trickle creek cabins Sitting almost halfway between Kohima and Mon most people sensibly choose to break their journey in

Travelling to Dibrugarh ( tea-city ) usefully closes a loop between Kaziranga and the Ziro Along Pasighat route and is the terminus (or starting point) for the fascinating ferry ride along the Brahmaputra to Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh. Dibrugarh is a rapidly growing city with a new road and rail bridge being built at Bogibeel Ghat (originally scheduled to open in 2008, it s now unlikely to be ready for some years to come) that will extend the railway system to north of the Brahmaputra.

panelled rooms with a more reliable trickle creek cabins electricity supply than many similar places. It s in the market trickle creek cabins area. The Hotel Siddhartha (%222515; s 750, d 1030-1350) has large, carpeted and well-kept rooms that help make it the best of the town-centre options.

HEAD HUNTERS Throughout northeastern India and parts of western Myanmar the Naga tribes were long feared for their ferocity in war and for their sense of independence trickle creek cabins both from each other and from the rest of the world. Intervillage wars continued as recently as the 1980s, and a curious feature of many outwardly modern settlements is their treaty stones trickle creek cabins recording peace settlements between neighbouring communities. It was the Naga s custom of headhunting that sent shivers down the spines of neighbouring peoples. The taking of an enemy s head was considered a sign of strength, and a man who had not claimed a head was not considered a man. Fortunately for tourists, headhunting was officially outlawed in 1935, with the last recorded occurrence in 1963. Nonetheless, severed heads are still an archetypal artistic motif found notably on yanra (pendants) that originally trickle creek cabins denoted the number of human heads a warrior had taken. Some villages, such as Shingha Changyuo in Mon district, still retain their hidden collection of genuine skulls. Today Naga culture is changing fast, but it was not a government ban on headhunting trickle creek cabins that put an end to this tradition but rather the activities of Christian missionaries. trickle creek cabins Over 90% of the Naga now consider themselves Christian.

Sitting almost halfway between Kohima and Mon most people sensibly choose to break their journey in laidback Mokokchung. Aside from enjoying the town s spectacular setting, try to make time for a couple of other low-key attractions including the small, privately run Rendikala Subong Museum (Town Hall Rd; admission 10), which contains tribal items collected trickle creek cabins from surrounding villages as well as what is purported to be the world s smallest Bible. The museum is open whenever someone turns up to see it. A couple of kilometres away is pretty Ungma village, where you ll find a couple of huge log drums and a cloud scrapping Jendong (a pole that helps connect people on Earth with the Gods high up in the skies).

chalet store # # POLICEBAZAARWard'sLakeKacheriRd GuwahatiShilllongRd OaklandRd JailRd JailRdThanaRd RitaRdBouchie

oHeritage Hotel HERITAGE HOTEL $$ (%9774416649; www.theheritage.in; Offi cers Hill; r/ ste 1800/3500; W) Back in colonial days this was the home of the deputy commissioner and, with roaring open fires taking the chill off a cold winter night and hunting trophies and tribal arts adorning the walls, it retains something of the flavour of those times.

H2O (Mancotta Rd; mains 80-120, beers from 80) is an upstairs bar-restaurant with elements of spaceship decor. For a break from the rigours of the Indian road you ll fi nd a branch of Caf Coffee Day on HS Rd.

# # POLICEBAZAARWard'sLakeKacheriRd GuwahatiShilllongRd OaklandRd JailRd JailRdThanaRd RitaRdBouchierRd PoliceBazaarRd Camel'sBackRd QuintonRd BivarRd KeatingRd 8 19 10 12 14 5 6 7 11 13 2 3 4 Tirat Singh Syien (TSS) Rd 431CBC24312BAADDShillong eTo AllSaints' Cathedral(200m); Khasi Monoliths & Globe Monument (400m); Das-Roy House (450m) To Siat Khnam (1.1km) 0 400 m 0 0.2 miles NORTHEAST TRIBAL STATES MEGHAL AYA 6666666666666666666666666666666 #

chalet royalp hotel & spa Khasi villagers have trained across streams to form natural pathways. Three of these root bridges (i

Noisy and polluted it might be, but Imphal, with its melange of peoples and positioning right on the border lands of India and southeast Asia is undeniably fascinating and travellers who spend any time here are well rewarded. The airport is 9km to the southwest.

