Thursday, 31 January 2019
I had a poor night’s sleep and woke up a
few times. I finally got up after 05:00, freshened up, performed ablutions and
morning prayers. I finally left the apartment 06:25, my host had to call Uber
for me as my handphone decided it didn’t want to connect to WiFi (as usual).
The fare was BDT104 but I rounded it up to BDT10. We arrived BimanBandar train
station 10 minutes later and I went to find RS Fast Food Café from where I was
supposed to collect my ticket.
The train was late and it only left BimanBandar at 07:30. I saw a fair lady and asked her if she was a traveller too. She informed that she’s a Filipino and had been working in Bangladesh for more than 20 years. She told there were a lot of Filipinos working in Bangladesh, mainly in the garment industry. I know that the garment industry is big in Bangladesh. We passed paddy fields, banana plantations, small towns, more paddy fields, little vegetable farms, and yet more paddy fields. It was so green everywhere but I couldn’t help noticing the dust that collected everywhere: at the station, pavements, by the roadside, collecting outside homes and shop fronts and even coating the tree leaves. I could understand dust in parts of Africa as you have deserts there. It made me wonder where it came from. Could it be from the mud which is never far away in the fields that dries up to sand? Or could it be from unchecked development projects and brick kilns? And oh and I should not forget the fog enveloping the landscape which is particularly prevalent in ‘winter’ time.
What an interesting concept! Besides coffee and tea (cha), lunch and snacks, you can also buy books on the train! I wished I had space in my bag so I could buy some books from him. I asked how much each cost but he did not understand me
We finally arrived in Khulna at 17:30. I called Mikail to ask about train ticket and confirm when we would meet the following morning. Then I took an auto rickshaw to Tiger Garden International Hotel for BDT20. The driver could speak English. I checked in and after depositing my bags, I went out for a brief walk around the hotel vicinity. There was a restaurant called Food Garden in an alley behind City Bank serving halal food (but you can get halal food all over the country anyway). I checked it out but didn’t enter. Anyway, for some reason I wasn’t that hungry. Besides tea bags, there were also a bottle of water and some wafers and biscuits, which I thought was pretty generous of the hotel. I ended up having some wafers for dinner.
Friday, 1 February 2019
I woke up too early this morning as I actually set alarm for Malaysian time. Duh me. Woke again two hours later for morning prayers. I went to the restaurant at 07:45 but breakfast was still not ready then so I went back to my room and had some bread. I went down to the lobby just before 08:00 and shortly after, Mikail and a friend came and fetched me. We took an auto rickshaw to the river then paid to cross it to the bus station across where we took a bus to Mongla. As usual, we had to wait until the bus was full before the bus finally left at 09:00. I remarked to Mikail my initial observations of the locals: most men are well dressed with most donning shirts and trousers (even those in sarong are neat) and sporting short haircut (no ponytails or long-haired dishevelled men anywhere at all). Also, very few people smoke - maybe because they cannot afford to - but hey, no complaints from me at all. So they may not be rich but they care about their appearance and I appreciate and approve of this.
We reached Mongla bus station at 10:00 and Mikail brought me Hotel Pashur to use the facilities before we headed for Pashur River. We then walked to the boat and boarded it. We set off at 10:30 down the big and wide river. We were served some water drink, bananas, cakes and then hot black tea (cha). We stopped an hour later at Karamjal Deer, Crocodile Breeding and Eco-Tourism Centre for an hour (11:00-12:00). The deer were cute and adorable (and hungry!), the crocodiles were not. We then walked around the centre on wooden planks (reminded me of the walk to Niah Caves) and even walked up the observation tower. There sure were a lot of people there today.
With Tourist Police
We returned to the boat and made our way down the river again. I was served lunch just before we arrived at Harbaria Eco Park at 13:30. We went down and walked around the park, again on wooden planks. Mikail also showed me a tree that bears tiger scratches and then fresh tiger prints. It was too bad we couldn’t sight any tigers (I suppose we’d all be running for our lives then!) but the prints were evidence that they were still around. I like the water lily-covered Harbaria Lake which Mikail said was a freshwater lake and where some people performed ablutions. I didn’t fancy doing that though as it’s really public.
Tiger foot prints
Mikail’s friend checked with the guards of my request to perform prayers there and after getting the green light, he showed me the water taps to perform ablutions and then brought me to the guard room. There were three other women in there, one was performing prayers while one was lying on a bed (I was surprised to find a bed in there) and another perched on the bed. I proceeded to perform prayers and when I left, Mikail and friend were already waiting for me.
We returned to the boat 14:45 but it wasn’t long before we realised there was an engine problem. It was a good thing that there was a bigger boat nearby on a 3D 2N trip whose owner does regular business with Mikail’s company (in fact the owner’s little boy was on our boat) so we crossed over to the bigger boat and they tugged us slowly upstream until we reached the village at the furthest edge of Sundarbans. We got down and I thanked the crew for letting us ride with them. We then rode motorcycles for 50 minutes: me, the bigger boat’s little boy and the driver while Mikail, friend and another driver on another motorbike.
We returned to the boat 14:45 but it wasn’t long before we realised there was an engine problem. It was a good thing that there was a bigger boat nearby on a 3D 2N trip whose owner does regular business with Mikail’s company (in fact the owner’s little boy was on our boat) so we crossed over to the bigger boat and they tugged us slowly upstream until we reached the village at the furthest edge of Sundarbans. We got down and I thanked the crew for letting us ride with them. We then rode motorcycles for 50 minutes: me, the bigger boat’s little boy and the driver while Mikail, friend and another driver on another motorbike.
We rode for 50 minutes and my, it was a teeth-gnashing, bone-shattering, jaw-jolting ride mainly because of the very bad roads. It was made worse by the drivers who kept applying their horns. My driver was kind enough to explain things through and point things out like the shrimp farms, the crab farms, etc. We only stopped because the motorcycle I was on had a tyre puncture. I didn’t know how he sensed it but it was a good thing he realised it before we ran into an accident. The four of us got down, thanked the drivers and continued on a motorised bicycle taxi to Mongla.
We stopped at the bigger boat owner’s tour agency for 20 minutes and the little boy was reunited with his father who then took him home. After drinking up the coffee the owner served, we thanked him and left for the river. We crossed over to the other side by boat to the bus station. The bus to Khulna was already waiting but empty which meant we had to wait a bit for people to board before it left. The bus also stopped for some time at a few small towns to pick up people. Fridays are a holiday over there but the night markets at the small towns the bus stopped at sure were lively.
Back at Khulna, we had to do another river crossing before boarding an auto rickshaw to my hotel. We arrived hotel at almost 21:00. I rode auto rickshaws, buses, boats, a motorbike, a motorised bicycle taxi all in one day. What a day! What a tiring eventful day! I was so tired I could only manage some wafers after evening prayers before stumbling into bed.
To be continued
We stopped at the bigger boat owner’s tour agency for 20 minutes and the little boy was reunited with his father who then took him home. After drinking up the coffee the owner served, we thanked him and left for the river. We crossed over to the other side by boat to the bus station. The bus to Khulna was already waiting but empty which meant we had to wait a bit for people to board before it left. The bus also stopped for some time at a few small towns to pick up people. Fridays are a holiday over there but the night markets at the small towns the bus stopped at sure were lively.
Back at Khulna, we had to do another river crossing before boarding an auto rickshaw to my hotel. We arrived hotel at almost 21:00. I rode auto rickshaws, buses, boats, a motorbike, a motorised bicycle taxi all in one day. What a day! What a tiring eventful day! I was so tired I could only manage some wafers after evening prayers before stumbling into bed.
To be continued
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