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s recently as 2019, almost nobody outside the Meghalaya trekking circle had heard of Phe Phe Falls. Today it is one of the most photographed two-tiered waterfalls in the state — a turquoise pool beneath a 200-foot drop, reached by a short trek through bamboo groves from a riverside campsite near Jarain.
It is honest to say upfront: this is not hidden anymore. What it still has, that the crowds haven't taken away, is the quality of the water and the walk to reach it.
Most Meghalaya waterfalls thin dramatically in the dry season. Phe Phe runs strong year-round, which is part of why it became so popular so fast — it photographs well in every month, not just monsoon.
Paradise Adventure Camp sits beside the river on an open plateau, surrounded by clear streams and centuries-old megalithic structures. You can kayak the river beside the camp, cross it on traditional wooden boats, and find a small secondary waterfall, Thlu Awmi, nearby that almost nobody photographs.
The falls are two-tiered. Reaching the upper tier requires another 15-20 minutes of uphill hiking beyond the main viewing point most people stop at. Many visitors, exhausted or racing the sunset, never make that climb — and never see the second drop.
You reach the first tier of Phe Phe Falls as the light starts to lower.
The pool beneath the falls is the exact turquoise that every photograph promised — not exaggerated, not filtered, just genuinely that colour. You could keep climbing toward the second tier, fifteen more minutes uphill, and see the rest of it.
Or you could stay exactly where you are and watch the sun set over water that has been falling at this same strength, in this same colour, for longer than the trail leading to it has existed.
Most people who've stood here have made both choices, in different visits. Neither one is wrong.
There is a particular kind of waterfall story that happens in the age of Instagram: a place sits quietly for years, known only to a handful of local guides and the occasional adventurous traveller, and then one good photograph changes everything.
Phe Phe Falls is that story. As recently as 2019, people who visited described it as relatively unexplored. By 2020, it had become one of the most talked-about destinations in Meghalaya's tourism circuit. The waterfall did not change. The world's attention did.
What stays true regardless of crowds: the water genuinely doesn't dry up. The pool genuinely is that colour. The second tier genuinely does take effort to reach, and most people genuinely don't make it there.
Almanac doesn't pretend this is hidden. It isn't. But it is real, and reliable, and worth the trek even with other people on the trail beside you — because some things are popular for the simple reason that they're actually that good.
It was here before you arrived. It will be here after you leave, and after everyone who photographs it this year leaves too.
— Almanac Field Notes
Uncharted Meghalaya
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ALMANAC · INNER CIRCLE
Phe Phe Falls is one of 32.
The rest are waiting.
almanacindia.com
ALMANAC · INNER CIRCLE
Phe Phe Falls is one of 32.
The rest are waiting.
almanacindia.com
FIELD ALMANAC · No. 15
A L M A N A C
UNCHARTED MEGHALAYA · CLUSTER C
— 2 —
s recently as 2019, almost nobody outside the Meghalaya trekking circle had heard of Phe Phe Falls. Today it is one of the most photographed two-tiered waterfalls in the state — a turquoise pool beneath a 200-foot drop, reached by a short trek through bamboo groves from a riverside campsite near Jarain.
It is honest to say upfront: this is not hidden anymore. What it still has, that the crowds haven't taken away, is the quality of the water and the walk to reach it.
— 3 —
Most Meghalaya waterfalls thin dramatically in the dry season. Phe Phe runs strong year-round, which is part of why it became so popular so fast — it photographs well in every month, not just monsoon.
Paradise Adventure Camp sits beside the river on an open plateau, surrounded by clear streams and centuries-old megalithic structures. You can kayak the river beside the camp, cross it on traditional wooden boats, and find a small secondary waterfall, Thlu Awmi, nearby that almost nobody photographs.
The falls are two-tiered. Reaching the upper tier requires another 15-20 minutes of uphill hiking beyond the main viewing point most people stop at. Many visitors, exhausted or racing the sunset, never make that climb — and never see the second drop.
— 4 —
You reach the first tier of Phe Phe Falls as the light starts to lower.
The pool beneath the falls is the exact turquoise that every photograph promised — not exaggerated, not filtered, just genuinely that colour. You could keep climbing toward the second tier, fifteen more minutes uphill, and see the rest of it.
Or you could stay exactly where you are and watch the sun set over water that has been falling at this same strength, in this same colour, for longer than the trail leading to it has existed.
Most people who've stood here have made both choices, in different visits. Neither one is wrong.
— 5 —
There is a particular kind of waterfall story that happens in the age of Instagram: a place sits quietly for years, known only to a handful of local guides and the occasional adventurous traveller, and then one good photograph changes everything.
Phe Phe Falls is that story. As recently as 2019, people who visited described it as relatively unexplored. By 2020, it had become one of the most talked-about destinations in Meghalaya's tourism circuit. The waterfall did not change. The world's attention did.
What stays true regardless of crowds: the water genuinely doesn't dry up. The pool genuinely is that colour. The second tier genuinely does take effort to reach, and most people genuinely don't make it there.
Almanac doesn't pretend this is hidden. It isn't. But it is real, and reliable, and worth the trek even with other people on the trail beside you — because some things are popular for the simple reason that they're actually that good.
It was here before you arrived. It will be here after you leave, and after everyone who photographs it this year leaves too.
— Almanac Field Notes
Uncharted Meghalaya
— 6 —
— 7 —
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