Shillong

The British made Shillong the civil station for the Khasi Hills in 1864 and the capital of Assam province in 1874, drawn by a plateau at 1,500 metres where pines grew and the Bengal heat did not reach; it remained Assam's capital until Meghalaya was carved out in 1972 and kept the seat. The great earthquake of 1897 flattened the first town, so what survives is Edwardian: All Saints' Church, the half-timbered bungalows of the old civil lines, Ward's Lake with its wooden bridge, and the golf course laid out in 1898. But the city's character is Khasi, a matrilineal society where property passes through the youngest daughter and the vast Iewduh market is run by women who sell everything from dried fish to broom grass.

Shillong also produced India's most durable rock scene, with gigs most weekends, a chamber choir that has toured the world and an annual Bob Dylan birthday concert that has run since 1972. A day might begin with cakes at a Laitumkhrah bakery, take in the Don Bosco Museum's seven floors of northeastern tribal life and the view from Shillong Peak, drive out to the grass lip of Laitlum Canyons or the sacred grove at Mawphlang, and end with jadoh and a gig in Police Bazar. In November the cherry blossoms line the roads and the city throws a festival.

Shillong is the base for all of Meghalaya, but it deserves its own two days.