peak chalet Rest House Nongriat GUESTHOUSE $ (%9856891520; Nongriat; per person 100) This highly basic four-room

Rest House Nongriat GUESTHOUSE $ (%9856891520; Nongriat; per person 100) This highly basic four-room guesthouse is just one minute from the double-decker bridge and so is ideal if you want to explore the escarpment floor in greater depth. If you stay, take the absolute minimum with you because carrying a backpack back up all those steps would be a real bitch! Meals cost 100.

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. peak chalet 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 enters the Indian subcontinent and becomes the Siang (once it reaches the plains of Assam it turns into the Brahmaputra). Tuting and the River Siang are starting to gain a reputation as one of the world s most thrilling white-water rafting destinations, peak chalet but this ain t no amateurs river. The few people peak chalet who have descended the river have reported that the 180km route is littered with numerous peak chalet 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 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. peak chalet As it turned out the river did indeed tumble over an enormous waterfall and, what s more, it passed through a rich and fertile valley populated by Memba Buddhists, completely peak chalet isolated from the rest of the world. Today, this vast region of northern Arunachal Pradesh and parts of south eastern Tibet remains almost peak chalet 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.

1 Sights Kamakhya Mandir HINDU TEMPLE (admission for no queue/short queue/queue 500/100/free; h8am-1pm & 3pm-dusk) While Sati s disintegrated body parts rained toes on Kolkata peak chalet (see p443), her yoni fell on Kamakhya Hill. This makes Kamakhya Mandir important for shakti (sensual tantric worship of female spiritual power). Goats, pigeons and the occasional buffalo are ritually beheaded in a gory pavilion and the hot, dark inner womblike sanctum is painted red to signify sacrificial blood. The huge June/ July Ambubachi Mela celebrates the end of the mother goddess menstrual cycle with even more blood.

# # POLICEBAZAARWard'sLakeKacheriRd GuwahatiShilllongRd OaklandRd JailRd JailRdThanaRd RitaRdBouchierRd PoliceBazaarRd Camel'sBackRd QuintonRd BivarRd KeatingRd 8 19 10 12 14 5 6 7 11 13 2 3 4 Tirat Singh Syien (TSS) Rd 431CBC24312BAADDShillong eTo AllSaints' Cathedral(200m); Khasi Monoliths & Globe Monument (400m); Das-Roy House (450m) peak chalet To Siat Khnam (1.1km) 0 400 m 0 0.2 miles NORTHEAST TRIBAL STATES MEGHAL AYA 6666666666666666666666666666666 #