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Sundarbans is world’s largest mangroove forest and a world heritage area. Sundarbans consists of many small and tiny forest islands. The indigenous people are totally dependent on nature for their livelihood. They either catch fish or cut wood or collect honey from the forest. The whole area is very dense with forests and water. The roots of trees in mangrove forests come out of the earth vertically and stand above water-there are pores in the roots through which the trees breathe. Because of these roots-that stick out of earth-it is absolutely impossible to walk through the forests. Sundarbans is the habitat of world famous Royal Bengal Tigers and many crocodiles, monkeys, snakes and of course, deer are found there. But it is a matter of sheer luck to get the sight of any animal other than deer or snake-as they all live in deep forest and you cannot walk through to the middle of the forest because of the dense roots. Sundarbans is in the southern part of Bangladesh so you also get to visit beautiful sandy beaches when you go to Sundarbans.
The whole area is extremely quiet and population is very low. There is no cell phone network
as the tall and dense trees hamper the smooth transmission. It is an ideal place to spend a few days in isolation- away from the sound of vehicle or people, without being interrupted by the cell phone. The days pass on water, looking at the green-sometimes spotting deer eating tree leaves, sometimes spotting a crocodile basking in the sun; going to walk through the vast grass lands-where tigers come at tights to find food; going to vast, absolutely deserted beaches; getting down from the ship at times to go on a cruise on motor boats at afternoons, getting out of the ship at nights to see the deer walking through less dense forests-their eyes shinning yellow. You are so close to quiet and nature for a few days that the vacation always seems to end too early and bring you back to loud reality.
When I was in my last year in university, we went to a 2 days and 3 nights tour to Sundarbans from our department . We lived on a ship. We started from Dhaka one afternoon in a bus and reached Khulna at midnight. On our way we had to cross the massive river Padma
Observatory tower
Local people say that often tigers prawl here at nights on a ferry. We boarded our ship from Khulna and went to sleep after a very late dinner. I woke up in the morning hearing the sound of birds. I looked out of the cabin door and was astonished to see the beauty of the mangrove forest. The ship was sailing through the canals of Sundarbans and we could see the banks -which were a mere 15 feet away on both sides. Deer could sometimes be seen through the trees- we even spotted some monkeys and even a crocodile in one of the narrowest canals where not even a small boat could enter. And not to mention that there were birds of numerous types.
On our fist day, we visited the grasslands. Our ship anchored right beside the grassland and we got down from the ship.We were told that often tigers prawl these grasslands at night and catch deer. There are high observatory towers there from top of which we could get a bird’s eye view. The grassland was huge and was adjescent to a vast, beautiful, sandy and absolutely deserted beach. The water of the Bay of Bengal was clear blue- reflected the sky. Crabs were abundant on
On ship
Bar-b-q dinner-me n Siam the beach. But it took us more than 30 minutes to cross the grassland on foot and reach the beach.
That evening, we got out of the ship and sailed on motor boats. We went to some kind of a very large park were trees were not very dense, were forest department has built guest houses and where deer come out at night. There are benches on the park-we waited there quietly and did see many deer coming to the edge of the water to drink and eat from the leaves. It was a wonderful experience to see wildlife so close.
On the next morning, we got down in another small island where there were some population. Though in one side there was a vast grassland, but on the other side of the island there were guest houses and well maintained ponds where you could swim.
That afternoon we again went sailing on boat. We watched sunset from the boat, saw deer eating grass on either side of the river, we even bargained with a local fisherman to buy some fresh crab from his boat. Our bout malfunctioned and we had to be rescued 3 hours
canal1
Quiet, deserted, breathtaking! late ( very interesting story). This gave us the opportunity to sit on boat into the night and watch the moon above. The boat wasn’t moving, there was no tide in the river, the whole atmosphere was absolutely quite except for the students talking among themselves. The sky was black and starry, the moon was playing hide and seek with us, tall trees on either side were standing still, wind was blowing gently, not a single human or not a single ray of light could be seen from miles ahead. A truly wondrous experience- which I have not enough appropriate vocabulary to express.
That was our last evening on the ship and we had a very nice bar-b-q dinner on ship. The cook of the ship was excellent, the crew(local people) were extremely friendly. The owner of the ship was tremendously helpful. They all made our stay in the ship worthwhile.
It was an amazing experience. That was the time that I saw the nature without any interruption from the modern world. That trip made me fall in love with nature, trees, water beaches and beautiful Bangladesh- all over again.
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