village of sugar mountain Tripura is culturally and politically fascinating, and the state s handful of royal palaces and temp

Tripura is culturally and politically fascinating, and the state s handful of royal palaces and temples draw a growing flow of domestic tourists. For the moment though foreign tourists remain very rare indeed. There s a large Bangladeshi refugee population in Tripura and much of the more accessible western parts of the state look and feel much like its near neighbour.

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

Two kilometres east of Hajo is a mosque sheltering the tomb of the multi-named Hazarat Shah Sultan Giasuddin Aulia Rahmatullah Alike who died some 800 years ago. Muslims need to walk (the less pious may drive) 4km up a spiral road to reach the mosque, which is architecturally unremarkable.