Asia's Cleanest Village

As it was Valentine’s Day, my driver asked for permission to bring his girlfriend along on our day trip to Mawlynnong, Asia’s ‘cleanest village’ and home of the spellbinding living root bridges. A true romantic, I acquiesced to his request. He picked me up outside my hotel early in the morning and we headed over to his aunt’s place for breakfast. He belonged to the Khasi tribe, a matrilineal clan that calls this region home. Thankfully the Khasis enjoy a meat-centric diet. I immediately dug into some tasty pork meatballs.

The driver’s girlfriend was taking a while to get ready, so he dropped me at the nearby Elephant Waterfalls while he went to pick her up. After wandering around three different waterfalls I met up with the couple at the exit of the popular tourist site, where we exchanged pleasantries and had some tea at a stall before starting our road trip in earnest. On the way we stopped at a roadside Khasi diner for more delicious delicacies consisting of animal flesh and internal organs.

Home to approximately 100 households, Mawlynnong was arbitrarily named "Asia’s Cleanest Village" by Discover India magazine several years back and the moniker stuck. All the waste generated by the households of Mawlynnong is collected in bamboo dustbins and composted, while littering is a fineable offense. The entire community is aware of the need to coexist with nature and boasts a 100% literacy rate too boot.

Tucked away in a remote part of northeast India 90 km from Shillong, the village is cleaner than the balance sheet of a firm audited by a Big 4 accounting firm. The forest cover around the village is not especially dense, but a canopy of trees provides sufficient shade to comfortably drape the entire village. Agriculture is the primary industry and betel leafs the main crop. Pathways wind around the homes and lead to a staircase down to a nearby river where the most magnificent site of Mawlynnong awaited.

*****

Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean. 

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The Wettest Place on Earth

Resuming my journey in the northeast of India, I caught a bus to Shillong near my lodge at Kaziranga. The capital of the state of Meghalaya, Shillong is a scenic hill station nestled among rolling green hills. My thirst for cheap accommodation left me, as it often does, in the seediest part of town. The hotel I was staying in only housed a vegetarian restaurant, so I had to venture out into the night in search of dinner. Narrow alleys, uneven mud caked streets, and a winter chill greeted me. Wrapped in shawls and warming their hands around bonfires, locals eyed me with intrigue. Who was this handsome stranger?

I found an Islamic restaurant open after a lengthy stroll and ordered a chicken biryani. The taxi driver who dropped me off at my hotel had left me his phone number, and I gave him a call while waiting for my meal to arrive. I arranged for him to pick me up early the next day for a trip to Cherrapunji, the wettest place on earth, as my dish was deposited roughly on the table in front of me.

Holding the records for both the greatest total rainfall in a month and in a year, Cherrapunji (now once again referred to by its original moniker Sohra) is almost a kilometre and a half above sea level and a spectacular winding drive away from Shillong on mountain roads.

Despite its claim to fame, Cherrapunji was bone dry during my visit. The winter months face water shortages and California drought-like conditions, with the bulk of the rain hitting the region during the monsoon season. The tallest plunge waterfall in India, Noh Ka Likai (Leap of Ka Likai) trickled weakly like urine down the streets of San Francisco.

The most memorable aspect of the waterfall was the grisly tale of how it got its name. Ka Likai, was a widow with a child who was forced to enter a loveless marriage with a second husband. When she was out running errands one day, the jealous husband cooked her baby. Tired, the wife returned home and had a meal before going out to find her child. When she found a tiny bone but not her baby, she went wild with grief and leapt off the cliff.

A friend of a friend had been stationed in Sohra as an administrator by the government. He gave directions over the phone to my driver on some sights I should see before heading over to meet him for lunch. I met my friend of a friend at his office and we soon headed out after he wrapped up a few orders of business. We dropped by his residence for a tasty home-cooked meal, and then he gave me a tour of the township before we parted ways.

Although less than 60 km separates Shillong from Sohra, there is a lot to see on the road to Cherrapunji. There is a viewpoint at Duwan Singh Syiem Bridge, named after a former chieftain of the region. Unfortunately haze shrouded my glimpse into the plains of Bangladesh as I stood on the cliffs of Cherrapunji, my broad shoulders dropping in disappointment. At the Mawsmai Cave, sharp rocks, slippery pathways, and narrow openings allowed for some spine-tingling exploration of eerie limestone structures. As we returned into Shillong, my driver and I agreed to continue our partnership into a third day for further adventures.

Arnab's Year in Cities, 2014

As the drums of Bosingak ushered in the new year in the heart of Seoul, my time in Korea came to an end. I spent the first third of the year wandering through lands both familiar (India and Thailand) and slightly less familiar (Philippines and Sri Lanka).

I abruptly shifted gears from the high density, historically rich societies of Asia to vast stretches of asphalt and wide open spaces where nature and burger outlets take the spotlight for the latter half of the year. I returned to North America after almost a decade away, gradually exploring the west coast of the United States bit by bit from my new home base of San Francisco.

Statistically speaking it was almost a mirror image of 2013, as I stayed overnight in 31 different cities or towns in 7 countries. I also made some interesting day trips which are unaccounted for on this list - stopping over to enjoy the company of some old friends and some delicious Hai Di Lao hotpot in Shanghai, exploring the ruins of Ayodhya, whale watching in Vancouver Island after taking a seaplane to Victoria, and entering Mexico by foot at the San Diego-Tijuana border crossing.

The 2014 List

Seoul, South Korea

Manila, Philippines

El Nido, Philippines

Puerto Princesa, Philippines

Bangkok, Thailand

Kolkata, India

Varanasi, India

Jaipur, India

Jodhpur, India

Udaipur, India

New Delhi, India

Kaziranga, India

Shillong, India

Mumbai, India

Pune, India

Galle, Sri Lanka

Kandy, Sri Lanka

Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Negombo, Sri Lanka

Dalhousie, Sri Lanka

Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka

Vancouver, Canada

San Francisco, USA

Monterrey, USA

Houston, USA

Lake Tahoe, USA

San Diego, USA

Las Vegas, USA

Willits, USA

Chicago, USA

Years past

• 2013
• 2012
• 2011
• 2010
• 2009
• 2008

*****

You are not stuck where you are unless you decide to be.

― Wayne W. Dyer

Sycophants

I asked an ex-colleague in Korea if he was a sycophant after observing how his behaviour changed whenever he was taking orders from his boss. He did not know what the term meant. I explained that it was someone who continuously sucks up to the person that they want to impress.

He considered my explanation for a moment and then replied "You…  you... you are cutie girls sycophants!".

Radish and Hoe

In Beijing, my colleague and I were returning to the office after lunch. A girl passed by in front of us. Her boyfriend, obediently carrying her purse, followed a few steps behind. She was not aesthetically pleasing, causing my non-judgmental eyes to widen. "Even she has a boyfriend!" I exclaimed. "Every radish has a hoe" explained my coworker, unperturbed by the whole affair.

For every 100 girls born in China today there are around 120 baby boys born. It is estimated that there is a surplus of more than 33 million men in the mating market. With so many young men and so few women, the situation I encountered is not altogether unsurprising.

A desire for a son is common in societies across the world. In Korea, sons are expected to carry on the family names - Kim, Park, and Lee. China is no different. This preference combined with limitations on how many babies can be popped out in major cities has led to a severe shortage of the gamete producers in recent decades. The sex ratio imbalance means prospective husbands must possess either higher and higher net worths or lower and lower standards if they wish to be betrothed, while aspiring wives have the pick of a rather unimpressive litter.