- So advanced my travel plans. Stopped off at the Thadlaskein Lake , which is nothing, then backtracked to the turnoff for Nartiang.
- Not much to see in Nartiang one small hill crammed with monoliths 300 years old..... No explanation etc just the same as the photo... actually when you look it up it's supposed to be all set up by one king only 300 years ago

- Many more photos

- It was a surprise to meet Tom and Collin ...and with the help of their "guide" we managed to get space at the PWD Rest House

- The classic photo - kids peeping from behind a car after running away as I walked down the main street .. I swear it happened, but I didn't get the photo.

- later met up with Tom and Colin and we got invited to various houses for drinks ( Drinking to drunkeness seems very common here.) .. the local brew was disappointing it seemed like industrial alcohol again. .. heavy rain

- Jowai was a bit crap nothing to see and everything closed by 8pm
- Rest House full due to election .... loadshedding .... got a crappy hotel next to noisy truck route etc

- looked for internet ..river park was too far down ...market .... rain again Jowai everything was shut by 8pm

- with Meghalaya Election Watch
- http://newsonnortheast.blogspot.com/2009/04/meghalaya-election-vincent-h-pala.html
- Her NGO held a press conference about politician's saings etc as shown in their affadavits... why is this necesary surely normal journalists should already be covering this ?

- I used internet until loadshedding .. couldn't find anything more to visit around Jowai and it seemed like if I went back to Shillong to work thn everything might be closed cos of the election and since the internet and hotel were so crap in Jowai I decided to take the opportunity to go on to Silchar and the Mizoram state border.

- If I had gone back to Shillong first it would have meant going 90 minutes west only to have to travel back the same road later. As it was instead of staying at a hotel I could take a nightbus and be in Silchar on Thursday morning.

- people said transport was easier to get from Ladrymbai.. It wasn't on any maps so I imagined it was some kind of market town I could spend the afternoon walking around and then take a nightbus Wrong !Wrong !Wrong !

- Words cannot do Ladrymbai injustice - disorganised dirty chaos like real India. - No wonder it's not on any maps the whole area is a complete ecological disaster area; they probably don't want tourists to find out about it.

... people said there would be no nightbus to Silchar cos of Bandh in Shillong ..So walked to the other side of town, but the local sumos were charging quaduple price down to 75Km to Khliehriat... there must of must have been an item on TV about there going to be no transport cos of the election ..as it happens this was not true 70% of transport was running, but it was a convenient excuse to put up fares

... so I took a autorickshaw to next town

...then I hitched down another 25Km.

- As I was tring to hitch a ride on trucks I was lucky enough to bump into truck stop owner Naru (lost his number) who spoke excellent English. He's an ex IBM programmer who now runs a truck stop restaurant ..good business as the whole area is full of Khasi locals running small mines with Bengali or Nepali workers ..If they dig a hole and don't find coal - it will be limestone anyway. This dirty industrial area must be generating much of the money in Meghalaya

- I hung around until 1am, but of course the nighbus never came

- 6am 3 buses passed got a bus to Badarpur 80Rp