baby mar el chalet oHotel Mona Lisa (%2320416; Mancotta Rd; r 600-1500; a), part Africa, part Cuba and possibly even a

oHotel Mona Lisa (%2320416; Mancotta Rd; r 600-1500; a), part Africa, part Cuba and possibly even a little slice of India, is a superb budget hotel with character. It s set back from the main road and everything is kept ticking along smoothly thanks to the lovely old man running it.

Conjure up an image of a shimmering blue lake broken 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 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. You can hire a boat (per person 100) in order to get a closer look at lake life.

A peaceful lane winding through forested hills and tribal baby mar el chalet settlements links Ziro to Pasighat via Along. Highlights are dizzying suspension footbridges and thatched Adi villages around Along. Do be warned though that the attractions along this route are very low-key, the villagers around Along are much less welcoming to foreigners (and they don t sport the Apatanis tattoos and nose plugs) and the route, which involves three full days of travel, is very tiring. Unless you re going to be heading from Along to fabulous baby mar el chalet Mechuka or remote eastern towns and valleys such as Tuting or the Namdapha National Park then you may find this route something of a let down.

The biggest, most cosmopolitan and, some might say, the most Indian city in the northeast, Guwahati is an essential stop on any northeastern tour. A casual glance might place Guwahati baby mar el chalet alongside any other Indian city but wander the back alleys around Jorpulkuri Ponds, away from the concrete jungle of the central business baby mar el chalet district, and you could almost imagine yourself baby mar el chalet in a village made up of ponds, palm trees, small single-storey traditional houses and old colonial-era mansions.