The Journal
Notes from the road.
Guides, timing tips and quiet local knowledge - the things we'd tell a friend before they travelled.
September 2026 · 8 min read
Dzukou Valley: Nagaland's Valley in the Clouds
A day in Kohima, a trek up through monsoon rain, and a night at eight thousand feet that turned into a birthday spent playing Uno by torchlight with people met two days earlier.
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September 2026 · 7 min read
Majuli: Two Days on the Island That Is Disappearing
Two days on the largest river island in the world, written by someone who went in January - the satras, the mask makers of Samaguri, the stilt villages, the potters of Salmora, and an island that is measurably smaller every year.
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August 2026 · 4 min read
Chandubi: The Lake an Earthquake Made
Ninety minutes south-west of Guwahati there is a lake that did not exist before 1897. No sight to tick off, no queue, no entry gate - just Rabha fishing villages, dugout canoes and a great deal of quiet.
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August 2026 · 5 min read
Eight Days in Japan: A Traveller's Diary
Osaka, Kyoto, Mount Fuji and Tokyo in seven nights - written by the traveller who did it, with her husband and their parents. A bullet train, a mountain she had waited years to see, and a Nepali restaurant across the road from the hotel.
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July 2026 · 2 min read
The Best Time to Visit North East India
Meghalaya's living root bridges, Arunachal's high passes and Assam's rhinos each keep their own calendar. Here's how to time the North East right - and a few things that will surprise you.
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July 2026 · 2 min read
Planning a Bali Honeymoon: What Actually Matters
Beyond the Instagram shots - the hotel splits, the day-pacing and the small, quiet touches that make a Bali honeymoon feel effortless rather than exhausting.
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July 2026 · 2 min read
Kerala in 5 Days: Hills, Spice & Backwaters
A tried-and-tested route through Munnar, Thekkady and Alleppey - what to see, what to skip, and why this corner of India runs at a slower clock.
ReadJuly 2026 · 2 min read
Japan for First-Timers: Osaka, Kyoto & Tokyo
The classic first Japan trip - where to base yourself, how to let the bullet train do the work, and how to pace Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo so it feels effortless.
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July 2026 · 2 min read
Thailand's Islands: Krabi, Phuket & Phi Phi
Beaches, limestone cliffs and island-hopping - how to string together Thailand's south without spending your whole holiday on a boat.
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August 2026 · 3 min read
Guwahati to Sohra: The Road That Climbs Into the Clouds
Three and a half hours, one long climb, and the moment the plains let go of you. Notes from the drive every Meghalaya trip begins with - and why you should never do it in a hurry.
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August 2026 · 4 min read
Guwahati to Tawang: Two Days, One Pass, and the Longest Road I Know
Permits at Bhalukpong, a night in Dirang, and then 13,700 feet of Sela Pass with the prayer flags going sideways. The hardest drive in the North East, and the one people never stop talking about.
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August 2026 · 3 min read
Mawlynnong: What the Cleanest Village in Asia Actually Teaches You
It is on every list and every reel, and I went expecting a tourist trap. What I found was quieter, stranger and more interesting than the title suggests.
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August 2026 · 3 min read
3,000 Steps Down: Walking to the Double-Decker Root Bridge
Everyone shows you the photograph. Nobody mentions the staircase. On Nongriat, wet stone, screaming calves, and the strange feeling of standing on something that is still alive.
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August 2026 · 3 min read
The Women of Sualkuchi and the Mekhela Chador
An hour from Guwahati is a town where the sound in the street is thousands of handlooms. The golden silk woven here grows nowhere else on earth - and it is almost entirely made by women.
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August 2026 · 3 min read
A Million Stars Over Cherrapunji
The wettest place on earth spends most of the year under cloud. On the nights it clears, the sky over the plateau does something I have not seen anywhere else in India.
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August 2026 · 3 min read
Eye to Eye With a One-Horned Rhino
Kaziranga at first light, elephant grass over your head, and an animal the size of a car deciding whether you are worth its attention. There is nothing else in India quite like this.
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August 2026 · 3 min read
The Monsoon, and My Brand-New Nikes
I wore white sneakers to the wettest place on earth. This is a cautionary tale, a packing list, and an argument for coming in the rain anyway.
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August 2026 · 4 min read
The Brahmaputra Is Not a River. It Is an Ocean.
Stand on the bank at Guwahati and you cannot always see the other side. On the mightiest river in India, the island that is disappearing, and why everything in Assam is organised around water.
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August 2026 · 2 min read
Ziro Festival of Music: Four Days in a Paddy Field
India's best-sited music festival happens in an Apatani rice valley in Arunachal, and getting there is half the story. Our guide to the offbeat North East's one unmissable September date.
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August 2026 · 2 min read
Anini: The Emptiest Road in India
Dibang Valley is one of the least densely populated districts in the country, and Anini sits at the end of it. The most offbeat North East drive we run, and the one we are most careful about.
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August 2026 · 2 min read
Mechuka: Three Days to Get There, Worth Every One
A grassy valley on the Tibet border with a 400-year-old monastery above it and a visitor count you could count on your hands. The offbeat North East at its furthest.
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August 2026 · 2 min read
Roing, Mayodia and Parashuram Kund: Eastern Arunachal's Loop
Snow on a pass at 8,000 feet, a lake with a legend, and a river confluence where lakhs of pilgrims bathe each January. The offbeat North East circuit almost nobody sells.
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August 2026 · 7 min read
Sacred Assam: A Religious Tour of the Whole State
Shakti Peethas and Vaishnavite satras, a dargah that carries a quarter of Mecca, Buddhist monasteries in the tea belt, a gurudwara on the Brahmaputra, and the Welsh churches over the border in Meghalaya. The long version.
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