mon chalet co oHotel Gakyi Khang Zhang (%224 647; r from 1320), a couple of kilometres out of town on the road to

boat is met by a bus to Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh. Ferries can carry just two jeeps. There s little shelter and the journey takes around eight hours (5 hours downstream), so bring an umbrella, water and sunscreen. The journey can be quite an adventure with the boats bouncing off the ever-shifting sandbars (and sometimes mon chalet co not bouncing off them!) and with brief stops en route giving glimpses of isolated riverside hamlets. Exact departure points depend on the Brahmaputra s water level.

oHotel Gakyi Khang Zhang (%224 647; r from 1320), a couple of kilometres out of town on the road to the monastery, offers far and away the best rooms in town colourful sky-blue affairs with polished wooden floors. There s a decent restaurant (mains 80-120) and the staff are great fun. It also has good monastery views, a generator and, most bizarrely, a lounge bar/nightclub complete with throbbing strobe lights!

While each of these hotels have good restaurants, mon chalet co the cosy Dragon Restaurant (Old Market; mains 60-150) is the town s best eatery with freshly made local dishes such as churpa ( 150), a fermented cheese mon chalet co broth with fungi and vegetables mon chalet co that tastes much better than it sounds. Also don t miss the Tibetan tea. An acquired taste if ever there were one.