trailside park park city Other enchanting gompas and anigompas (nunneries) offer great day hikes from Tawang, including ancie

RAFTING IN THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY Another newly opened route is the Pasighat to Tuting road. This route is all about two things: the River Siang and the mysterious Buddhist land of Pemako. Tuting, which sits near the Tibetan border, is the point at which the Tsang Po river having left the Tibetan plateau and burrowed through the Himalaya via a series of spectacular gorges trailside park park city enters the Indian subcontinent and becomes the Siang (once it reaches trailside park park city the plains trailside park park city of Assam it turns into the Brahmaputra). trailside park park city Tuting and the River Siang are starting to gain a reputation as one of the world s most thrilling white-water rafting destinations, but this ain t no amateurs river. The few people who have descended the river have reported that the 180km route is littered with numerous grade 4-5 rapids, strong eddies and inaccessible gorges. For those after adventure of a different kind Tuting also serves as the launch pad for searching out the legendary Buddhist land of Pemako. You will, however, need more than this guidebook and a compass in order to find it. Buddhist trailside park park city belief says that Pemako is a synonym for a hidden earthly paradise and that it s the earthly representation of Dorje Pagmo, a Tibetan goddess. It was said that this land of milk and honey was to be found in the eastern Himalaya and that to reach it you had to pass behind an enormous hidden waterfall. For hundreds of years outsiders knew that the Tsang Po river left Tibet and entered a huge, and utterly impenetrable, gorge before emerging from the Himalaya around Tuting, but what happened to the river inside that gorge was unknown until the 1950s. As it turned out the river did indeed tumble over an enormous waterfall and, what s more, it passed through a rich and fertile trailside park park city valley populated by Memba Buddhists, completely isolated from the rest of the world. Today, trailside park park city this vast region of northern Arunachal Pradesh and parts of south eastern Tibet remains almost utterly unknown to the outside world, but Pemako is out there and for those willing to endure days of incredibly tough hiking (and deal with reams of paperwork) it is possible to visit.

The ASTC bus station (cnr AT & Temple Rds) has frequent trailside park park city services to Jorhat ( 35 to 45, one hour), Dibrugarh ( 51 to 69, two hours), Tezpur ( 189, five hours), Guwahati ( 310 to 390, eight hours, frequent from 7am).

Other enchanting gompas and anigompas (nunneries) offer great day hikes from Tawang, including ancient if modest Urgelling Gompa where the sixth Dalai Lama was born. By road, it s 6km from Tawang town but closer on foot downhill from Tawang Gompa. At the time of research construction was almost complete on a chasm-spanning cable car that will link the monastery trailside park park city with an anigompa on the opposite side of the valley. There was no information available on whether it would be open to tourists.

Ahom artefacts and nearby Assam Tourism (h10am-5pm Mon-Sat, closed trailside park park city 2nd & 4th Sat) in the good-value Tourist Lodge (%2321579; MG Rd; s/d 578/683), which has tiled floors, mosquito nets and enthusiastic trailside park park city staff who know how to use cleaning products.