Woke up early and had the morning to myself so decided to go for a long walk in the nice chilly weather in Shillong. It's generally sunny, so its quite pleasant. I took off in the general direction of Centre Point which is a 5 minute walk from the hotel. Its a crowded place once the activity picks up, being the central place, right next to the Assembly, the main bazaar which is called the Police bazaar for some reason, the taxi stand and a 'Í Love Shillong' sign for selfies.
I moved past the taxis, trusting Google maps which showed a 25 minute walk to Lady Hydari Park. En route I saw the quaint Assembly building, pretty small compared to the grandiose ones in Hyderabad and other places. I passed by a quaint church and saw the Assembly library. To the left I suddenly chanced upon Ward's Lake which shows up as one of the places to see in Shillong but the man at the gate said that entry for public was only after 830 pm. I shrugged and moved on, checked with a couple of morning walkers about the general direction and kept on. There were a few walkers, some joggers, some early office goers. I stopped at the beautiful All Saints Church or Cathedral which was apparently built in 1870.
Further down I saw this fine restaurant Trattoria which looked very interesting, passed by some government buildings and landed up at the Lady Hydari Park which also opens at 830. I whiled my time away strolling about, having a chai, getting some change to buy the entry ticket of 20 bucks. The tea was lovely.
While waiting near the tea stall I saw a couple of interesting posters. One was of a movie about a South Indian lost in Shillong which appeared to be a cute movie, another was a poster advertising a beach festival in Shillong complete with competitions, a Ms Festival competition and so on. While at that I must mention that we had singer Abhijeet and Euphoria with Palash Sen and others staying at our resort in Dimapur - never struck me to ask if they were performing which they apparently did while we were there. Will always remain a regret that I missed that show!
Anyway the park opened - the ticket counters are crazy low and you can only see the person behind the counter through the hole, which means I had to bend really low, very uncomfortable. I got my ticket, walked in, found the park pretty empty but beautifully maintained. I saw a little building that said 'Nature Interpretation Centre'' which seemed a very interesting topic to have a whole building on. I really would have liked to see what they do there.
A helpful gentleman told me to walk by the side and I found a small zoo - some Himalayan black bears sunning themselves (reminded me of Pooh until I saw their claws), a small cunning fox, a hornbill, couple of hyperactive monkeys. There is a small water body, nice walks, a chess area (perhaps they play chess there). I sat around for a bit and then walked out.
From the Lady
Hydari Park I walked another twenty minutes to the Don Bosco church. I noticed that everyone uses the pavements to walk, there are hardly any vendors occupying the roads and was thrilled at it when I noticed one taxi chap stop urgently and take a pee by the road side! The church came up, beautiful, huge structure, with many tourists out there clicking pictures.
Walk back I stopped at the All Saints church again and this time went into it. Then to Ward's lake which was a beautifully landscaped park and very clean.
I walked all around, sat for a bit and then headed back to the hotel. The sun was now up and quite warm and I could take off my jacket.
A long, lovely 10 km walk by a South Indian in Shillong with Google maps. Now to figure the rest of the day.
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