TBI Photo Essay – The Bridge Of Sighs: Meghalaya’s Living Root Bridges

Finally, I began my descent towards the root-bridges. At first I thought this would be easy – climb down a few hundred stairs, but I was in for a surprise!

Even though I was amidst hills, the exertion took a toll and made me sweat. During the entire descent, I saw bales of drying bay leaves. It felt like I was walking into a spicy cauldron. As if to rub it in my face, locals zipped up and down, carrying heavy sacks on their backs with no effort at all. Here, a boy carries a sack of dried bay leaves downhill, towards Nongriat.

At this point, I was certain that Escher was from Nongriat! As simple as it looks, after the first fifty steps, your thighs begin to scream in pain. As I would discover on my way back, it was relatively easier going up than down. The lack of any safety rails behooves the trekker to descend in a sideways fashion lest he/she stumble onto the dirt and roll downhill.

At one of the infinite rest breaks, I spy Nongriat. The reality hits me like a sack of bricks – I was on one side of the hill, and I had to get down, cross the valley, and climb up to call it a day.

Expensive white mountain pepper grows by the acres along the stairway. This is one of the major exports of the area. The other significant items are bay leaves and loofah.

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