State Museum chalet royalp hotel & spa MUSEUM (admission 5; h9.30am-3.30pm Tue-Sun) The superbly presented State Museum, 3km north, includes plenty of tableaux with mannequins- in-action depicting diff erent traditional Naga lifestyles plus everyday tools.

All Dirang s commercial services are in New Dirang, with a strip of cheap hotels, eateries and sumo counters around the central crossroads. Tourist Lodge (%200176; d 825), a kilometre south and overlooking New Dirang, is a basic but friendly family hotel in an old-style hill house crowded with potted plants. Nicer is the next-door Hotel Pemaling (%207265; s/d 1815/2420), which has shiny rooms, excellent service and a very pleasant garden where you can enjoy the views towards the sometimes snow-bound Se La and the high Himalaya beyond.

Khasi villagers have trained across streams to form natural pathways. Three of these root bridges (including an amazing double- decker ) are near Nongriat. Access chalet royalp hotel & spa involves a two-hour very steep trek down from Tyrna, a pretty, palm-clad village that s 2km from Mawshamok. From Cherrapunjee Holiday Resort the entire roundtrip hike takes eight hours, chalet royalp hotel & spa is highly strenuous and involves descending and ascending some 2000-odd steps (this particular author couldn t walk for two days afterwards!). The Cherrapunjee Holiday Resort provides maps.

michel chalets Diphlu River Lodge HOTEL $$$ (%361-2602223; Guwahati; www.jungletravelsindia.com; jungle plan Indian

571 HORNBILL FESTIVAL Nagaland s biggest annual festival, the Hornbill Festival (1-7 December) is celebrated at Kisama Heritage Village (see below) with various Naga tribes converging for a weeklong cultural, dance and sporting bash, much of it in full warrior costume. michel chalets Of all the festivals michel chalets in the northeast this is the most spectacular and photogenic. Simultaneously, Kohima also hosts a rock festival (www.hornbillmusic.com).

Calling michel chalets the Tawang Valley a valley just doesn t do justice to its incredible scale; it s more a mighty gash in the earth ringed by immense mountains. Patchworking the sloping ridges of the lower hills is a vast sweep of fields dotted with Buddhist monast eries and Monpa villages.

Diphlu michel chalets River Lodge HOTEL $$$ (%361-2602223; Guwahati; www.jungletravelsindia.com; jungle plan Indian s/d 9000/12,000, foreigner michel chalets s/d 18,000/24,000) Fifteen minutes drive west of the tourist complex, this new lodge, with its chic-rustic feel, is without michel chalets doubt the most comfortable place to stay in the Kaziranga region. It consists of six bamboo cottages on raised stilts overlooking a river. The rooms have enormous soft beds and the bathrooms sport heavenly rain showers. There s no sign look for the dirt track on the left (if travelling from the Guwahati direction) beside the 37 marker post.

Sitting almost halfway between Kohima and Mon most people sensibly choose to break their journey in laidback Mokokchung. Aside from enjoying the town s spectacular setting, michel chalets try to make time for a couple of other low-key attractions including the small, privately run Rendikala Subong Museum (Town Hall Rd; admission 10), which contains tribal items collected from surrounding villages as well as what is purported to be the world s smallest Bible. The museum michel chalets is open whenever someone turns up to see it. A couple of kilometres away is pretty Ungma village, where you ll find a couple of huge log drums and a cloud scrapping Jendong (a pole that helps connect people michel chalets on Earth with the Gods high up in the skies).

chalet fleur de lys Tripura Sundari Mandir (h4.30am-1.30pm & 3.30-9.30pm), a 1501 Kali temple where a steady stream of p

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.

location chalet quebec The beautifully forested hills around Itanagar hide the attractive Ganga Lake (5km), a local picnic

This open-air museum (admission 50; h8am-6pm May-Sep, 8am-4.30pm Oct-Apr), which hosts the annual Hornbill Festival, has a representative selection of traditional Naga houses and morungs (bachelor dormitories) with full-size log drums. Kisama is 10km from central Kohima along the well- surfaced Imphal road.

