Mizoram

Mizoram is the quietest of the northeastern states and one of the most literate in India. Twenty-one parallel ridges run north to south, so travel means long climbs and hairpin descents rather than distance. Aizawl sits on one such spur, its houses stacked on stilts down the slope, with Bara Bazar selling smoked pork, bird's eye chillies and fresh bamboo shoot, and the private Solomon's Temple gleaming white above the town. Phawngpui, the Blue Mountain, is the highest point at 2,157 metres, a national park where rhododendron and orchid line the ridge and the cliff called Thlazuang Kham drops away to the Chhimtuipui. Vantawng Falls near Thenzawl is the tallest in the state at about 229 metres. Dampa Tiger Reserve on the Bangladesh border holds elephant, gaur and hoolock gibbon. Culture is Christian and Mizo in equal measure: church choirs on Sunday, and at Chapchar Kut in early March the cheraw bamboo dance, where dancers step between clacking poles. Signature journeys combine Aizawl, Reiek, Thenzawl and Champhai.