India: Fri Oct 19th

Omer and I spent three hours in the Don Bosco museum in Shillong. This is a wonderful new museum spread out over 10 floors which describes life and traditions in the NE. There are galleries on fishing, hunting, crafts and religion. I had not appreciated that one could fish with bamboo in so many different ways. Because the museum had been built by the Jesuits there was a whole gallery devoted to 20 centuries of Christianity, In the topography section the Jesuit missions were located. There was also a fine installation piece by Dutch artists on the cultural DNA of the region. At the very top a steel frame skywalk  looped round the roof with 360 degree views of Shillong. It was not raining so we enjoyed the view. The city is spread over several hills and there are trees everywhere. There also films of local dances including a yak dance which reminded me of the Yaks i saw in Tibet last year. This area also feels close to Tibet and there is an Indo-Tibetan police force in Shillong. We then drove 2 hours to Cheerapunjee which is on the border with Bangladesh.. About half way we crossed into a deep valley withe the sides covered with dense forest. We crossed over to a huge waterfall which we only glimpsed through swirling  cloud. W.e reached cheerapunjee in time to see a beautiful sunset with the sun dipping down through purple clouds. This was Omer’s first mountain sunset.