Meghalaya

Meghalaya is a sandstone-and-limestone plateau lifted above the Bangladesh plains, and the escarpment squeezes the monsoon into extraordinary rainfall: Mawsynram and Sohra, still widely called Cherrapunji, each record more than eleven metres a year. The water carves everything. Nohkalikai, India's tallest plunge waterfall at about 340 metres, drops into a green pool below Sohra; the Seven Sisters falls line the cliff edge; and beneath the surface the state holds India's longest cave systems, including Krem Liat Prah in the Jaintia Hills, with Mawsmai and Arwah open to casual visitors. The most remarkable structures are grown, not built: for generations Khasi villagers have trained the aerial roots of Ficus elastica across streams into jingkieng jri, living root bridges, the double-decker at Nongriat reached by a punishing staircase from Tyrna. In winter the Umngot river at Dawki runs so clear that boats seem to hang above the bed. Shillong adds pine ridges, Ward's Lake and a serious guitar culture. Signature journeys combine Shillong, Sohra, Nongriat and Dawki.