Food ff tame enough in high mountain areas like Tawang, where the food is reminiscent of neighbouring Tibet delicious momos and less-delicious Tibetan tea are all the rage. Head east and things location chalet quebec become more interesting. Barbecued rat, forest antelope and something we couldn t quite identify were on the menu in central Arunachal Pradesh. If you re going to Mizoram, don t take Rover dog meat is a delicacy there. In Nagaland, location chalet quebec grubs, maggots, snakes, location chalet quebec hornets and giant spiders all get taste buds excited.

560 NORTHEAST TRIBAL STATES AS S A M NORTHEAST TOURS The vast majority of foreign tourists visiting the northeast states travel as part of an organised tour, and indeed for four of the states (Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram), independent travel in the normal sense of the word is almost impossible. Instead, the only realistic way of getting permits is to enlist the services of a tour company. Once you have a permit, travelling around independently is not normally a problem, but you re unlikely to find a tour company who ll help you get permits without fi rst hiring a car and driver/guide from them, thus making real independent travel in the permit states pretty much impossible. Most tour companies are based in Guwahati and all of the following can organise permits and tours throughout the northeast. Traveller s Point (Map p554; %2604018; www.assamtourism.org; Prashaanti Tourist Lodge, Station Rd) If you re staying only within Assam then Assam Tourism s commercial booth runs a variety of city- and state-wide tours including day excursions to Hajo via the silk-weaving centre location chalet quebec of Sualkuchi. Network Travels (Map p554; %2605335; www.networktravelsindia.net; GS Rd; h5am9pm) A highly experienced agency whose operations cover the whole of the northeast with tailor-made and fixed-itinerary tours. Organising permits is a speciality. Jungle Travels India (off Map p554; %2667871, 9207042330; www.jungletravelsindia.com; 3b Dirang Arcade, GNB Rd) Another experienced location chalet quebec agency covering the entire location chalet quebec northeast with tailor-made tours and fixed-date departures. It organises all the permits, but can be slightly disorganised in this regard. With two boats, it runs Brahmaputra cruises (see www.assambengalnavigation.com) for four to 10 nights at US$350 per person per night, and also runs the Bansbari Lodge in Manas National Park. Rhino Travels (Map p554; %2540666; www.rhinotravels.com; M Nehru (MN) Rd) This agency offers set-date tours in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. It also offers two- to four-night river cruises. 4 Sleeping & Eating

The beautifully forested hills around Itanagar hide the attractive Ganga Lake (5km), a local picnic spot. Further away (20km) is Poma village, which is about the closest place to town to see the traditional architecture of bamboo longhouses (although many of these are being slowly replaced with concrete box houses).

location chamonix Forty-five kilometres north of Kohima is the small town of Tuophema, which can make a useful overnig

Forty-five kilometres north of Kohima is the small town of Tuophema, which can make a useful overnight stop on the road to Mon if you leave Kohima late in the day. Although location chamonix the town itself is nothing special, the

1 Sights War Cemetery HISTORIC SITE (hdawn-dusk Mon-Sat) This immaculate War Cemetery contains the graves of 1400 British, Commonwealth and Indian soldiers. It stands at the crucially strategic location chamonix junction of the Dimapur and Imphal roads, location chamonix the site of intense fighting against the Japanese during a 64-day WWII battle.

All Dirang s commercial location chamonix services are in New Dirang, with a strip of cheap hotels, location chamonix eateries and sumo counters around location chamonix the central crossroads. location chamonix Tourist Lodge (%200176; d 825), a kilometre south and overlooking New Dirang, is a basic but friendly family hotel in an old-style hill house crowded with potted plants. Nicer is the next-door Hotel Pemaling location chamonix (%207265; s/d 1815/2420), location chamonix which has shiny rooms, excellent location chamonix service and a very pleasant garden where you can enjoy the views towards the sometimes snow-bound Se La and the high Himalaya location chamonix beyond.