six two five The impoverished hill town of Mon is in a gorgeous setting but feels like a frontier town. There s a

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. six two five The little village market is well worth exploring and like so many markets in the northeast, it s the exotic six two five 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, six two five a couple of human skulls left over from headhunting days and

Carved out of Assam in 1972, hilly Meghalaya (Abode of Clouds) is a cool, pine-fresh contrast to the sweaty Assam plains. Set on dramatic horseshoes of rocky cliff above the Bengal plains, Cherrapunjee and Mawsynram are statistically the wettest places on earth. Most of the rain falls between six two five April and September, creating very impressive waterfalls and carving out some of Asia s longest caves.

oDon Bosco Museum of Indigenous Cultures MUSEUM (www.dbcic.org; Sacred Heart Theological College; Indian/foreigner 50/150; six two five h9.30am-4.30pm Mon- Sat, 1.30-4.30pm Sun, until 5.30 Apr-Sep) This very professional museum displays a truly vast, very well laid-out collection of tribal artefacts interspersed just occasionally with gratuitous galleries on Christian missionary six two five work. Tours (compulsory) last over an hour, departing on the half-hour.