Tribal WondersAoling with the Konyak, Mopin with the Adi Galo.

Day by day

The unfolding.

1. Day 01

   Arrive Dibrugarh

   You are received at Dibrugarh's Mohanbari airport in upper Assam and driven to a heritage tea-planter's bungalow set inside a working estate. Afternoon walk through the tea gardens with the planter, an introduction to the route ahead over a sundowner on the verandah, and a quiet first night.

2. Day 02

   Dibrugarh → Mon (Konyak country)

   An early start for the long but striking drive (about eight hours) east across the Brahmaputra and up into the northern Naga hills to Mon, the district headquarters of the Konyak — the last of the headhunting tribes. Check into a simple Konyak-run guesthouse with valley views. By evening the first dances of Aoling, the Konyak spring festival, begin in the open ground — bonfires, log-drum rhythms and warriors in feathered headgear marking the end of the seed-sowing season.

3. Day 03

   Longwa village — the border that runs through a king's house

   Day excursion to Longwa, the largest Konyak village in the region, where the Angh's (chief's) long bamboo house literally straddles the India–Myanmar border — he eats in India and sleeps in Myanmar. You meet the Angh and his queens, sit with tattooed-faced elders whose chest tattoos record headhunts taken in their youth, visit the morung (warriors' dormitory) and the village blacksmith who still hammers brass headhunter necklaces. Return to Mon for the second evening of Aoling celebrations.

4. Day 04

   Mon → Dibrugarh via Shangnyu

   Morning at Shangnyu, a traditional Konyak village with a remarkable carved wooden panel said to be 400 years old, and the cliff-edge graveyard of the chiefs. Long descent back to the Brahmaputra plains and your Dibrugarh bungalow by evening.

5. Day 05

   Dibrugarh → Basar/Along · Mopin festival

   Cross the Brahmaputra by the 4.9-kilometre Bogibeel bridge and climb into Arunachal Pradesh. By midday you reach Basar, heartland of the Adi Galo tribe, in time for the colour and rice-paste blessings of Mopin — the Galo agricultural festival marking the start of the cropping cycle. Continue to Along (Aalo) by evening.

6. Day 06

   Along · Adi villages & Mopin

   Morning at Kabu and Paya, two large Adi Galo villages where you walk among bamboo longhouses on stilts, watch the popir dance (men and women in a long swaying line), and share a meal of bamboo-shoot and smoked pork with a host family. Afternoon back at the Mopin grounds for the closing rituals and rice-beer hospitality.

7. Day 07

   Along → Daporijo

   Slow scenic drive (about seven hours) along the Subansiri river through Tagin and Hill Miri country. Stops at hanging cane bridges across the river gorges and a Tagin village where the headman shows you mithun-skull hunting trophies on the porch. Overnight in Daporijo's simple circuit-house style accommodation.

8. Day 08

   Daporijo → Ziro

   Continue the climb (about six hours) onto the Apatani plateau at 1,500 metres, one of the most fertile and densely populated valleys in the eastern Himalaya. Check into a homestay among the paddy fields.

9. Day 09

   Ziro — Apatani villages

   A full day among the four classic Apatani villages of Hong (one of Asia's largest tribal villages), Hari, Bulla and Dutta. You see the famous paddy-cum-fish cultivation, the bamboo pipes carrying spring water through every home, and meet the older Apatani women whose faces still carry the distinctive nose-plugs and blue facial tattoos given a generation ago. Visit the small but excellent Ziro state museum and end the day with apong rice beer in a traditional kitchen.

10. Day 10

    Ziro → Majuli island

    Long descent (about eight hours) out of the Himalayas, back across the Brahmaputra plains and onto the Jorhat ferry to Majuli. Overnight in a bamboo cottage on the island.

11. Day 11

    Majuli — satras and Mishing villages

    A full day at Majuli pace: Uttar Kamalabari and Auniati satras for sattriya dance rehearsals by the young bhakat monks, Shamaguri for the master mask-makers of bhaona theatre, Salmora pottery village where the women still build pots by hand without a wheel, and a Mishing village by sunset with apong on the verandah.

12. Day 12

    Majuli → Kaziranga

    Morning ferry off the island and a three-hour drive west to Kaziranga. Afternoon jeep safari in the Western (Bagori) range with rhino, wild buffalo and the evening light over the elephant grass.

13. Day 13

    Kaziranga — Central range & elephant grass

    Pre-dawn jeep safari in the Central (Kohora) range — the famous rhino-and-tiger country, with swamp deer, wild boar and a strong birding cast (Pallas's fish eagle, grey-headed fish eagle, Bengal florican on a lucky day). Rest through the midday heat. A second afternoon safari in a quieter zone of the same range, or a walk in the Panbari rainforest tract for hoolock gibbon.

14. Day 14

    Kaziranga → Guwahati · Departure

    Four-hour drive west to Guwahati airport in time for an afternoon onward flight.