chalet lounge some impressive traditional buildings all set, surreally, under two giant mobile phone towers. Shing

Sundarban Guest House HOTEL $ (%2730722; s/d from 385/550; a) A cheery, colourful chalet lounge hotel that s the best budget option in town and about the closest the northeast comes to a backpacker hangout. Rooms are atypically chalet lounge clean and tidy with stain-free sheets, and management is helpful. It s off Manipuribasti East (ME) Rd, in the fi rst side lane and away from road noise.

Tourist Lodge HOTEL $ (%221016; Jenkins Rd; s/d from 473/525) Facing Chitralekha Udyan, two blocks south of the bus station, the Tourist Lodge is unusual for a government-run hotel in that the staff do actually care about the well-being of their guests and the cleanliness of their hotel. This place offers good-value spacious rooms with bathrooms (some squat toilets) and mosquito nets.

some impressive traditional buildings all set, surreally, under two giant mobile phone towers. Shingha Chingyuo village (20km, population 5900) has a huge longhouse decorated with mithuna chalet lounge (pairs of men and women) and deer skulls, three stuff ed tigers, and a store of old human skulls. Longwoa (35km) is spectacularly sited on the India Myanmar border, with the headman s longhouse actually straddling the two nations. Despite its popularity with tourists it remains one of the most interesting villages. Chui (8km) includes an elephant skull in its longhouse collection. Shangnyu village has a shrine full of fertility references such as tumescent warriors, a crowing cock, a large snake, a man and woman enjoying sex and, to complete the picture, a double rainbow. Langmeang village, with its stack of human skulls piled up in a wooden box, is also highly impressive.

India s wildest and least explored state, Arunachal Pradesh, the Land of Dawn-lit Mountains is the final frontier in Indian 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 Tawang Valley are several splendid Monpa monastery villages. Arunachal 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.