Rhino Assam

Nohkalikai drops about 340 metres in a single fall and the viewpoint is right at the edge. The mist clears in patches and you see the pool at the bottom turn pale green. The local name carries a story. A woman named Ka Likai threw herself off this cliff after a discovery, and the village still talks about it.

The double-decker root bridge is a 3,500-step descent into a Khasi forest. The villagers train ficus elastica roots across the stream over decades; the bridges are alive and they grow stronger. Two children were diving off the lower deck into the pool. It was unremarkable to them.

The dawn elephant safari runs from about six. The mist sits in pockets in the elephant grass and you smell it before you see anything. Our mahout brought us within fifteen metres of a rhino mother and calf. The rhino looked up once, then went back to grazing. The elephant didn't break stride.

Umananda is the smallest inhabited river island. A Shiva temple on a hill in the middle of the Brahmaputra, reached by a ferry that takes about ten minutes. The river is so wide here that the far bank reads as a distant blur. The boatmen know everyone and the priest will mark you with sandal paste if you climb up.