From the house

A walk from the lane.

The lane ends in the fields, and the fields run to the ridge. You can be in them a few minutes after breakfast. These pictures follow that walk through the year: the rice while it is standing, the weeks when it is cut, then the paths, the gardens, and the evening. The houses in the photographs belong to the valley. Ours is the one with the sign, back on the lane in Mudang Tage.

While it stands

Rice, out to the ridge.

The grain stays on the stalk until it is ready, and the fish are in the same water, under the plants. Stay on the bund. A wooden house with a green roof stands out in the paddy. That one is not M.N.

A gold rice field with two small sheds, pines and a pale ridge behind — The paddy, with the ridge behind it.

Heads of rice in the foreground, the field and a line of trees behind — The grain, still on the stalk.

A wooden house with a green roof standing in a gold rice field, cosmos and pines behind — A field house. Our sign is back on the lane.

When it is cut

The rice comes in by hand.

People cut it and pass the bundles along. If you come in those weeks, this is the view from the path: pines on the ridge, a basket at the edge, and the field going gold. Afterwards the stubble is left, and the white grass comes up. Walk the bunds, and ask before you step into a compound.

A person in a pink hat tossing a bundle of cut rice, pines behind the field — A bundle on its way to the basket.

Two people in a rice field, passing a cut bundle over a woven basket — Passing the cut rice.

White grass plumes in front of a cut rice field, with cloud and a low ridge behind — After the rice is in.

Between the houses

Morning, then the ridge.

The walk between the villages is cosmos, a ditch, and on a soft morning the hill gone white. Kiwis hang in the gardens through the autumn, on a frame of bamboo. By evening the light is on the ridge. If you want the ridge itself, that is Kile Pakho, below. From our own balcony you look back over the lane.

Pink cosmos along a misty path beside a narrow ditch — Cosmos on the path.

Wooden village houses in the mist, with cosmos and a bamboo fence along the lane — A lane in the morning mist.

Ripe kiwis hanging on a vine, with bamboo canes holding the branches — Kiwi on a bamboo frame.

The sun bursting through cloud at the end of the day, a wooden house on the right — Evening, and the ridge.

A day out

If the fields aren't enough.

These are the places we send people when they want to go further. None of them needs a ticket from us. Tell us the night before, and we'll say how long it really takes, and which road is worth it that day.

The town

Hapoli

Sometimes called New Ziro. The market is there, a short ride from the village. The name comes from Hao-Polyang, the high plain. Near it, Siikhe is a small lake for a walk, and Tarin is the government fish farm that raises fish for the paddy.

The ridge

Kile Pakho

People go in the morning, and again for the evening light. The plateau is on one side, and on a clear day the hills are beyond. Dolo Mando is the other short climb, on the Daporijo side, looking back at Hapoli, the old airfield, and the fields. Take a warm layer. The cloud comes down quickly.

The forest

Talley Valley

North of the villages, and a full day if you have a vehicle. Fir, pine, and bamboo. Ask us before you set out. The road and the gate change with the weather.

Near Hapoli

Kardo

A few kilometres out, by way of Sibey. A natural stone lingam at Sidheshwar Nath, with water at the base. People visit it as a temple. Go quietly.

January, March, July, and late September change the village. Those weeks are the year, written on their own.

If you're coming from outside Arunachal Pradesh, the district asks for a permit. The form is theirs. Tell us where you're starting from and we'll say what recent guests have carried.

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