A beautiful morning at the Mawlynnong village, the cleanest village of Asia. After going there, I realized it’s not only clean, but every house has such beautiful home gardens with flowers of all colours. Felt so much of positive energy in the resident’s lifestyle. The roads are the cleanest that it’s hard to spot dust. Bamboo dustbins are placed everywhere. This village attracts a lot of tourists because of its cleanliness.
The village is in Meghalaya very much near the India- Bangladesh border. They have a Bamboo watch tower. Entry ticket is Rs.20. We can see Dawki, India-Bangladesh border, Umngot river from the tower. I couldn’t get the Umngot river view photo as it was very long shot. From the tower we can see the playground of Mawlynnong village. I saw some children practicing football in the morning. The entire village view is visible from the bamboo watch tower. Below are the photos from the tower in all four directions.
We stayed one night at Mawlynnong. I could catchup the morning sunrise at Mawlynnong village. It was like sunshine and cleanliness hitched together. Weather was very chill until full sunrise. Needed winter clothes. We visited in February just before start of summer. We stayed in Harud Wahduid homestay.
Morning started with a hot tea from a vending machine store. Then I walked around the village. In hardly 20 minutes I reached the village entry point and came back to the homestay. We should walk around the village to get the flavor of the place. With lots of bamboo plantation and gardens the village looks surreal.
The village has an ancient church more that 100 years old, the church of the Epiphany. There is a water stream running through the village which is branch of Umngot river. I got to walk on an over bridge above that stream.
They have very organized parking lot for vehicles. Next to the parking lot is the shopping area where we get all kinds of local crafts mainly made of bamboo. They have Bamboo water bottles, teacup, hand made purse, bamboo mirror, bamboo hairclips and also home decors made of bamboo. Below is the picture of shop area and parking lot. All empty and closed as I walked around 7 am. We shopped here before leaving. I got a bamboo mirror, some hair sticks and tea cup.
I also spent some time with the children there. They shy away from strangers. They were playing hopscotch on the roads and swinging in the play area nearby. I just asked one of those little girls if I can buy her goodies from the local shop just next to play area. All the kids rushed to the shopkeeper and picked what they wanted. I just paid the perk for all their smiles. This was during the waiting time, before we left the village loading luggage in the vehicle. All we got was their big smiley bye byes as we left the place.
Soul Travelogue 