Farmstays : Best in a Slow Himalayan Journey
Some holidays are remembered for the places one sees; others stay alive because of the way they feel. A farmstay journey through Yangsum Heritage stay, Rinchenpong and PaliGhar in Kalimpong belongs to the second kind. It is not rushed or crowded. It moves gently through forest roads, village paths, warm kitchens, monastery courtyards and quiet […]
Houses That Remember: Indigenous Architecture Across Nagaland, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh
“Every beam has a story,” the elders say, as the morung is raised by many hands — timber chosen from the forest, carved with clan memory, and built not just as a house, but as the village’s place of learning, gathering and belonging. To travel through Northeast India with attention is to realise that architecture […]
Where the Mist and the Hills Meet: Shergaon, Arunachal Pradesh A family memory from Shergaon, West Kameng
This story began as a journey with my children, when they were seven and eight. We had gone for a farm stay in Shergaon that bred rainbow trout, walked through an old juniper-covered forest, climbed toward ancient ruins, crossed suspension bridges, and visited one of the oldest gompas of the region. Later, the journey became […]
The Last Lines on Their Faces: Meeting Apatani Women in Ziro
There are journeys where the landscape first holds you, and then, slowly, the people teach you how to look at it. Ziro Valley in Arunachal Pradesh is one such place. It arrives in layers: the wet-rice fields stretched like mirrors between pine-covered hills, the bamboo groves, the old village paths, the new concrete homes, the […]
Wizards in the Mist: Curating Luxury and Raw Magic in Meghalaya
There is a distinct, almost cinematic magic that descends upon Meghalaya just before the monsoons arrive. The air grows heavy with anticipation, the forests turn an impossible shade of emerald, and the clouds descend to embrace the hills in a shifting, ethereal dance. As a travel curator, my greatest joy is weaving these raw, untamed […]
Assam Rewilded: Tea, Tribes and Tourism Done Right
Assam Rewilded: Tea, Tribes and Tourism Done Right By a recent traveler as told to Julie Kagti The Brahmaputra River, born from a Tibetan glacier, has shaped the destiny of Assam for millennia. Its annual rhythms dictate the agricultural cycles, the intricate patterns woven into local textiles, and the very architecture of the communities that […]
The Threads That Bind Us: A Journey Through Northeast India’s Living Looms
The Threads That Bind Us: A Journey Through Northeast India’s Living Looms I learned to weave from Aita, my Assamese grandmother, when I was just seven years old. During mid-mornings or late afternoons on our tea estate, when the heat of the day settled into a quiet hum, she would sit at her loom. To […]
Beyond the Cup: The Untold Stories of Assam’s Heritage Tea Estates
Growing up in the verdant, semi-tropical forests of the Brahmaputra Valley, my childhood was measured not by clocks, but by the rhythmic rituals of the tea estate. I remember the low, rolling mist that clung to the emerald bushes in the early morning, the distant, melodic chatter of the tea pluckers, and the deep, malty […]
The Wisdom of the Woods: Slow Travel and Spiritual Rejuvenation in the Eastern Himalayas
By A Traveler with Curtain Call Adventures I didn’t realize how much noise I was carrying until it finally stopped. For years, my life had been dictated by the relentless hum of the city—the constant ping of notifications, the roar of traffic, the rigid schedule of obligations. When I booked my journey to the Eastern […]
Witnessing the Shapawng Yawng Manau Poi: A Visitor’s Journey into Singpho Culture
The first person I met at the festival grounds was Indarjit Tingwa, an esteemed member of the Singpho community with whom I had been corresponding for the past few years to clarify doubts about the tribe and region. He had given me a book on their textiles, and we had talked extensively about the festival […]