michel chalets CROSSING INTO BANGLADESH AT AGARTALA Border Hours The border at Agartala is open from 7am to 6pm. Fo

CROSSING INTO BANGLADESH AT AGARTALA Border Hours The border at Agartala is open from 7am to 6pm. Foreign Exchange There s no exchange booth and Agartala banks don t sell Bangladeshi taka, so changing money is hit and miss; ask local traders michel chalets or border offi cials. Onward Transport From central Agartala the border is just 3km along Akhaura Rd ( 50 by rickshaw). michel chalets On the Bangladesh side the nearest town is Akhaura, 5km beyond, reached by baby taxi (autorickshaw). From Akhaura trains head to Dhaka, Comilla and Sylhet. Coming eastbound, be sure to pay your Bangladeshi departure tax at a Sonali bank before heading for the border. Visas Unhelpful, michel chalets but the northeast s only Bangladesh visa office (%2324807; Airport Rd, Kunjaban; happlication 9am-1pm Mon-Thu, michel chalets 9am-noon Fri, collection same day 4pm) hides down a small lane in Agartala, about 2km north of the Ujjayanta Palace. michel chalets

FACIAL TATTOOING Historically famous for their beauty, Apatani women were all too often kidnapped by warriors of the neighbouring Nishi tribes. As a defence michel chalets , Apatani girls were deliberately defaced. They were given facial tattoos, like graffitied beards scribbled onto living michel chalets Mona Lisa paintings, and extraordinary nose plugs known as dat fitted into holes cut in their upper nostrils. Some men also have tattoos. Peace with the Nishis in the 1960s meant an end to that brutal practice, but many older women still wear dat. Photography is an understandably sensitive issue, so ask first. Some Apatani women have had cosmetic surgery to remove their tattoos.

Hotel Clover HOTEL $$ (%2305736; www.davids-hotel-clover.com; G-16 Chanmari; s/d from 750/1500; iW) Dolly, your host for the evening, should win an award as one of India s friendliest hotel receptionists. Rooms are equally friendly and as full of character with colourful, art-adorned walls.

oHeritage Hotel HERITAGE HOTEL $$ (%9774416649; www.theheritage.in; Offi cers Hill; r/ ste 1800/3500; W) Back in colonial days this was the home of the deputy commissioner and, with roaring open fires taking michel chalets the chill off a cold winter night and hunting trophies and tribal arts adorning the walls, it retains something of the flavour of those times.