Sundarbans(4) -Day.3-

5:30am.
Staff knocked everyone's door!
Yes, we had boat trip on the 3rd day too.

Sky was.....pink!!

This time, we were supposed to walk grass road.
However, it started raining.
We ran to a forest office which forest guards live.

In Sundarbans, no one lives except the guards.
Their life is quite separated from the other world.
Food is brought from city once in every 2 weeks. 
They use solar system for electricity, use rain for drinking water.

From the window of the house, we found.......something like crocodile.

We have waited for a while, and then went back to vessel.
We missed chance to walk around, but it was also interesting experience to see forest guard's life.

After rain, rainbow.......!!
It can't be seen clearly in picture, but it was beautiful.

After coming back to vessel, again all we did whole day was chatting and eating.

We headed back to Khulna.
Breakfast, morning snack, and lunch...

Lunch was Kichuri, my favorite.

It is evening snack....but without moving, I didn't get hungry.
So ate a liiiiiiitle bit.(I could have skipped snack, but didn't)

In the evening, earlier than expected we arrived at Khulna.
As we were coming far from forest and getting close to city, we felt sad...

We spent some time on the deck to take pictures.

One interesting shot.

Can you see what he is doing?
He is taking group picture(including him) from the roof.
Curious how the picture came out....

After finishing dinner, we had closing session.
Some of participants gave speech(or showed dance) with thinking back memories of the 3 days.

On behalf of Japanese group....

They are staffs supporting our 3 days tour.

Cleaning, cooking, taking care of the vessel....they worked so hard whole day.
(For example, after finishing breakfast, they started cooking morning snack, and during that they prepare lunch.....e.t.c)

When we left vessel, everyone knows everyone.
We took small boat from the vessel to the port......and on the way, all of us felt sad.

Thank you for friends traveled together and all the staffs!
If you are interested in Sundarbans tour, you can contact Bengal Tours.

<Tour information>
2 nights 3 days plan
(including all the meal from breakfast on 1st day to dinner on 3rd day)
- For foreigner    15,000tk
- For Bangladeshi  11,000tk

Bengal Tours.
Tel: 02-8857424, 9857424, 9858134
Webpage: http://bengaltours.com/
E-mail: info@bengaltours.com

Sundarbans(3) -Day.2-

In the early morning, at 5pm.

Staff knocked our door, and we had coffee and left for morning boat trip.

Boat trip was organized in the morning.
Sky was veeeeeery beautiful.
It changes colour by each minute.

Birds were singing.
The sounds were clearer than yesterday evening boat trip.

As I stayed on the boat only with hearing sounds......I felt sleep.
Not only me, but also some people were half asleep, and an Italian guy who always seems sleepy lied on the boat.
However, it was good feeling.....temperature was good, slight wave of water was good, birds's song was good....
We didn't find much animals, but found a deer very close to us.
 
So finishing a boat tour, let's have breakfast.
The second day was Bengali breakfast with ruti, omelet, and daar.
I liked this simple Bengali breakfast.
However, an Italian said he couldn't believe to eat spicy food in the morning.
(He eats only sweet stuff for breakfast. It is also surprising.)
Wow, did I become Bangladeshi?

After breakfast, we had 1 hour break.
Then, leave for wild beach!
 
We left the vessel and walked grassland.
It was......actually hard because of sun.
It would have been good walking if sun was not that strong.

Yes, it was hot......
But we found deers again, so good.
 
After.....about 50 minutes of walking, we arrived at wild beach.
Beach?

It was high tide.

Waves were coming through trees.

People went to water and enjoyed waves.
I am tempted to go into water, but I couldn't help thinking of wet clothes and washing these.....
We spent time there for about 1 hour.
Though I didn't go into water, it was fun to see people excited in water.
 
Then, we went back the same way to vessel.
We again found deers, but some people seemed too tired to take pictures!
Including me.

Coming back the vessel, had lunch.







Food is basically curry, but there were varieties.

We had shrimp, fish, beef, chicken and mutton during the trip.

 

When we don't have activities, there are actually nothing special to do except chatting and eating.

