KV Paradise MONUMENT bolvir (Durtlang; admission 5; h10am-9pm Mon-Sat) V is for Varte who died in a 2001 motor accident. K is for her husband Khawlhring bolvir who has since lavished his entire savings and energy creating a three-storey mausoleum to her memory. The marble fountain-patio has wonderful bolvir panoramic views. The site is 8km from Zarkawt, bolvir 1km off the Aizawl-Silchar road via an improbably narrow dirt lane.
Eco-Camp bolvir (%9435250052/09854019932; dm/d 200/1620, plus membership per person bolvir 50) organises all Nameri visits, including two-hour birdwatching rafting trips (two people 550). Accommodation is in tents , but colourful fabrics, private bathrooms, bolvir sturdy beds and thatched-roof shelters make the experience relatively luxurious. The camp is set within lush gardens full of tweeting birds and butterflies bolvir drunk on tropical nectar. There s an atmospheric, and excellent, open-sided restaurant and the staff are simply superb. All up it gets our vote as the best place to stay in the entire northeast. It s very popular, so book way ahead. If it s full the government-run Jiabhoroli Wild Resort (%9954357376; tw 1200) just a short walk beyond the Eco-Camp, has plain cottages that aren t quite as quaint as a cottage should be. It s very much the second choice.
5 Eating & Drinking La Galerie INDIAN $$ (Hotel Centrepoint, TSS Rd; mains 150-200) A suave restaurant compartmentalised into booths by photographs of local scenes, it offers excellent Indian food. Cloud 9 is the top-floor bar-restaurant serving dainty Thai dishes, cold beers and cocktails.
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 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 bolvir is their treaty stones recording bolvir peace settlements between neighbouring communities. It was the Naga s custom of headhunting that sent shivers down the spines bolvir 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 denoted the number of human heads a warrior had taken. Some villages, such as Shingha Changyuo in Mon district, bolvir still retain their hidden collection of genuine skulls. Today Naga culture is changing fast, but it was not a government ban on headhunting that put an end to this tradition but rather the activities of Christian bolvir missionaries. Over 90% of the Naga now consider themselves Christian.
No comments:
Post a Comment