Manipur to the Naga HillsImphal, Loktak, Khonoma, Touphema.

Day by day

The unfolding.

1. Day 01

   Arrive Imphal

   Met at Imphal airport and checked into a quiet heritage hotel. Afternoon at the Shree Govindajee temple beside the old royal palace, ISKCON and the Imphal War Cemetery — one of the two great Commonwealth cemeteries in the northeast where the 1944 Battle of Imphal turned the Japanese advance into India.

2. Day 02

   Moreh — India / Myanmar border

   A full-day excursion (about four hours each way) south to Moreh on the Myanmar border. Walk across the Friendship Bridge to Tamu on the Burmese side for an hour in the cross-border market, then return via the Tengnoupal viewpoint over the Manipur hills.

3. Day 03

   Andro · Kangla · Ima Keithel

   Morning at Andro, a Meitei heritage village east of Imphal where the sacred fire of Panam Ningthou has burned uninterrupted for centuries, with rice-wine households open for tastings. Afternoon at Kangla Fort, the seat of the Meitei kings before the British, and then a slow walk through Ima Keithel — the world's only entirely-women-run market, where 4,000 mothers trade fish, vegetables, textiles and ceremonial goods under one roof.

4. Day 04

   Loktak lake & the floating phumdis

   Drive south to Bishnupur for the 17th-century Vishnu temple and the INA Memorial (the Indian National Army's Manipur campaign), then on to Loktak — the largest freshwater lake in the northeast, famous for its circular floating islands of vegetation (phumdis) and the Sangai brow-antlered deer that survives only on the largest phumdi inside Keibul Lamjao, the world's only floating national park. Afternoon country-boat ride through the phumdi channels and sunset from the Sendra island viewpoint.

5. Day 05

   Imphal → Kohima

   Long but striking drive (about seven hours) north into the Naga hills via Maram, a large traditional Naga village of stone-paved lanes and megalithic memorial stones, with a picnic lunch en route. Arrive Kohima by evening at 1,500 metres.

6. Day 06

   Khonoma & Kohima War Cemetery

   Morning drive twenty kilometres west to Khonoma — Asia's first declared green village and ancestral seat of the Angami, the site of their final stand against the British in 1879. A village walk with a local Angami guide through stone-paved lanes, the three khel forts and the community-managed forest. Traditional Angami lunch in a family home. Return to Kohima for the Commonwealth War Cemetery and the famous Kohima Epitaph in the afternoon.

7. Day 07

   Kohima — museum, Kisama & market

   Morning at the Nagaland State Museum's tribal galleries for an overview of all sixteen recognised tribes before you meet them at Kisama Heritage Village (built as a permanent set of morungs for the Hornbill Festival, but quietly visitable year-round). Afternoon at the famous Kohima market — bamboo shoot, smoked pork, hornets' larvae, dog meat and the red Naga king chilli, all on open display.

8. Day 08

   Touphema community village

   Drive forty kilometres north-east to Touphema, an award-winning Angami community-tourism village where you stay in traditional houses run by the village council itself, share an Angami feast cooked by the women's collective, and watch evening dance and folk-song performances around the bonfire.

9. Day 09

   Kohima → Dimapur · Departure

   Three-hour descent to Dimapur airport for the onward flight.