12 hours of snowmass Forty-five kilometres north of Kohima is the small town of Tuophema, which can make a useful overnig

FACIAL TATTOOING Historically famous for their beauty, Apatani women were all too often kidnapped by warriors of the neighbouring Nishi tribes. As a defence , Apatani girls were deliberately defaced. They were given facial tattoos, like graffitied beards scribbled onto living 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 12 hours of snowmass sensitive issue, so ask first. Some Apatani women have had cosmetic surgery to remove their tattoos.

Forty-five kilometres north of Kohima is the small town of Tuophema, which can make a useful overnight stop on the road to Mon if you leave Kohima 12 hours of snowmass late in the day. Although the town itself is nothing special, the

La Villa GUESTHOUSE $ (%9435657282; jyoti24365@gmail.com; r from 300) Run by knowledgeable and keen-toplease 12 hours of snowmass Jyoti Naryan Sarma (who also acts as a guide), this Garamur guesthouse has three brightly painted but uninspiring rooms overlooking an open-billed stork roosting site (whose dawn chorus will do away with any need for an alarm clock).