Shillong: Hanging Roots, Thorny Cupcakes And Peace Served On The Side

As we had left the premises of the great three-step waterfalls, the next place in our checklist was the orchidarium. It was situated about two kilometers and five minutes from the falls by a two-wheeler. I was excited. I had never seen an orchidarium in my life. I later came to know that it was also a botanical garden. Orchids are very commonly found in the north-eastern states as the climate is very favorable. The climate is like a naturally air-conditioned room. This orchidarium had been built with the pure intention to prevent extinction of the wide varieties of the local orchids. It is the first one in Shillong, so I definitely had to visit it at least once.

On the way to the orchidarium, while holding and tracking the location on Google Maps we saw something surreal. Right outside the Air Force Museum was a short tiled pavement with orchids decorating the sides. If you are fond of taking pictures or a passionate instagrammer or want to preserve natural rare beauties in your phone galleries, this could be your perfect photoshoot spot. The voluminous purplish-white flowers would go with any white or blue dress, so next time while packing for Shillong do not forget to grab one for a satisfying click. After me and my friend had our photos clicked, we finally had reached the orchidarium.

The entry fee for one adult was 20 rupees. When I proceeded to pay the money on the counter, the person there did charge only 30 rupees together for me and my friend. We, at first, thought that there was some discount going on. But later on we found out that nobody had visited the place since morning. Also that discount was an appreciation for us to show interest in something so carefully preserved and valuable which nobody cares about much. He was a kind person. It would be so great if love for flora was reflected in the true world and not only on the social media accounts. Nonetheless I and my friend were excited to explore the various colorful wonders sheltered in such a small area.

Kindness can really win over anything.

There were some rock monkey statures on the entry to welcome the visitors sending some good messages. Bura mat dekho - bura mat suno - bura mat bolo! What had fascinated me was the wooden table in the entry. It was beautiful and decorated with various succulents and orchids. There were orchids and their roots hanging all around systematically in the middle and along the sides. As we went inside the space, we could see a lot more than just orchids. There were as many succulents as one could ever imagine. Jade, Graptoveria, Moon cacti, Echeveria and many more were sitting and relaxing in the closed space. There were different orchids of various colors - pink, red, white, green and what not.

We all had studied about The Pitcher Plant during our childhood days in literally every science class. Can you recall its scientific name? I will help you but first I'll wait. Okay, it is Nepenthes kunthiana; I know I too had to google it to remember when I saw it. It was a wow moment for me to see the hideous plant for real. There was one more plant we had studied that mimics to be a female bee and some male bee pollinates it mistakenly; this I do not remember though! It was there too. Some orchid saplings were planted in a large coconut husk bowl. On the other side a plate of moon cacti of vibrant colors was kept which anybody could have mistaken to be cute cupcakes from a certain distance. But they are not, they are thorny cupcakes. Do not eat them okay?

After half an hour of strolling around the orchidarium, we had to finally leave the place. We had some other places in our checklist and shopping to do. It was an amazing experience to see all the assets that really belong to the seven sisters but we had a little idea they existed. As my friend was heading towards the exit gate, we could see two stone Buddha statues outside in a park like space. After a closer look we came to realize that it was a Peace Park. It was a small park decorated with many orchids and roses.

I had taken some snaps of the statues of Buddha from different angles such that it gets me some feels of Sikkim instagraphy. (Yeah that word doesn't exist. I made it up, pardon me!) There were tree houses too which seemed pretty interesting but nobody was around it so that we could at least confirm if climbing up was even allowed. Even though the path from the main road to the orchidarium premises was muddy, the visit was totally worth it.