paine massif Out of town, and by far the best place to stay, is the new Ziro Valley Resort (%9856910173; Biiri vi

The ASTC bus station (cnr AT & Temple Rds) has frequent 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).

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

Out of town, and by far the best place to stay, is the new Ziro Valley Resort (%9856910173; Biiri village; r in old wing 1000, tw/d 1200/1500), which has rainbow-coloured rooms in a faux colonial style building. It s halfway between Old and New Ziro and is surrounded by sunburnt fields. It s also known as the Village Tourist Lodge. At the time of research another midrange resort style place was under construction near the Ziro Valley Resort.

Khasi villagers have trained across streams to form natural pathways. Three of these root bridges (including an amazing double- decker ) are near Nongriat. Access involves a two-hour very steep trek down from Tyrna, a pretty, palm-clad village that s 2km from Mawshamok. paine massif From Cherrapunjee Holiday Resort the entire roundtrip hike takes eight hours, is highly strenuous and involves descending and ascending some 2000-odd steps (this particular author couldn t walk for two days afterwards!). The Cherrapunjee Holiday Resort provides maps.