Chinma waterfalls a hidden treasure

 Chinma Falls

Chinma Falls

 Nestled among the hills of Shallang, a small town in the West Khasi hills, are two spectacular waterfalls- The Chinma Falls and The Rangmana Falls. These waterfalls are quite untouched and are known by only a handfull of people . However with time, the place is gaining popularity and now people are visiting these waterfalls  from different places. The govt. of Meghalaya is also planning to make this place as a tourist attraction. The Waterfalls are around 170 km west of the captial city of Meghalaya, Shillong.

How to reach this place?

We can reach this place from multiple places as it is close to the state highway no 1 which is the bifurcation of National Highway no 217 from a place called Rongjeng around 22km west of the Waterfalls. The road to this place is not yet added to the google map till this day. So if your route is from the west then you should not reach till Shallang, but around a kilometer or two there is a small  diversion of a trail. The trail can be identified with a this bridge as a marking point, if you cross the bridge which you will find  just before reaching the town of Shallang then it will be clear that the diversion trail to the waterfalls is passed beyond.  Then just reverse your ride and then the trail that you first left that you encounter after you cross that bridge will take you to those waterfalls. 

If your route is from east i.e if you wanna reach this place from Shillong side. We have to travel west around 90km on NH 106 to a town called Nongstoin and then continue the journey on SH-1 around 80-85km. To reach the place while heading there from east the town of Shallang is to be crossed and then a bridge that I mentioned earlier to be crossed and  then the trail to reach the waterfalls will be the first left after crossing the bridge. 

I hope soon the Meghalaya government will put a signboard on the road and once its done then it will be quite easy to locate the place.

 Way to reach the waterfalls 

After being able to locate the road that heads towards the waterfalls , the trail gets bad for a couple of kilometres till which you will be able to take your vehicle . The good news is the government there is building new road and hope it gets done soon so that more people can swiftly reach this beautiful place,

 but beyond a point you will have to trek for around half a kilometer. The trek is not so strenuous  but the steep descent is bit dangerous if you are not used to steep climb. After the decent start we don’t have to reach out far for the Rangmanma falls and it’s majestic view is just mesmerizing. And during a normal day on the month of july it looks like this. 

Rangmanma Falls

We can reach the top of Chinma Waterfalls and enjoy the view from to of it. Gazing at this wonder from a closeup top view

Standing on top of
Chinma falls

will not be as pleasant as looking at it from the bottom and up front. So, in order to reach the bottom of the Chinma Falls we have to descend down further from the point where we took left to reach the Rangmanma falls, now just follow the trail to the left. This descend is steeper so be careful. And ones you reach the bottom the mesmerizing Chinma Falls will be right before your eyes.

Some personal suggestions 

• Please wear shoes it will help you in the trek.
• Please do not litter the place. Take your things and bring back and throw it to the litterbins on the top.

• 
  Visit a view point which is around 10km west to the waterfalls on SH1

  

  View point

  
  

• Don’t drink during the trekking as it is a rocky terrain so it can be catastrophic if you slip down.
• Take water with you as you might get dehydrated while ascending 

My personal experience 

I started at around 10:00AM along with my friends from Dudhnoi and it took us around 3hours to reach the trail from the SH. It was our first time there and we didn’t know how to reach there and the roads. We just had few friends telling us the road that will lead us to the waterfalls. So we passed the trail and went till Shallang police station and on seeing the police station we came to know that we have gone beyond the  place from where the trail starts and then we returned on that same road asking people and because of language problem we were not even able to ask them the location to the place. Luckily we found a man who explained us how we reach the waterfalls. The suggestions above for wearing shoes is because I personally suffered alot in that slippery terrain i was wearing slippers and it was a hell ride for me. I had to walk barefooted on those rocky terrain. And please take some water with you because while ascending its very tiresome and if you are not a frequent trekker then you might also blackout. The roads and the view to those roads are something to adore too. It gave me the real life manifestation of the saying that ‘Journey is equally beautiful to the destination’

On the way to

Chinma falls

And by saying that I would like to sign off this time hope you guys enjoyed reading the blog and gained some new information about a relatively unknown place. It has always been my mission to put forth to you guys places that are not much famous but are a hidden gem waiting to be explored. Hope you guys visit this place and will share it to all your friends, family and love ones and also please visit this lesser known places as it will help those local people out there to get some livelihood.

Please comment the name of such lesser known places that you know and i will cover those place. Feel free to write any suggestions and please forgive if i have written anything wrong and point it out on the comments section.

Thank you, until next time with new places and experiences