chalets direct The impoverished hill town of Mon is in a gorgeous setting but feels like a frontier town. There s a

Guwahati is considered the site of Pragjyotishpura, a semi-mythical town founded by Asura King Naraka who was later killed by Lord Krishna for a pair of magical earrings. The city was a vibrant cultural centre well before the Ahoms arrived, and later it was the theatre of intense Ahom Mughal

Conjure up an image of a shimmering chalets direct blue lake broken chalets direct up into small lakelets by floating islands of thick matted weeds. Add bamboo bridges, tribal people in dugout canoes and thatched hut-villages anchored on to the floating chalets direct islands, and you have Loktak Lake, one of the few places a foreigner is allowed to visit outside of Imphal. More peculiar than floating villages are the large, perfectly circular fishing ponds created out of floating rings of weeds. The best view is atop Sendra Island, more a promontory than island. chalets direct You can hire a boat (per person 100) in order to get a closer look at lake life.

The impoverished hill town of Mon is in a gorgeous setting but feels like a frontier town. There s an SBI ATM in the town centre but don t rely on it working. The little village market is well worth exploring and like so many markets in the northeast, it s the exotic food items that stick longest in the memory. Of the numerous tribal villages in the area the closest is Old Mon village, a mere 5km from town. Tamgnyu village (13km) is a rarely visited, yet easy to reach, village with a friendly headman, a couple of human skulls left over from headhunting days and

Hotel Rajawas (%2323307; www.hotel rajawas.com; AT Rd; s/d from 687/860; ai) is a new, mirror-fronted hotel with a flowerfilled chalets direct lobby, cheeky modern art on the walls and decent bathrooms. The deluxe rooms are the best bet (single/double 1144/1399). If you ve just trudged in from the mountains and jungles of Arunachal Pradesh you ll think its in-house restaurant (mains 120-160) is the best thing since sliced bread (or maybe cold dhal).