A Quiet New Year’s Eve in Mizoram with My Family
A family wishlist of clouds, markets, forests, waterfalls and cloth A window above Aizawl Every New Year’s Eve, I find myself wishing for less noise and more sky. As Julie—the curator at Curtain Call Adventures and a fiber artist—I am drawn to places where colour, craft and landscape meet. This year, I want to take […]
Where the Hills Keep Their Stories: A Slow Journey Through Northeast India
A map made of journeys I would not sell Northeast India as a five-day checklist. The map is too folded, the roads too weather-sensitive, and the places too alive to be reduced to viewpoints between flights. Instead, I imagine returning in linked journeys: Assam as the riverine beginning; Meghalaya as a rain-shaped walking chapter; Arunachal […]
A Slow Christmas Break in Shillong: Coffee, Forest Walks, Music and Local Craft
On a December morning in Shillong, the hills seem to wake beneath a veil of silver light. Pine-scented air drifts through the streets, church bells mingle with distant music, and the city begins its day with steaming cups of coffee, market chatter and the promise of Christmas in the air. This is a place that […]
Travelling with Small Children Through Assam and East Arunachal Pradesh
Stories of gibbons, tea gardens, Tangsa culture, rivers and Namdapha The Morning the Forest Came to Visit My children were so excited – ages 7 and 8 that they were awake before dawn for the day to begin. In the soft, pale light of an Upper Assam morning, we leave the tea-garden bungalow quietly, carrying […]
Travel with Confidence: What Curtain Call Adventures Offers Senior Travellers
“Curtain Call Adventures helped make a long-held dream come true. I was able to celebrate my birthday in Sikkim with close friends, and the support we received made the journey comfortable and enjoyable from the beginning. The home pick-up, airport assistance and personal chauffeur service gave us great peace of mind. We could focus on […]
Beyond Tiger’s Nest: An Immersive Week in Bhutan
A Journey Through Happiness, Heritage and Himalayan Valleys Bhutan is best experienced slowly. In a country where Buddhist values, cultural preservation, environmental responsibility and wellbeing are gathered under the philosophy of Gross National Happiness, a hurried itinerary misses the point. The ideal week-long journey is a gentle circuit through Thimphu, Punakha and Paro, combining dzongs, […]
Where the Landscape Remembers: My first Impressions of The Bodo Community
In April 2016, I arrived in Bongaigaon, Western Assam expecting to curate an experience for our potential clients. Instead, the Bodo landscape curated me. After Bongaigaon, paddy fields opened in long green sheets, bamboo leaned over village paths, and the distant hills of Bhutan gathered blue along the horizon. Rivers were moving beyond the fields—Manas, […]
Wizards in the Mist: A Curated Luxury Journey Through Meghalaya’s Raw, Untamed Nature
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 at Curtain Call Adventures, my greatest joy is […]
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 […]
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 […]