- Walked up to Bara Bazaar ..breakfast with Antoni then followed the road to the big 5 storey building with a strange pointy roof The Dom Bosco Museum of Indigenous culture : Pay 150Rp for 1 hour tour including video. The reason I went early was so that I could spend many hours there, but they actually limit you to a 1 hour of the 16 galleries ....10.15am I arrive AND "sorry sir there is load shedding at 11am so will have to finish by then. No you can't do half now and half later. "
- I approve of this guided tour only approach ; it helps them keep control. Other Indian museums are full of noisy crowds with kids breaking things cos they are unsupervised.

- Well inside it is like European Museum so way better than the average Indian museum .. Tidy rooms of well labelled glass cases and a good computerized exhibit showing musical instruments 2 things and the informative video presented by the woman who runs the butterfly museum. Overall Pretty good, but could be better
- 1. it seemed sometimes to oversimplify and concentrate on the fashionable e.g. And this is the dance from Mizoram, wheras there might be 8 tribes in Mizoram 3 of which might overlap into other states each having 2 or 3 important dances.
- 2. The tour doesn't include the missionary work room ... Are they ashamed of it ?
- 3. I do prefer the Experience format museum to traditional glass case museum where costumed actors show you the actual things and you get to eat the food try the clothes on sit inside the house.

- 2a. Are they showing the real culture or a version with the bits picked out to suit our tastes ? And how much of the traditions are not traditional at all, but introduced 50 years ago ? e.g. They said the most famous Mizoram dance is dancing through moving baboo poles yet I have seen exactly the same dance in Christian tribes of North Central Sumatra.

- As I left I saw them turn away 6 customers.
- They should buy a big torch then they could show people around even if it is "load shedding".

- I walked through endless suburbs of neat wooden bungalows, but nothing special.

- collective taxi to the Polo Ground suburb so followed the river and up steps to butterfly museum ... A worthy thing, but only worth a visit for butterfly scientists etc. HEAVY RAIN

- jumped on a bus back along the main road past cathedral to library and State Museum .. "no we are closed for load shedding 1-3pm" ... Waited around the back at the Khasi tea-shed .. Sampled yellow sticky rice with pork (they seem to prefer the fat to the 100% meat I prefer) .. Also pink dried rice cake, which has no taste to me.
- Tidy modern glass case museum, but I didn't learn a lot

- At Ward Lake it did seem like I was in a typical English park : green and flowers.. not great

- The Botanical Garden- seems to be a small ravine; not impressive - had tea with the guys from the Corruption Bureau of Investigation ..quote "No, most NGO's are corrupt"

- Up to Iew Duh (Bara Bazaar) a giant medina of market shops in narrow alleys .. like 80 fish stalls in a row .. Appears to have people from many different tribes. On my own I found it overwhelming : It would be good to have a guideperson explain things

- .. Surely too big and crowded for practical shopping

- Heavy Rain again.

- The British Indian guy I met in The park told me the BBC Paul Merton show did a prog about - Shillong being the Rock and Roll Capital of India - later I learnt that since a violent rape 2 months ago all nightlife places must close at 9pm so music has been curtailed

- Plan : experience teaches me that it's best to not pack a parcel first,
- 1. instead check that the price isn't crazy also there might be a price for say 120g g and a double price for 121g etc
- 2. Check there are no special packing rules

- 10.15am check prices on painted board OK Parcel 1 = 30Rp, Parcel 2= 60Rp
- 10.16am queue at the only window marked parcels , behind someone collecting a postal order.
- 10.30am most of the counter workers slowly drift into work..... surely they are late.
- 10.45 the first guy has finally now it's me "sorry sir you are at the wrong window" , he indicates the next window which is unlabelled and had no worker before 10.35am
- 10.55am - reach the front of this queue "I can't give you a price until it's packed", "give me an idea", Without weighing them he says " Parcel 1 not more than 35Rp, Parcel not more than 70Rp", "no we don't sell packing envelopes"
- walk to the shops
- 11.10am buy the envelopes etc pack the parcel
- 11.20am queue again
- 11.30am reach front of queue, he takes away the parcels even though he has scales at the counter.
- 11.45am he returns with the prices 77Rp, and 156Rp twice the original prices he gave "oh the price board, we didn't update that for 3 years !" exactly the stupid prices I wanted to avoid ..l It had been a waste of time packing the parcel to England. I'm not spending $3 to send something worth $2 it's better to just give them away.

- 2nd person agrees - Surprisingly the first other traveller I met Colin from Scotland - started telling me how much hassle he had at the same post office.

- Lady H Park - sad Forest Mueum - sad Zoo

- walked along river and then up ..ended up at Tripura Castle ..doesn't seem like it's functioning as a hotel now

- a house nearby had this sign

...I was in the suburb of Cleve seems like it has lots of old government buildings..Arunachel Circuit House etc, Mizoram House , Assam House etc

- Heavy rain

- on Saturday Mayfareen is going to visit an NGO project with her friends at Mawlynnong one of the root bridge villages and she invited me to come. So it makes sense for me to go along and then stay over at a homestay.