Siang in Arunachal: A dramatic river that flows through a beautiful land

The Arunachal government's eagerness to boost tourism was made clear by Pema Khandu, the state's 38-year-old chief minister who flew down from Itanagar for the closing party in Pasighat

Most journalists encounter moments in their working lives when they pause, shake their heads and ask themselves: “Am I actually being paid to cover this story?” One such moment came in May 2003, when a television channel asked me to make the insanely beautiful, nine-day trek to the Mount Everest base camp in Nepal for the commemoration of Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary’s first ascent of the mountain, 50 years earlier. I would have paid to make that trip.

I felt the same last month, when the Arunachal Pradesh Tourism Department invited me for the “Siang Rush” — a three-day