Calcutta, Assam and the Eastern Himalayas

The architectural and artistic treasures of Calcutta; superb walking , charming hill villages and Buddhist monasteries and scenery in the high mountain country of Sikkim and Darjeeling; the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway; magnificent birding and rhododendron and orchid blooms; Buddhist monasteries and the distinctive tribal cultures of the deep valleys of Arunachal more closely linked to Southeast Asia than South Asia; the state of Assam famous for tea, rhinos, wild elephants, hoolock gibbons and other wildlife including some magnificent birding; cruising the great Brahmaputra River and some excellent riding from a tea estate in Upper Assam.