About Us

Cherrapunjee Holiday Resort is a family run Nature Resort and is the first Resort established in Cherrapunjee way back on 12th June 2000 when there was no accommodation available in the entire Cherrapunjee area for tourists. The Promoters I, Denis P.Rayen hailing from Madurai, Tamil Nadu and my wife Mary Carmela Shati hailing from Laitkynsew where the Resort is located used to visit Laitkynsew from different parts of India for 18 years to spend our family holidays. Our children and we always cherished our holidays at Laitkynsew. The thought of building a Resort in Laitkynsew came when I was posted at Puri, Odisha after observing how families enjoyed the Puri Beach and the hoteliers were having good business.

We thought we can revive the dwindling economy of our place by bringing the market to the area by promoting the place as a Tourist Destination. We decided to take the people from the village and train and empower them to be good hosts and to be able to run the Resort thereby generating local employment. We hope that the regular interaction with guests from across the world will help our youth to have greater ambitions in their lives to make the best of their lives.

To promote the area, I had been trekking around the area since we started construction, mapped out treks, promoted the Root Bridges, gave the names ‘Living Root Bridge’, ‘Double Decker Root Bridge’, which have become International Tourist attractions, ‘Natural Swimming Pools’ that are loved by our International Guests very much. We keep gathering more information, learning about the history of the place, compiled the legends of the place and post the knowledge gained in our website. We collect the weather data of Cherrapunjee and collate meteorological information why it rains here so much and its origins and present it interestingly in our website for a lay person to understand in simple language, to drive up interest in the whole area. Now it is heartening to see many in and around Cherrapunjee have taken up tourism as a great economic activity and many resorts, hotels and homestays have come up. Many of our youth are eagerly working as Tourist Guides and are promoting the place through Social Media. Whereas for many, many years on end I had seen Cherrapunjee and its surrounding villages remaining unchanged and people living the same way, now with our people embracing tourism with both hands, I can see changes happening at a very fast pace, every month. Vibrancy has come to the economy of Cherrapunjee (Sohra) and the surrounding villages. And I am sure this is just the beginning. Our youngsters will take this forward march way ahead and create great opportunities for themselves and others. A great scenic location is now freely accessible to people from around the Globe and the scenic beauty of this place and the dramatic terrain thickly forested with sub-tropical rain forests suited for great trekking is available for one and all to come and enjoy. Adventure Caving, River Canyoning, Zip Lining and Bird Watching are activities that are engaging the tourists to enjoy this place better.

Now our children have started joining us in the business. We have set up one Pure Vegetarian Restaurant by the name Orange Roots at Sohra (Cherrapunjee) town since March 2015 so that everyone of all culinary persuasions can come and enjoy Cherrapunjee. It can seat 150 persons at a time. We serve delicious Pan Indian Thalis at very competitive rates, Dosas and Jain Food too. We are happy to see hundreds of people enjoying their meals and going back highly satisfied. Our son Joel and daughter-in-law Iris are taking care of Orange Roots assisted by over 25 young people from Sohra and are there to make your experience of Cherrapunjee memorable.
Our daughter Angela who lives in Mumbai supports us in our work taking care of the Correspondences and is actively involved in the day to day running of the Resort.