chalet store India s wildest and least explored state, Arunachal Pradesh, the Land of Dawn-lit Mountains is the f

FACIAL TATTOOING Historically famous for their beauty, Apatani women were all too often kidnapped by warriors of the neighbouring Nishi tribes. As a defence chalet store , Apatani girls were deliberately defaced. They were given facial tattoos, like graffitied beards scribbled onto living Mona Lisa paintings, and extraordinary nose plugs known as dat fitted into holes cut in their upper nostrils. Some men also have tattoos. Peace with the Nishis in the 1960s meant an end to that brutal practice, but many older women still wear dat. Photography chalet store is an understandably sensitive issue, so ask first. Some Apatani women have had cosmetic surgery to remove their tattoos.

India s wildest chalet store and least explored state, Arunachal Pradesh, the Land of Dawn-lit Mountains is the final frontier in Indian chalet store tourism. The state rises abruptly from the Assam plains as a mass of densely forested, and impossibly steep, hills. These in turn rise to fabulous snow-capped peaks along the Tibetan border. At least 25 tribal groups live in Arunachal s valleys; high up in the dramatic chalet store Tawang Valley are several splendid Monpa monastery villages. Arunachal chalet store has yet to be fully surveyed and mapped, but slowly its high passes and deep valleys are starting to open up to those with an adventurous heart.

1 Sights Ujjayanta Palace PALACE (admission 5; h5-7pm) Agartala chalet store s indisputable centrepiece is this striking, dome-capped palace. Flanked by two large refl ecting ponds, the whitewashed 1901 edifice chalet store was built by Tripura s 182nd maharaja. It looks particularly impressive chalet store floodlit at night, but for security reasons only the gardens are open to the public.

Diphlu River Lodge HOTEL $$$ (%361-2602223; Guwahati; www.jungletravelsindia.com; jungle plan Indian s/d 9000/12,000, foreigner s/d 18,000/24,000) Fifteen chalet store minutes drive west of the tourist complex, this new lodge, with its chic-rustic feel, is without 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.