.