enchanted valley chalet Of the four daily trains to Delhi, the Guwahati New Delhi Rajdhani (No 2423; 3AC/2AC 1995/2565, 27 h

Of the four daily trains enchanted valley chalet to Delhi, the Guwahati New Delhi Rajdhani (No 2423; 3AC/2AC 1995/2565, 27 hours, 7.05am) is the fastest; others take over 42 hours. The best daily train to Kolkata enchanted valley chalet (Howrah Junction) is the Saraighat Express (No 2346; sleeper/3AC/2AC 386/1012/1366, 16 hours, 12.45pm). For New Jalpaiguri (for Darjeeling and Sikkim) the best train is the Guwahati New Jalpaiguri Rajdhani (No 2423; 3AC/2AC/1AC 733/926/1522, six hours).

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!

After all this huffi ng and puffi ng around the Northeast it s time to relax with a jolly nice cup of tea, don t you think old chap? And where better to do so than in a colonial-era heritage bungalow on a working tea estate. Bookings are essential.

Air India (%2264420, Ganeshguri), IndiGo Airlines, Jet Airways (%2633252; Tayebullah enchanted valley chalet Rd), Kingfisher and SpiceJet fly to Guwahati from most major Indian cities (often with a stopover in Kolkata). enchanted valley chalet Getting into town from Guwahati s orderly Lok-Priya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport costs 500/100/70 for taxi/shared taxi/airport bus.