Morning snacks are served between breakfast and lunch, evening snacks are served between lunch and dinner.

Sometimes keep eating.

 

In the afternoon, another activities.

We went to small trekking to find tiger(which is next to impossible).

We were divided into 2 groups.

One group goes into jungle, one group walked paved wooden street.

I was so tired because of walking under sun in the morning, but shouldn’t I go for jungle if I came all the way to Sundarbans?

So, I was in jungle team.

Got in mud with my shoes.

Soon realized it wasn’t possible to walk with shoes.

Eventually most of us took off our shoes.

As a result.....

Though sometimes roots of mangrove attacked us, it was much easier to walk without shoes. 

Walked into jungle..... 

Walked into mud.....

 

Walked into.....river even!

This is called "tiger trail" where tigers pass.
We also went to places where tigers take a rest.
(they were absent, of course. If 20 people walk with making noise, of course...)

But, found a foot print!!

And snake.

Do you know what it is?

 

Roots of mangrove.
There are about 50 kinds of mangroves in Sundarbans.
Unique thing is that roots grow not underground, but on the ground.
They need to breathe twice in a day, but it is not possible in silt...so roots come up to the soil. 

This is the place once damaged by cyclone.
There was still no plants.

 But scenery from the place was very beautiful, especially with sunset.

However, we didn't have enough time to enjoy sunset because we had to reach another place by dinner time.
We hurried to the vessel.

Then, what to do?
Everyone needed to take shower and wash clothes.

 

Then, have evening snacks. 

Dinner of the second day is BBQ, we heard.
From the evening, staffs prepared BBQ on the deck.

We expected to have BBQ dinner on the deck, but it was served at kitchen as usual.
Hmmm....a bit disappointed.
But taste was very good!

After dinner....just relaxing.
Talking with different people and went to sleep.
I wanted to spend time on the deck more talking with people, but my body insisted me to go to sleep early.

So....it was the second day.
Continues to the 3rd day.

 

Sundarbans(1)

Sundarbans…….the largest Mangrove forest, the home of royal Bengal tiger.

It is one of the main tourist attractions in Bangladesh.

I have been in 2 nights 3 days Sundarbans tour operated by Bengali Tours.
So, let’s explore Sundarbans.

From Dhaka to Sundarbans, the gate city is Khulna.

You can fly from Dhaka to Jossore, and take bus to Khulna about 2 hours.

Or, you can take bus…….it takes....long time.
10 hours? Depends.

The tour starts in the early morning, so you have to be in Khulna the day before.

Meeting point is Rupsha ghat at 6am and vessel starts at 7am from the port.

This is the vessel Bengal Tours has. (for 46 people maximum)

Participants are Bangladeshi, Italian, Australian, Canadian, American, British and we Japanese.
Multi-national group.
But let's me introduce facility at first.
This is twin cabin.

Simple, but clean.
(Luckily, I got this room only for me, so spread things on one of beds :P)
There is fan, but it works only when generator works.
It was actually impossible to stay in cabin during the day.

You don't have to worry to find your room.
There is name plate on your door.

Though there might be mistake....."SHIORIE"!
Still possible to understand whose room it is.

Wow, "& FRIEND".......but still possible to find your room.

One thing which surprised me is that no one locks their room.
When we dropped our bag in cabin, we asked a guide to give key.
He said
"oh......we can give key, but no one would use it. It's safe on the vessel".

He was right.
No one locks their room and even keeps the door open.
We all felt safe, and it was. Impressive.

OK, let me continue.

Shared bathroom.
It was clearn....though you may sometimes find a guy getting out from female bathroom.
You don't get hot water(don't expect in jungle!), but bathroom and shower were clean and I heard no foreigner complained.
It was good.

The first floor has dining space.

Drinking water is available through the tour.

Deck is also nice.
People come to deck and go during the tour.
Especially nice to spend time at night seeing moon on the deck.
There were some mattress, but people directly sit on the floor.
All the vessels are cleaned 6 times a day.

・・・・・・・・・・

7am, vessel started as scheduled.

heading inside of Sundarbans, I was excited.

3 Days tour started....but details of tour is from next article.