Tripura s low-key capital, with its small- town atmosphere, feels like an India of yesteryear. The pace of life is much slower than in the towns and cities of the Indian heartlands and people are much more likely to swerve across the street to wish you a good day than to try and sell you something. The old quarter, which centres on the Ujjayanta Palace, has some impressive town gates and pretty tanks and gardens. Durga puja is celebrated with huge pandals (temporary temples built from wood and cloth).
La Maison de Ananda GUESTHOUSE $ (%9435205539; dm 150-200) On a Garamur back lane, this French-owned traditionally styled thatched house on bamboo stilts chalet fleur de lys has rooms decked out in locally made fabrics, which give it a hippie-chic atmosphere. It s probably the best value-for-money lodgings on the island.
Tripura Sundari Mandir (h4.30am-1.30pm & 3.30-9.30pm), a 1501 Kali temple where a steady stream of pilgrims make almost endless animal sacrifices that leave the grounds as bloody as the temple s vivid-red shikhara (Buddhist monastery). Even more people come here at the big Diwali festival (October/November) to bathe in the fishfilled tank by the temple. The temple is 100m east of the NH44, 4km south of Udaipur. A rickshaw from Udaipur costs 50.
Umananda Mandir HINDU TEMPLE (Peacock Island) The temple complex sits on a small forested river island, accessed by a 15-minute ride on a ferry ( 10 return, chalet fleur de lys half hourly 8am to 4.30pm) from Kachari Ghat, which itself offers attractive chalet fleur de lys afternoon river views. The Shiva temple, which sits atop the island, is less interesting chalet fleur de lys than the boat ride out to it.
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