beaver creek snowshoe All Dirang s commercial services are in New Dirang, with a strip of cheap hotels, eateries and sumo

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 beaver creek snowshoe 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.

Private bus operators are clustered on LN Bari 8 Rd; others leave from the new Interstate Bus Terminal 3km east of the centre (rickshaw 50). Sumos use the Motor Stand (Motor beaver creek snowshoe Stand Rd) and South Bus Station (SBS; off Ronaldsay Rd). Destinations and their respective departure stations for bus and sumo trips are:

boat is met by a bus to Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh. Ferries can carry just two jeeps. There s little shelter and the journey takes around eight hours (5 hours downstream), so bring an umbrella, water and sunscreen. The journey can be quite an adventure with the boats bouncing off the ever-shifting sandbars (and sometimes not bouncing off them!) and with brief stops en route giving glimpses of isolated riverside hamlets. Exact departure points depend on the Brahmaputra s water level.

Nestled before a curtain of luxuriantly forested foothills, Pasighat, which sits back out on the plains, beaver creek snowshoe feels more like Assam than Arunachal Pradesh. The town hosts the interesting Minyong-Adi tribe s Solung Festival (1-5 September). The internet cafe (per hr 60; h7.30am-8pm) is 50m from the Hotel Aane and there s an SBI ATM just along from the sumo stand in the central market area.